ABSTRACT

Limited employee participation witnessed in the public sector has persistently resulted to poor service delivery. Therefore employee participation should take the center stage as it constitute a powerful force for re-energizing service delivery. However this has not been the case at NCWSSC as evidenced by the poor water supply and sewerage services delivered to the residents of the city. Hence the need for the current study to examine how employee participation can be used in strengthening service delivery at NCWSSC. The study was guided by the following objectives; to examine the influence of direct individual-based employee participation on service delivery at Nairobi Water and Sewerages Services Company. To examine the influence of indirect employee participation on service delivery at Nairobi Water and Sewerages Services Company. To determine the influence of collective bargaining among employees on service delivery at Nairobi Water and Sewerages Company. To examine the influence of financial participation on service delivery at Nairobi Water and Sewerages Company. The study was guided by the goal setting theory, participatory management theory and stakeholder theory. The research adopted a descriptive research design. The study targeted240 employees at Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company. The sample population for the research was148personnel at the Nairobi Water and Sewerages Company headquarter at Industrial Area. The study relied on primary data that was collected using a semi-structured questionnaire. The study further utilized secondary data from reports and journals. The research instrument underwent pilot test to test the reliability and validity of the instrument. The collected data was entered into SPSS 23 for subsequent descriptive and inferential statistics. The descriptive statistics was presented using frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations. The inferential statistics was presented using regression models and coefficients of determination. The study was able to achieve over 70% response rate from the sample respondents. The study respondents agreed that efficiency, responsiveness and service delivery was on the increase within NCWSC. The findings of the study indicated there is a statistically significant influence of employee participation on service delivery. The results of the regression model indicated that holding other factors constant employee participation had a 53.9% influence on service delivery. The results of the correlation analysis indicated there was strong positive association between direct participation and service delivery p= .721. The results also indicated a weak negative association between indirect participation and financial participation with service delivery as indicated by p-value = -.14; - .005 respectively. The study recommended that the management should incorporate more financial based reward and recognition systems as well as foster the adoption of indirect employee participation tools. The organization should further empower employees to be tasksolvers and involve them more in participative decision making and delegation of duty