3673 research outputs found
Sort by
How to pick and manage expats
No full textA Newspaper article by Scott Bellows, an Assistant Professor in the Chandaria School of Business at USIU-AfricaNairobi stands proudly as the envy of many nations in the global south. We host a thriving metropolis of foreign workers, investors, and visitors desirous of our melting pot of ideas across hundreds of cultures. Our welcoming philosophy, enviable climate, and generally favourable immigration policies all boost Kenya’s economic prowess. We win the regional headquarters of nearly every Africa-oriented multinational corporation.Conversely, Kenya flourishes as a provider of foreign labour. We export an estimated five times the workers than we import. Our citizens traverse the globe working in professions from accountants, NGO executives, technologists, nurses, researchers, professors, and highly skilled experts in various fields from oil extractions to mining to entrepreneurial startups.
Stewart Black and Hal Gregersen uncovered that nearly 80 per cent of midsize and large companies send professionals abroad. Also, almost half of such organisations intend to increase the number of expatriates in their global operations.
As Kenyan firms continue to expand throughout the region, like Kenya Commercial Bank, Resolution Health, Nakumatt, and Equity Bank, or throughout the world, such as Craft Silicon, executives must learn which types of employees to send abroad and how to manage them. Not all expatriates succeed. In fact, certain types of expatriates succeed far better than others.
Kelly Ross delineated five attributes of successful expatriates based on an amalgamation of expatriate-related studies. Professionals with high ratings in the categories stand a greater probability of success
How to spot CEOs who oppress their employees
No full textA Newspaper article by Scott Bellows, an Assistant Professor in the Chandaria School of Business at USIU-AfricaWhat do Mariah Carey, Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, Simon Cowell, Madonna, Oprah Winfrey, ousted Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe, Turkey president Recep Erdogan, and US president Donald Trump all hold in common? Each shows strong warnings signs indicative of Narcissistic Personality Disorder hinged on grandiose displays of self-importance, the need for praise, and the need to dominate other people.
Examples within a workplace include a CEO who frequently garnishes media attention but whose staff widely loathe the firm and feel neglected.
Alternately, a CEO who boasts about their affiliations to high status board members they brought onboard or famous institutions they beget to nebulously partner with the organisation.
Perhaps a new CEO who fails to listen to the advice of his or her new executive team and all the while craves the spotlight and plaudits from the media or donors or shareholders rather than focus on the effectiveness of their own work deliverables
Assessment of Lymphatic Filariasis Prior to Re-Starting Mass Drug Administration Campaigns in Coastal Kenya
No full textJournal ArticleLymphatic filariasis (LF) is a debilitating disease associated with extensive disfigurement and is one of a diverse group of diseases referred to as neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) which mainly occur among the poorest populations. In line with global recommendations to eliminate LF, Kenya launched its LF elimination programme in 2002 with the aim to implement annual mass drug administration (MDA) in order to interrupt LF transmission. However, the programme faced financial and administrative challenges over the years such that sustained annual MDA was not possible. Recently, there has been renewed interest to eliminate LF and the Kenyan Ministry of Health, through support from World Health Organization (WHO), restarted annual MDA in 2015. The objective of this study was to evaluate the current status of LF infection in the endemic coastal region of Kenya before MDA campaigns were restarted. Ten sentinel sites in Kwale, Kilifi, Tana River, Lamu, and Taita-Taveta counties in coastal Kenya were selected for participation in a cross-sectional survey of LF infection prevalence. At least 300 individuals in each sentinel village were sampled through random house-to-house visits. During the day, the point-of-care immunochromatographic test (ICT) was used to detect the presence of Wuchereria bancrofti circulating filarial antigen in finger prick blood samples collected from residents of the selected sentinel villages. Those individuals who tested positive with the ICT test were requested to provide a night-time blood sample for microfilariae (MF) examination. The overall prevalence of filarial antigenaemia was 1.3% (95% CI: 0.9–1.8%). Ndau Island in Lamu County had the highest prevalence (6.3%; 95% CI: 4.1–9.7%), whereas sites in Kilifi and Kwale counties had prevalences < 1.7%. Mean microfilarial density was also higher in Ndau Island (234 MF/ml) compared to sentinel sites in Kwale and Kilifi counties (< 25 MF/ml). No LF infection was detected in Tana River and Taita-Taveta counties. Overall, more than 88% of the study participants reported to have used a bed net the previous night. Prevalence of LF infection is generally very low in coastal Kenya, but there remain areas that require further rounds of MDA if the disease is to be eliminated as a public health problem in line with the ongoing global elimination efforts. However, areas where there was no evidence of LF transmission should be considered for WHO-recommended transmission assessment surveys in view of stopping MDA
Kenya caught up in changing Global Dynamics
No full textA Newspaper article by Prof Macharia Munene, Professor of History and International Relations at USIU-AThey make laws for others to follow, but not to bind themselves when their perceived interests are at stake.
The Trump election victory, and the likely decline in “messianism”, is pleasing to countries that wanted to see Obama’s back.There is a serious global realignment taking place with most countries trying to find out where they fit in the new realities.
Some countries are reorganising themselves, others are being reorganised, and a third group is caught in between.
It is happening to powerful countries like the United States, China, Russia, Britain, Japan, Germany and France as well as to medium size powerhouses like Brazil, Turkey, India, South Africa, Iran, Israel and Mexico.
It is also there in small and increasingly assertive countries that include the Philippines whose President Rodrigo Duterte uses what US President Barack Obama termed “colourful language”.
It is in the category of small assertive countries that Kenya finds itself in, fending off internal and external distractions
It takes more than motivational talks, training to be successful
No full textA Newspaper article by Scott Bellows, an Assistant Professor in the Chandaria School of Business at USIU-AfricaCognitive psychology, neuroscience, and social psychology have revolutionised how we see human behaviour and how to achieve realistic and lasting change.
Centonomy employs cutting-edge research on leading methods to attain personal success in various fields of personal finance, entrepreneurship, and career building for trainees.
One needs to become disciplined to change training information into behaviour action changes.
As Kenyans, we love to attend motivational talks. We hear the personal success stories of great business leaders like Anne Mutahi, Vimal Shah, Bob Collymore, Chris Kirubi, or James Mwangi and we feel inspired to infuse their life experiences into our own personal journeys. We talk with others before and after the motivational speech and share the excitement about the probability of life change
The Influence of Training and Development on Employee Performance: A Case of Somalia Non-Governmental Organization Consortium in Nairobi
No full textA Research Project Report Submitted to Chandaria School of Business in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirement for the Degree of Master of Organizational Development (MOD)The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of training and development on employee performance. This study was guided by the following research questions: What is the influence of training and development on employee performance? What is the influence of employee perception on training and development programs in INGOs? What is the influence of training evaluations and employee performance in INGOs?
This study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The population of the study was 67 INGOs working in Somalia but located in Nairobi. The study is a census, therefore all the 67 INGOs were sampled for the study. The study adopted a stratified sampling technique to respondents based on different job ranks. Primary data was collected using a structured questionnaire. Data was analyzed for descriptive statistics using frequencies and percentages, and inferential statistics using correlation and regression analysis. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21 was used to do the analysis.
The first research question on influence of training and development revealed the existence of a statistically significant relationship between training and development and employee performance. All areas examined under training and development including coaching and mentoring, job rotation and transfers, job orientation, and role playing were all significant
The second research question on influence of employee perception on training and development programs revealed the existence of statistically significant relationship between employee perceptions and employee performance.
Finally, the last research question on the influence of training evaluations and employee on employee performance revealed the existence of statistically significant relationship between training evaluation and employee performance.
The study concludes that all components of training and development including coaching and mentoring, job rotations and transfers, conference training, and professional courses significantly influenced employee performance. This study also concludes that all components employee perceptions including perception on promotions, perceptions on work responsibility, skills and knowledge, were statistically significant. Finally, this study concludes that all components of training evaluations including competency evaluation, evaluation of training model, and skills and knowledge evaluation were all statistically significant to enhancing employee performance.
On training and development, the study recommends that management at Somalia INGOs consortium should enhance coaching and mentoring programs as a way of enhancing employee performance. On employee perceptions, the study recommends that management should enhance job rotations and transfer programs within the organization as a way of motivating employees to learn new skills in challenging roles that not only enhance performance, but employee growth in their careers. Finally, on training evaluation, this srudy recommends that management at Somalia consortium should adopt competency based evaluation model to help organizations within the consortium evaluate both employee performance, behavioral traits and characteristics that enhance performance
The Effect of Firm Performance on Impact Investment in Kenya: A Case Study of Jamii Bora Bank
No full textA Research Project Submitted to the Chandaria School of Business in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Masters in Business Administration (MBA)The purpose of the study was to examine the effect of firm performance on impact investment in Kenya, focusing on the case of Jamii Bora Bank. The study aimed to answer the following study questions: To what extent does operational efficiency affect impact investing at Jamii Bora Bank? To what extent does expenditure on social programs affect impact investing at Jamii Bora Bank? To what extent do financial returns affect impact investing at Jamii Bora Bank?
The study used explanatory study as it attempted to lay the groundwork that will lead to future studies on the subject. The study mainly used secondary data that was collected from financial statements of Jamii Bora bank in the light of the research questions. Time series data was collected for the six-year period from 2010 to 2015. To ensure effective and efficient data analysis, data was analyzed using simple linear regression as well as multiple regression analysis in the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS). This helped to determine whether the independent variables (operational efficiency, expenditure on social programs and financial returns) had any significant effect on impact investing. Findings were presented in tables.
Findings indicated that there is a strong positive correlation between operational efficiency and impact investment in Jamii Bora Bank. In other words, an increase in operational efficiency leads to an increase in impact investment. From the findings, operational efficiency explains 77.3% of the variation on impact investment at Jamii Bora Bank.
Regarding the effect of expenditure on social programs on impact investing, it was revealed that there is a positive correlation between expenditure on social programs and impact investment in Jamii Bora Bank. Findings indicated that, expenditure on social programs explains 56.4% of the changes in impact investment in the bank.
On the effect of financial returns on impact investing, findings indicated a strong positive correlation between financial returns and impact investment. At Jamii Bora Bank, financial returns were found to account for 78% of the changes in impact investment.
Jointly, from the multiple linear regression analysis, findings indicated that the correlation between the independent and dependent variables was positive. It was
iv
revealed that operational efficiency, expenditure on social programs and financial returns jointly explain nearly 76% of the variation in Impact investment at Jamii Bora Bank. Moreover, operational efficiency, expenditure on social programs and financial returns have a significant effect on impact investment.
The study concluded that, while expenditure on social programs increases the level of impact investing, the level of the positive impact is not as high as the impact from operational efficiency and financial returns. As such, though investment banks engagement in social programs is likely to encourage more impact investment, care must be taken to ensure that the expenditure on social programs do not affect profitability of the bank greatly. Otherwise, this may reduce the financial returns and operational efficiency which have a relatively higher positive effect on impact investing, which in turn would lower the level of impact investment.
Various recommendations were made among them the need for Jamii Bora Bank to have the willingness to move beyond the idea of an ongoing trade-off between financial and social returns as the market increases in sophistication. Recommendation for further study was that a similar study should be conducted on a different investment bank and the results compared to enhance the reliability and generalizability of the conclusions drawn
Factors Affecting the Performance of the Public Service Vehicles (PSV) Sector in the Nairobi County
No full textA Research Project Report Submitted to the Chandaria School of Business in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirement for the Degree of Global Executive Masters in Business Administration (GeMBA)The Public Service Vehicles (PSVs), commonly referred to as “matatu” is the
commonly used form of public transport in Kenya, estimated to be used by 80% of the
daily commuters. It is also estimated to have an annual turnover of over Ksh. 73
billion. The purpose of the study is to determine the factors affecting the performance
of the PSVs sector in the Nairobi County. The study aims at answering the following
research questions: How does transport infrastructure management affect performance
of the PSV sector in the Nairobi County? What are the effects of alternative transport
means on the performance of PSVs sector in the Nairobi County? How does
professionalism affect the performance of the PSVs sector in the Nairobi County?
The study applied an explanatory research design which aided in the study while
collecting qualitative and quantitative data. The study’s target population included
drivers and the management teams of PSVs SACCOs whose vehicles ply the Nairobi-
Ngong route number 111. The study employed simple random sampling so as to get 5
management staff and 5 drivers from each of the four SACCOs that operated on that
route, therefore making a sample size of 40 respondents. Structured questionnaires
were used in collecting primary data. The study used the aide of research assistants to
administer the questionnaires to the respondents. The filled questionnaires were
analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. Statistical Package for Social Sciences
(SPSS) version 21 was used for analysis where means, frequencies and percentages
were derived for each variable. Results of the study were then presented in tables and
figures.
The study found out that there was better PSVs SACCOs coordination on the Ngong –
Nairobi route with a prescribed code of conduct for their staff, engaged qualified
members in its management, persons entrusted with managing the SACCOs had wide
experience in public transport management, well educated, always informed of key
changes affecting the business, motivate staff and always strive to train the crew on
customer service, SACCO encourages drivers not to work for more than eight hours,
had measures of monitoring the behaviour of its crew on the roads and managers had
a wide network with key stakeholders in the industry. The study also found out that
the managers of the SACCOs always ensures that all its vehicles have the necessary licenses before being allowed to join the road, pays for licenses on behalf of its
members, had a way of reaching to all its members whenever it has important
information, had adequate employees to run its office affairs, had mechanisms of
training its crews on basic customer service, had a well stipulated pricing list for their
services, had clearly outlines on the condition of vehicles to be registered under it.
The study established that business had been affected by private personal cars on the
Ngong – Nairobi route, other SACCOs operating along the Ngong- Nairobi Route, the
motor cycles business and innovative online taxi operations. The study revealed that
SACCO had a clear outline on the qualifications of drivers to be engaged, clear
criterion on qualifications of conductors to be employed in the SACCO, clear
stipulation on remuneration of the driver and conductor, had capacity to train matatu
crews on basic customer service skills, gave refresher courses to drivers to ensure they
remain competent, had well qualified route inspectors to ensure that the crew observe
laid down rules, dealt with other stakeholders in the industry in a professional manner,
had a professional legal advisors to deal with all legal issues in the SACCO and
ensures that only road worthy vehicles are allowed on the road.
From the findings, the study concluded that transport infrastructure management is a
crucial field within the environment of the PSV business thus presents numerous
potential obstacles. Management competence is often determined by the availability
of management and financial information. Managerial skills are important in running
any business. Managerial skills assist managers to solve issues that are directly
relevant to the current, fast shifting business environment. The study concludes that
competition from Taxi cabs was identified as the biggest threat from alternative
transport followed by competition posed from motor cycles. Competition from taxi
cabs was also cited as a source of consumers bargaining power and private personal
cars least seen as a threat. Competition from other alternative non-motorized transport
had the lowest threat. The study concludes that there was involvement of management
of the SACCOs and crew through their discussions and decisions relating to their
industry as well as strengthening their capacity to manage the industry and to selfregulate.
Some of the SACCOs were effectively managing their routes and deals with
other stakeholders in the industry in a professional manner.
The study recommends that there is need to charge all the staff with the responsibility
of ensuring right operations strategies are put in place. Management in PSVs
SACCOs need to hire qualified personnel, develop rewarding system for productive
operations strategies and give necessary support as the best way of attainment of
performance in PSVs Sector. The study recommends that there is need to charge all
the staff with the responsibility of ensuring right operations strategies are put in place.
Management in PSVs SACCOs need to hire qualified personnel, develop rewarding
system for productive operations strategies and give necessary support as the best way
of attainment of performance in PSVs Sector. The study recommends the study
recommends that policy makers should impose policies to govern the transport sector.
The key focus should be on formulating policies that will improve public transport
safety for the citizens. The policies formed should also be friendly to ensure that both
service provider and passengers appreciate the transport industry. This study
concentrated on the factors affecting the performance of PSVs sector in Nairobi
County. The study concentrated on PSVs SACCOs and their staff operating PSVs on
the Nairobi – Ngong route (Route 111), and thus, the same study can be conducted on
other PSVs SACCOs in other routes in Nairobi County for comparison purposes. The
study also recommends that transport regulatory body should be included
An Assessment of the Universal Service Fund: A Case of Public Schools in Kiambu County
No full textA Research Project Report Submitted to the Chandaria School of Business in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Masters of Business Administration (MBA)The purpose for this research was to assess the implementation of the USF program in Kenya by Communications Authority of Kenya while establishing the benefits of the fund to Kenyans. The research was guided by the following objectives: to assess the benefits derived from the Implementation of USF, to determine the challenges affecting USF implementation and to identify the strategies key to successful USF implementation.
The research design adopted was descriptive research design and both Quantitative and qualitative analysis was employed to measure the frequency and magnitude of the various factors. The population of the study comprised of 89,065 public secondary schools students, 3,479 teachers from Kiambu County and 17 top management of the Communications Authority of Kenya. A sample of 47 students, 20 teachers from the public secondary schools 2 top management of CA was selected from the population. Questionnaires and interviews were conducted for the purpose of data collection. The particular descriptive statistics comprised of percentages, means and standard deviation while the inferential statistics used was correlation and reliability analysis.
The findings showed that majority of the students seemed to agree that USF increases computer literacy levels, however a good number seemed to disagree with the fact that “USF provides enhanced community broadband networks” due to the high standard deviation value which shows a bigger variety of opinion among the respondents. On average most of the respondents agreed to have benefited from USF implementation. On average, the teachers were not certain about the following benefits, USF transforming Kiambu County into a knowledge-based society.
The findings also disclosed that “Bureaucratic systems of governance and lack of qualified or interested vendors to bid for the projects would affect the implementation greatly. On average however, the students agreed that the various stated challenges would affect the implementation of USF. Majority of the teachers strongly agreed that insufficient funds hindered the full implementation of USF. However, on average they all agreed that the stated challenges were affecting the implementation of USF in Kiambu County.
Further results indicated that USF should provide disburse the funds in a transparent manner and fund appropriate projects, the results also showed that USF should engage aggressively in promotion of broadband services nationally.
The study concluded that the implementation of USF in Kiambu County was beneficial. More importantly both the teachers and students highlighted the provision of expanded mobile network, increased number of computer literacy levels, easy and reliable access to information superhighway as some of the major benefits.
The study recommends that the USF to advocate for strengthening of government ICT policies, shift some of the branches to promote broadband internet services in rural areas, provide disbursement of funds in a transparent manner to fund the appropriate projects, allow for growth of vendors so that there is enough number when bidding for the projects and track accelerated deployment of the broadband services to be adopted for successful implementation of the USF program
The Effects of Talent Management Processes on Performance of Young Professionals: A Case of Trufoods
No full textA Project Report Submitted to the School of Business in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Masters in Business Administration (MBA)The general objective of the study was to establish the effect of talent management processes on the performance of young professionals, a case of TruFoods. The study was guided by the following research objectives; to determine the effect of succession planning on the performance of young professionals at TruFoods, to establish the effect of training and performance support on the performance of young professionals at TruFoods and to establish the effect of performance management systems on the performance of young professionals.
A descriptive research design was used in this study. The target population was 141 employees of TruFoods. Stratified random sampling was used to select a sample size of 42. Structured questionnaires were used to collect data. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. Pearson correlation and regression analysis were used to determine the influence of independent variables on the dependent variable. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software was used to analyze the data. Data was coded according to different variables and descriptive statistics such as frequencies, mode, mean percentiles, variances and standard deviations for ease of interpretation. Tables, figures and chart were used for analysis and interpretation of data.
The findings on succession planning and performance of young professionals revealed that respondents disagreed that the organization has a succession planning process which targets young employees, the organization prepares employees to be promoted to more senior positions and succession planning has helped the organization to target talented young employees are targeted for promotion in the succession planning, succession planning is implemented in the organization
The findings on training and development and performance of young professionals revealed that most respondents agreed that training had made the young professionals more productive. However, respondents disagreed that the organization had put in place training programs to improve performance of young professionals. On-the-job training had helped young professionals improve their performance and training made them more productive; each young professional was given an on-job training opportunity.
The findings based on performance management systems and performance of young professionals revealed that most respondents agreed that the organization had a
performance management system in place. However, there was disagreement on whether performance management helped to identify performance gaps to be targeted for improvement and performance management practices in the organization. Secondly, whether this assisted in the retention of young professionals as well as ensuring fair performance of appraisal.
In conclusion, the use of succession planning has enabled the organization to promote and retain talented employees. In addition, the use of on-the-job training has given employees the opportunity to improve their skills and competencies. This study also concluded that the organization has a performance management system in place that helped young professionals maximize their potential.
Based on the findings of this study, the organization does not offer mentorship and coaching as methods of training and development. Therefore, the study recommended that the organization identifies experienced employees and experts to act as mentors and coaches. This study also recommended that the organization should formulate talent pools from which it can obtain high potential employees and foster employee productivity and commitment. In addition, the researcher recommended that tailor-made performance measurement tools should be developed to determine individual talent gaps. Finally, this study recommended that a similar research to be done in other organizations to determine whether the factors affecting performance of young professionals in one organization are similar to those of another organization