Alex 2
Alex 2
Alex 2
BY
MUTIWA EMMANUEL
REG: 1161 — 06114 04406
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MARCH, 2019
DECLARATION
I, Mutiwa Emmanuel hereby declare that this Research report is as result of my personal effort
and has never been presented to any Institution of Higher Education for any award.
This is to certify that this Research report titled the employee attitudes and performance of
Local Governments in Uganda, a case study of Nawanjofu sub county Local Government
written by Mutiwa Emmanuel was carried out under my supervision and is now ready for
submission to the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Kampala International
University.
Ms NATUKUNDA PEACE
DEDICATION
I dedicate this work to the Almighty God, by whose tender mercies and Grace that I was able
to go through the whole research and I managed to come up with such a proposal. Thanks for
the provision and glory be to your name. I also dedicate this piece of work to my parents,
relatives, my brothers and sisters who helped me financially during my research. May God
Bless you all
III
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Every good work is certainly impossible to accomplish single handed. Therefore, it is with
heart felt gratitude that I convey thanks to all of you who made this research Proposal writing
a success.
My gratitude goes to my Supervisor, Ms Natukunda Peace for the Continuous Supervision and
guidance throughout the Proposal writing Process up to the research completion.
Other special thanks are accredited to the staff of Humanities and social sciences, Kampala
International University for the advice, guidance and support given from time to time.
Special appreciation goes to my parents Mr Mutiwa Martin and Ms Mutiwa Ruth, my brothers,
Sisters, relatives and all my well-wishers for the support and guidance that they gave me during
my research and studies.
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Table of Contents
DECLARATION
APPROVAL ii
DEDICATION fl
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS V
V
3.8 Data Collection Tools .16
3.8.1 Questionnaires 16
3.8.2 Interview guide 17
3.9 Data Analysis 17
3.10. Ethical Consideration 17
3.10. Limitations and delirnitations of the study 17
CHAPTER FOUR 19
DATA ANALYSIS 19
PRESENTATION AND INTERPRETATION OF FINDiNGS 19
4.1 Introduction 19
4.2 Descriptive characteristics of the sample 19
4.2.3: Distribution of Respondents by Level of Education 20
4.3. 1 The relationship between employee attitudes and productivity in Nawanjofu sub county Local
Government 22
DISCUSSION, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 26
5.Olntroduction 26
5.1. Discussion of the Findings 26
5.1.1 The relationship between employee attitudes and productivity in 26
Nawanjofu sub county Local Government 26
51.2. The relationship between employee attitudes and Service delivery in Nawanjofu sub county
Local Government 26
5.1.3 The relationship between employee attitudes and staff performance in Nawanjofu sub county .27
5.2 Conclusions 27
5,3 RecommendationS 29
REFERENCES’ 30
APPENDiX A
APPENDIXI3 36
APPENDIX C 37
vi
LIST OF ACRONYMS/ABBREVIATIONS
VI!
ABSTRACT
This study set out to find out the relationship between employee attitudes and performance in
Local Governments. It was guided by three research objectives as follows:
(I) To find out the relationship between employee attitudes and productivity in Nawanjofu sub county
Local Government, (II) To determine the relationship between job satisfaction and productivity in
Nawanjofu sub county. (III) To determine how employee involvement improves service delivery in
Nawanjofu Sub County. The study used a descriptive cross section research design which
involved establishing the relationship between the independent variable and the dependent
variable. The quantitative data was obtained using structured questionnaires from different
categories of people such as respondents from the Nawanj ofu sub county Local Government,
while the qualitative data was obtained from key informants, interviews and observations. The
study was based on a population of 100 individual members with more than half of it
constituting women where a sample size of 30 was selected. Quantitative data from
questionnaires were analysed by use of figures, and frequency tables. After the data was
collected, hand written notes were assembled and typed into word processing program-MS
word. The findings on the study revealed that there is a positive significant relationship between
employee attitudes and productivity in Local Governments. The result implies that as
employees improve on attitudes towards work, their productivity in the local government will
increase. Since this leads to the rejection of the null hypothesis that there is no relationship
between employee attitudes and productivity in Local Governments. This finding was
subjected to verification to test the hypothesis; there is a significant relationship between
employee attitudes and Service delivery.” by comparing the significance of the correlation to
the recommended significance that employee attitudes have a strong and positive relationship
with revenue collection in Nawanjofu sub county Local Governments. This means that
increased adherence to employee attitudes is expected to improve on revenue collection within
Nawanjofu sub county Local Government. The study concluded that job satisfaction,
performance, Involvement, staff commitment and Performance are associated and inter-related
and together lead to the realization of organizational objectives. Some other factors which
influence on the performance should be explored by further study. The study recommended
that Performance standards should be established and communicated to the employees by the
local government of Uganda. This will help employees to achieve the standards and perform
well. Employees who are reaching standards and or above standard should be appreciated and
rewarded, Fair pay, benefits, promotion opportunities and good supervision should be in the
organization to satisfy the employees in order to enhance the performance, Good leadership
styles as to fit for the organizational conditions may be satisfied the workers and ldentifying
weaknesses of employees may be the best one to improve the Worker’s performance, because
it indicates the area which training should be Provided.
VI
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Showing Sex of the Respondents 19
Table 2: Age Distribution of Respondent 20
Table 3: Showing Respondents’ Education 20
Table 4: The table below shows some key informants, gender, their positions, period spent in the
Office and their marital status 21
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CHAPTER ONE
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
1.Olntroduction
In this chapter, the researcher intends to explain the background of the study, statement of the
problem, General objective, specific objectives of the study, research questions, significance
of the study, Scope of the study and definition of key terms. This is intended to give the reader
a summary of the research issues and what surrounds them.
that must exist between the employer and employee. This will power is called motivation.
Human Resources Management scholars have sought to understand the ways in which the
efficiency of human resource (HR) practices are associated with the attitude of its employees.
There is an indication that when appropriately managed, employees’ attitudes can enhance the
efficiency of HR practices. However, as Wright and Nishii (2004) noted, research has
contributed little to our theoretical understanding of how HR practices and employees’ attitude
relate; much more research that examines variables that might be involved in the proverbial
“black box” between HR systems and organizational performance is needed from the
perspective of employees attitude (Bowen &Ostroff, 2004; Bibi et al. 2012).
1
it as “a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job or job
experiences”. Implicit in Locke’s definition is the importance of both affect, or feeling, and
cognition, or thinking. When we think, we have feelings about what we think. Conversely,
when we have feelings, we think about what we feel. For example, the United States was found
to be high on individualism, low on power distance, and low on uncertainty avoidance (thus
high on risk taking), whereas Mexico was high on collectivism, high on power distance, and
high on uncertainty avoidance.
In Uganda, numerous attempts have been engaged by various Local Governments to improve
on their employee staff’s attitudes towards their work so as to fix the problem of low turnover
rates, strikes and low productivity since attitudes of employees in the local governments can
have a significant effect on their performance in general. Therefore, attitudes are some of the
hidden, hard-to-measure factors that end up being crucial to the success of organizations in
local government in various districts of Uganda. This is because employee attitudes have had
a drastic impact on the productivity of local governments in Uganda especially in terms service
delivery, both directly and through the effect on other job-related factors. Thus the quality of
publicservice delivery ofien focusses on monitoring the fiscal and administrative performance
of local governments which is directed from the staff who operate in the local government
departments. That, this can promote the mobilization of local resources on a sustainable basis
thereby ensure the better delivery of social services. It is further argued that decentralization
gives the beneficiaries opportunity to influence and own the development programmes which
their local governments implement and, to hold local government officials accountable for their
actions. In Nawanjofu sub county the situation is such that employee are mixed.
1.1.2 Conceptual Background
Employee Attitudes
It is paramount that we should describe what we mean by employee attitudes and job
satisfaction. Employees have attitudes or viewpoints about many aspects of their jobs, their
careers, and their organizations. Happy employees are productive employees. Happy
employees are not productive employees. We hear these conflicting statements made by
Human Resource professionals and managers in organizations. There is confusion and debate
among practitioners on the topic of employee attitudes and job satisfaction even at a time when
employees are increasingly important for organizational success and competitiveness. Lock
(1976). Therefore, there is need to provide greater understanding of the research on this topic
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and give recommendations related to the major practitioner knowledge gaps. As indicated
indirectly in a study of Human Resource professionals (Rynes, Colbert, & Brown, 2002), as
well as based on our experience, the major practitioner knowledge gaps in this area are: the
causes of employee attitudes, the results of positive or negative job satisfaction, and how to
measure and influence employee attitudes. Within each gap area, there need to be a review of
the scientific research and recommendations for practitioners related to the research findings.
Recommendations for enhancing organizational practice in the area of employee attitudes and
job satisfaction are described, along with suggestions for evaluating the implemented practices.
In this study, employee attitudes will be taken as the independent variable while organizational
performance as the dependent variable. Excellent contemporary overview of several aspects of
attitudes as studied by socio-psychologists, (Albarracin et a!, 2005). They state that evaluation
of specific job attitudes was the most paramount action managers at all levels. However,
Al!port and Gordon (1935), noted in this seminal piece that “the concept of attitude is probably
the most distinctive and indispensable concept in contemporary American social psychology.
Eagly and Chaiken, (1993), defined an attitude as a psychological tendency that is expressed
by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor. But Fazio, (1995)
stresses that an attitude emerges from an association in memory between a given object and a
given summary evaluation of the object (Mustapha & Ghee, 2013).
Organizational Performance
Performance is completion of a task with application of knowledge, skills and abilities (John
Shields, Michelle Brown 2015). In work place, performance or job performance means good
ranking with the hypothesized conception of requirements of a task role, whereas citizenship
performance means a set of individual activity and contribution that supports the organizational
culture. The accomplishment of a given task measured against pre-set known standards of
accuracy, completeness, cost, and speed. In a contract, performance is deemed to be the
fulfilment of an obligation, in a manner that releases the performer from all liabilities under the
contract. According to Richard et al. (2009) organizational performance encompasses three
specific areas of firm outcomes: (a) financial performance (profits, return on assets, return on
investment, etc.); product market performance (sales, market share, etc.; and shareholder return
(total shareholder return, economic value added, etc.).
Organizational performance comprises the actual output or results of an organization as
measured against its intended outputs (or goals and objectives). According to Richard et al.
(2009) organizational performance encompasses three specific areas of firm outcomes: (a)
financial performance ( return on assets, return on investment, etc.); (b) product market
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performance (sales, market share, etc.); and (c) shareholder return (total shareholder return,
economic value added, etc.). .In recent years, many organizations have attempted to manage
organizational performance using the balanced scorecard methodology where performance is
tracked and measured in multiple dimensions such as financial performance (e.g. shareholder
return), customer service, social responsibility (e.g. corporate citizenship, community
outreach), employee stewardship, Organizational performance, Performance measurement
systems, Performance improvement, Organizational engineering. An emerging area of study is
the interplay between job and life satisfaction. Researchers have speculated that there are three
possible forms of the relationship between job satisfaction and life satisfaction: spill over,
where job experiences spill over into non-work life and vice versa; segmentation, where job
and life experiences are separated and have little to do with one another; and compensation,
where an individual seeks to compensate for a dissatisfying job by seeking fulfillment and
happiness in his or her non-work life and vice versa.
Nawanjofu sub county runs a five-year capacity building and development plan, in which
career paths are designed to improve the attitudes and therefore performance of members of
staff. Annually, staffs are invited for seminars, counselling sessions and other careers guidance
4
efforts. In financial year 2015/2016, an average of three members of staff was taken for post
graduate Degree course in order to enhance their capacity. Elected leaders are trained on their
roles and responsibilities etc.; all geared towards improving the employee attitudes towards
work, for better organisational performance. Nonetheless, this has not yielded positive results,
for example, even after the training needs are met and sometimes sponsored by the district local
government, employees opt for greener pasture elsewhere instead of bettering their work
attitudes. This is an issue that requires to be investigated. There is a lot of absenteeism and late
coming by some of local government workers. Workers should report at the sub county from
Monday to Friday from 8am to 4pm.Therefore absenteeism and late coming has led to poor
performance in some departments of the of the sub county. Its due to the aforementioned
problems that the researcher has decided to carry out an in-depth investigation to establish the
relationship between employee attitudes and organisational performance in Local
Governments of Uganda, a case study Nawanjofu sub county Local Government and find out
the solutions to those factors affecting employee attitudes. It should be remembered that good
attitudes facilitate work performance and coordination of the affairs of any organisation.
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1.6. Significance of the Study
The study will act as a baseline in the related interventions and for possible
I. The research findings will be useful to investigators in the field of Human Resource
and they will refer to these findings in their research
IL The research will be of great importance to the government especially Local
Governments and of Human Resource department at the District and municipalities.
III. The study shall also provide good lessons that can be used to improve the performance
of civil society organizations like Non-Government Organizations.
IV. The research will be of advantage to the student in fulfilling the partial requirement
for the award of Bachelors in Social and Community Development at Kampala
International University.
V. The research will also be useful to the academia. For example, the staff of Kampala
International University will use it for Study Purposes and Making References.
1.7 Scope of the Study
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1.7.3 Time Scope
The study based on the data got from employee attitudes and performance in local governments
for the last 7 years from 2010-2017, because this is the period where many local government
of Uganda have gradually developed due to their productive internal personnels.
Job attitudes: evaluation of one’s job that express one’s feelings towards beliefs about and
attachment to one’s job.
7
Staff commitment: An individual’s psychological bond with the organization, as represented
by an affective attachment to the organization, a feeling of loyalty toward it, and an intention
to remain as part of it.
Attitude: A psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with
some degree of favour or disfavour (of which job attitudes are examples). “Despite the long
history of research on attitudes, there is no universally agreed upon definition.” Perhaps the
most widely accepted definition of an attitude, however, was provided by Eagly&Chaiken
(1993, p. 1): “A psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity
with some degree of favour or disfavour.
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CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0 Introduction
This chapter presents the General disposition, how poor employee attitudes affect performance
in Local Governments, the causes of poor employee attitudes towards work, the relationship
between employee attitudes and organisational performance in Local Governments.
Motivational theory
The study was guided by the motivational theory which was formulated by David McClelland
in 1961, where he pioneered workplace motivational thinking, developing achievement- and
promoted improvements in employee assessment methods, advocating competency-based
assessments and tests, arguing them to be better than traditional IQ and personality-based tests.
His ideas have since been widely adopted in many organizations.
David McClelland is most noted for describing three types of motivational need, which he
identified in his 1961 book, “The Achieving Society”: achievement motivation (n-ach),
authority/power motivation (n-pow), and affiliation motivation (n-affil). McClelland said that
most people possess and exhibit a combination of these characteristics. Some people exhibit a
strong bias to a particular motivational need and this motivational or needs ‘mix’ consequently
affects their behavior and working/managing style. McClelland suggested that a strong n-affil
‘affiliation-motivation’ undermines a manager’s objectivity, because of their need to be liked,
and that this affects a manager’s decision-making capability. A strong n-pow ‘authority-
motivation’ will produce a determined work ethic and commitment to the organization, and
while n-pow people are attracted to the leadership role; they may not possess the required
flexibility and people-centered skills. McClelland argues that n-ach people with strong
‘achievement motivation’ make the best leaders, although there can be a tendency to demand
too much of their staff in the belief that they are all similarly and highly achievement-focused
and results driven, which of course most people are not.
McClelland’s particular fascination was for achievement motivation, and this laboratory
experiment illustrates one aspect of his theory about the effect of achievement on people’s
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motivation. McClelland asserted via this experiment that while most people do not possess a
strong achievement-based motivation, those who do, display a consistent behavior in setting
goals: McClelland contrasted achievement-motivated people with gamblers, and dispelled a
common pre-conception that n-ach achievement-motivated’ people are big risk takers. On the
contrary typically, achievement-motivated individuals set goals which they can influence with
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their effort and ability, and as such the goal is considered to be achievable. This determined
results-driven approach is almost invariably present in the character make-up of all successful
business people and entrepreneurs.
McClelland firmly believed that achievement-motivated people are generally the ones who
make things happen and get results, and that this extends to getting results through the
organization of other people and resources, although as stated earlier, they often demand too
much of their staff because they priorities achieving the goal above the many varied interests
and needs of their people. Interesting comparisons and relationships can be drawn between
McClelland’s motivation types, and the characteristics defined in other behavioral models.
In the study carried out by Jibowo (2007) on the effect of motivators and hygiene on job
performance among a group of 75 agricultural extension workers in Nigeria. The study
basically adopted the same method as Rerzberg et al, (1959) and it shows some support for the
influence of motivators on job performance. In another study carried out by Centers and
Bugental (2007), they also based their research on Herzberg’s two-factor theory of motivation,
which separated job variables into two group; hygiene factors and motivators.
10
Job satisfaction and motivation are very important to continuing growth of educational system
in Somalia and around the world. Motivation plays an important role in the organization
because it increases the productivity and goals can be achieved an efficient way and also
motivation takes part in the vital role for teachers because it helps to achieve target goals in
efficiency way. Teacher motivation is very important since it improves the skills and
knowledge of teachers seeing as it directly influences the students’ achievement (Mustafa &
Othman, 2010). Job satisfaction takes an essential part in the organizational performance
because if in schools, the teachers do not have sufficient motivation then there is less
performance which directly influences the student’s knowledge and also the education system.
However, the teachers need motivation to work efficiency and also to enhance their ability and
knowledge. Organization’s performance is made visible through the activities it conducts to
achieve, its mission. Outputs and their effects are the most observable aspects of an
organization’s performance (Anderson & Carden, 1999).
On the other hand, it is well—established in the economic literature that turnover rate and
absenteeism, among other work environment indicators, are strongly and inversely related to
job performance. Using data on the British coal mining industry Pencavel (1974) finds that
high level of industrial morale, as manifested by low levels of absenteeism, labour turnover,
accidents, and strikes has a positive and significant impact on output. The author also argues
that this high level of industrial morale reflects “the co-operation extended by the workers to
their management, their interest in theirjob, and their willingness to assume responsibility that
their work is properly and expeditiously done”. Tchniowski (1986) proposes a theoretical model
to identify the determinants of employee formal complaints received by the firm (called
grievance rates) and its effect on productivity. Using this model to analyse performance data
from eleven paper mills the author finds that a grievance-free plant is 1.3% more productive
and upto 16.7% more profitable than a plant that operates with an average grievance rate. Katz,
Kochan, and Gobeille (1983) study General Motors plants during the 1970s and find that
grievance rates, absenteeism, contract negotiation behaviour are all negatively and significantly
associated with product quality, while employee’s ratings on the quality of their labour
management relations is positively associated with product quality.
This study is followed by a second paper (Katz, Kochan, & Weber, 1982) which draws a similar
conclusion using a different dataset from a large durable goods manufacturer in the US. Finally,
do EOFs and LMFs have positive effects on employee attitudes? Kruse and Blasi (1995) assert
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that there is no a prior answer to this question. Employee-owners might be more satisfied if
they value ownership and perceive it as a mean to greater income, job security, and more
control over the workplace. In contrast, ownership might have negligible or negative effect on
attitudes if employees “perceive no difference in their work lives, dislike the extra risk or have
raised expectations that are not fulfilled”. Empirical estimations tend to find mixed results. For
instance, Greenberg (1980) analyses survey from 550 employees of four U.S. plywood
cooperative and find that co-operative membership is associated with higher satisfaction for
workers. Kruse (1984) offer evidence from two different companies with Employee Stock
Ownership Plan (ESOP) that ESOP workers exhibit no significant difference in satisfaction
when compared to the national sample of workers in comparable industry. My paper,
comparing satisfaction across Coop and Gespa stores, will hopefully shed some light on these
inconclusive problems.
The first major practitioner knowledge gap will address is the causes of employee attitudes and
job satisfaction. In general, HR practitioners understand the importance of the work situation
as a cause of employee attitudes, and it is an area HR can help influence through organizational
programs and management practices. However, in the past two decades, there have been
significant research gains in understanding dispositional and cultural influences on job
satisfaction as well, which is not yet well understood by practitioners. In addition, one of the
most important areas of the work situation to influence
Job satisfaction the work itself is often overlooked by practitioners when addressing job
satisfaction.
Several innovative studies have shown the influences of a person’s disposition on job
satisfaction. One of the first studies in this area (Staw& Ross, 1985) demonstrated that a
person’s job satisfaction scores have stability over time, even when he or she changes jobs or
companies. In a related study, childhood temperament was found to be statistically related to
adult job satisfaction up to 40 years later (Staw, Bell, & Clausen, 1986). Evidence even
indicates that the job satisfaction of identical twins reared apart is statistically similar (see
Arvey, Bouchard, Segal, & Abraham, 1989).
Although this literature has had its critics (e.g., Davis-Blake & Pfeffer, 1989), an accumulating
body of evidence indicates that differences in job satisfaction across employees can be traced,
in part, to differences in their disposition or temperament (House, Shane, & Herold, 1996).
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Despite its contributions to our understanding of the causes of job satisfaction, one of the
limitations in this literature is that it is not yet informative as to how exactly dispositions affect
job satisfaction (Erez, 1994). Therefore, researchers have begun to explore the psychological
processes that underlie dispositional causes of job satisfaction. For example, Weiss and
Cropanzano (1996) suggest that disposition may influence the experience of emotionally
significant events at work, which in turn influences job satisfaction.
Similarly, Brief (1 998) and Motowidlo (1996) have developed theoretical models in an attempt
to better understand the relationship between dispositions and job satisfaction.
Continuing this theoretical development, Judge and his colleagues (Judge & Bono, 2001;
Judge, Locke, Durham, & Kiuger, 1998) found that a key personality trait, core self-evaluation,
correlates with (is statistically related to) employee job satisfaction. They also found that one
of the primary causes of the relationship was through the perception of the job itself. Thus, it
appears that the most important situational effect on job satisfaction—the job itself—is linked
to what may be the most important personality trait to predict job satisfaction—core self-
evaluation. Evidence also indicates that some other personality traits, such as extraversion and
conscientiousness, can also influence job satisfaction (Judge, Heller, & Mount, 2002). These
various research findings indicate that there is in fact a relationship between disposition or
personality and job satisfaction
A Study in Malaysia had the objective which was to determine the influence ofjob Satisfaction
on organizational performance among academics in four public Secondary Schools in
Kelantan, Sample was randomly selected through systematic procedure and data was collected
from 320 samples using self-administered questionnaires. The data was analysed using
descriptive analysis to describe the respondents~ profile and using Pearson Product Moment
Correlation to test the Relationship between variables. The result indicated that there was
negative significant Relationship between daily faculty workload and job satisfaction.
Organization should consider the amount of workload since reasonable daily load will
determine the satisfaction of employees. High job satisfaction among employees will enhance
organizational citizenship and loyalty (Mustapha & Ghee, 2013).
In thestudy carried out by Jibowo (2007) on the effect of motivators and hygiene on job
performance among group of 75 agricultural extension workers in Nigeria. The study basically
13
adopted the same method as Herzberget al, (1959) and it shows some support for the influence
of motivators onjob performance. In another study carried out by Centres and Bugental (2007),
they also based their research on Herzberg’s two-factor theory of motivation, which separated
job variables into two group; hygiene factors and motivators.
Can employees’ job attitudes determine the economic performance of their workplace? This
question, usually called the attitude-performance problem, has drawn extensive research from
all fields of behavioural sciences over the past 70 years. Due to its significance in business
management and human psychology, the answer to it has ofien been referred to as the “Holy
Grail” in organizational behaviour research (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996). Nonetheless, such
answer is yet to be found. Theories concerning job satisfaction are still weak; empirical studies
provide mixed results. The situation calls for further investigations.
Despite considerable economic success, Eroski did not seek to expand their market beyond the
Basque region until fairly recently in 1997. This delayed expansion is partly because the
company used to be highly committed to its traditional cooperative model, which emphasizes
employee’s democratic control and thus does not facilitate fast and massive size expansions
(Bakaikoaet al., 2004). In 1997, when faced with increasing competitions, Eroski decided to
open a number of new stores that do not necessarily follow traditional cooperative models.
Consequently, now Eroski stores have different organizational structures. Stores opened prior
to 1997 are traditional cooperative units (Coop stores). Stores opened after 1997 sacrifice some
oftheoriginal cooperative spirit in favour of fast expansions. These newer stores either follow
a secondary form of cooperative structure (called Gespa) or simply adopt a pure capitalist
structure with no cooperative features involved. Within the hypermarket subgroup of Eroski,
no newer store follows the pure capitalist structure. For the purpose of this paper, we are only
concerned with hypermarkets, so only the distinction between Coop and Gespa is necessary.
Also, cooperatives structures exacerbate free-rider problems arisen from team works, which
will practically offset any initial incentive gains from ownership (Holmstrom, 1982). Likewise,
empirical studies on productivity of LMFs do not offer a clear conclusion yet. For example,
Craig and Pencavel (1995) study plywood construction coops in North America find that coop
mills are from 6% to 14% more productive that their capitalist counterparts. But a comparable
study done by Jones (2007) on Italian construction firms found no evidence that coops are more
efficient that conventional firms.
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CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Introduction
This chapter explains the methodology that was used in carrying out the study. it expounds on
the research design, study area, population, sample size and procedure. This chapter looks at
the data collection methods, data analysis, limitations and delimitations of the study.
The target population of this study was 100 of all government employees in Nawanjofu sub
countS’ Local Government and most of them are Banyole with few other tribes like; Bagwere,
Itesos, Basoga and the Bagisu.
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3.6 Sampling Techniques
The following techniques were used by the researcher to select respondents in the field.
3.7. iValidity
In order to ensure validity of the instruments, the drafted questionnaires were given to the
super~iisors and colleagues for critical assessment of each item. In addition, they will request
to state whether each item is Relevant (R) or not Relevant (NR) which they will do. The Content
Validity Index (CVI) will thus compute using the standardized measure and the researcher then
made appropriate adjustments until when the instruments will be declared valid by the values.
3.7.2 Reliability
3.8.1 Questionnaires
A questionnaire is a form with written questions that are given to respondents to answer. This
tool was used to collect data from the government officials because they are literate (i.e. can
16
read and write). The questionnaire was both open and closed ended in nature. The
Questionnaires were self-administered because the government officials are often busy and do
not have a lot of time at their disposal and can fill the questionnaires at their convenient time.
The researcher faced a number of challenges in the due course of the research.
First and foremost, time was not always on the side of the researchers. The research needs more
time. However, the researcher had to employ research assistants to assist in the completion of
the work on time.
Secondly, the researcher was limited by funds as there are a lot of costs to be met. In order to
address this, challenge the researcher had to borrow some money in order to complete the
research activities.
During the research, there was also a challenge of uncooperative behaviour of some
respondents, unapproachable respondents and those who were reluctant to give in information.
17
The researcher overcame the above challenge through getting good relationships with the
respondents so as to easily collaborate with them in filling up the questionnaires and some of
them never trusted the researcher with confidential information.
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CHAPTER FOUR
DATA ANALYSIS
4.1 Introduction
This chapter contains the statistical results that are generated from the data analysis, together
with the interpretation thereof. The presentation in this chapter is guided by the research
objectives and the results are generated so as to appropriately address the research objectives
and questions. It includes descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and regression analysis; the
findings are presented in line with the stated objectives.
This section presents the sample characteristics of the respondents such as; their gender, ages,
marital status, level of education, department, positions, length of service, and the number of
years the company has operated since its formation. The results are presented in Table form
with generated respective frequencies and graphs.
The results from table 2 above shows that among the respondent interviewed the males
dominated with a percentage rate of 63.3%, while the females had the least response rate of
3 6.7%. This is because the males had enough prior knowledge as regards analyzing employee
attitudes and organizational performance in local governments as illustrated below;
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Table 2: Age Distribution of Respondent
Total 30 100%
Source: Field data, (2018).
From the above findings in the Table 3 above shows that majority of respondents were in the
age of 3 0-39 with 63% response rate, 13% of respondents suggested that they were between
20-29 years of age, 7% were between 40-49 years, 17% were between 50- 59 years while None
were 60 years and above. This implies that most of the people operating in Nawanjofu sub
county Local Government are in their youthful ages of 30-39 which put them in good physical
and n~ental position to handle the activities of the local government.
Secondary 11 37%
Bachelors 17 57%
Masters 02 6.6%
Total 30 100%
Source: Field data, (2018).
Table 3 above, shows that the majority, 57% had acquired Bachelor’s Degrees from various
universities in Uganda. 37% of the respondents had attained secondary level certificates (UCE
and UACE), and only 6.6% had acquired Masters Degrees. This is an indication that the local
government employs educated staffs who understand what they are doing and are liable for the
development of the local government.
20
Table 4: The table below shows some key informants, gender, their positions, period
spent in the Office and their marital status
21
4.2.5 Interpretation of the findings
Following the findings, thirty people were interviewed about employee attitudes and
performance but out of 30, 19 were males and 11 were female. Tis implies that the males
dominated the interview with a bigger percentage of 63.3% whereas females had 3 6.7% and
this shows that males had enough knowledge as regards to analyzing employee attitudes and
performance in local governments.
From the findings about age of the respondents, the majority were in the age of 30-39 with
63%, 50-59 with 17%, 20-29 with 13% and 40-49% with 7% while non was in 60 years and
above. This shows that most of the employees in Nawanjofu Sub County are in youthful age
between 30-3 9 years. These years put them in a good physical and mental position to carry on
activities which leads to good performance.
It should be noted that Nawanjofu sub county lack employees with experience who have got
60 years and above who can guide and motivate the young employees between 30-39 at the
sub county in order to increase productivity.
According to the respondent’s educational background, 57% are bachelor’s holder, 37%
acquired secondary level certificates and 6.6% are Masters holder. This implies that Nawanjofu
sub county employs educated staffs who are competent enough with skills and are liable for
the development of the sub county. This can lead to the improvement in service delivery.
The 37% who have got secondary level certificates work as cleaners, guards, and office
messengers at the sub county but once they can be involved in conducting official activities,
they can lead to poor performance because they are not knowledgeable enough to do official
work.
Nawanjofu Sub County has got only 6.6% with masters. This implies that the sub county lacks
people who have got experience in local government activities. Therefore, lack of experience
can lead to poor performance which in turn can lead to poor service delivery.
4.3. 1 The relationship between employee attitudes and productivity in Nawanjofu sub
county Local Government
The overall objective of the research was to establish or determine the relationship between
employee attitudes and performance. According to the sub county Chief, said that “Some of
the local government employees have got neutral and others negative attitudes towards work,
22
he continued and said that they are not consistent while doing their work due to the absenteeism
and late coming at the sub county. Therefore, some workers do not complete their activities
and tasks and this has slowed down development in our areas of operation and this has led to
low productivity of the workers”
4.3.2 The relationship between employee attitudes and productivity in Nawanjofu sub
county
According to the findings, Nawanjofu Sub County has got employees with both negative and
neutral attitudes towards work. The employees show their negative attitudes towards work by
absenting themselves and coming late at the sub county. In return this has led to low
produptivity due to the fact that the employees do not complete the assignment given to them
in time.
Following the literature review, using data on the British coal mining industry Pencavel (1974)
found that high level of industrial morale, as manifested by low levels of absenteeism, labour
turno~’èr, accidents and strikes has positive and significant impact on the output.
On that note therefore, employees should not absent themselves, they should arrive at work in
time and they should have positive attitudes towards work in order to enhance or improve
productivity at the sub county.
4.4.1 The relationship between employee attitudes and Service delivery in Nawanjofu sub
county.
According to the sub county chief as the head of the sub county, said that “According to the
assessment of the workers that was conducted in Jan 2019 by the human resource management,
some workers have neutral attitudes and others have positive attitudes towards work. Great
improvement has been seen in the community based development department and other
officers have improved because they go for outreaches, empowerment programs in different
places of the sub county and at least they meet deadlines given to submit their reports from the
field. Therefore, their feelings, behaviors and beliefs about work keeps on changing positively”
According to the Community Development Officer said that “Some employees have got
positive attitudes and others negative attitudes towards work due to the fact that some show
that they are committed while doing work, they get involved in the field activities and above
all they are satisfied with theirjobs and this has improved service delivery in some departments
like the Administration and community based departments.
23
4.4.2 The relationship between employee attitudes and service delivery in Nawanjofu sub
county
Following the findings, Nawanjofu Sub County has got employees with positive and negative
attitudes towards work. Employees with positive attitudes are in the department of community
based services. They conduct out reaches, empowerment programs in many places and they
meet deadlines given to submit their reports from the field. Great improvement as far as service
delivery is concerned was seen in the department of community development.
Employees with neutral attitudes make 50% of the workers at the sub county, they rare meet
deadlines for submitting reports from the field, at times they do not conduct field activities like
out reaches in theirs of operation. This has led to poor service delivery in the department of
health and education. Therefore, due to the neutral attitudes, the sub county experiences
average and at times poor performance at the end of the year.
Citing from the literature review, a study in Malaysia which was conducted about employee
attitudes and performance in secondary schools and other government institutions showed that
high job satisfaction among employee enhances organizational service delivery and loyalty
(Mustapha & Ghee, 2013). This implies that employees with high job satisfaction have got
positive attitudes towards work and they can delivery services as expected
4.5.1 The relationship between employee attitudes and staff performance in Nawanjofu
sub county
According to the human resource management assessment report, “Nawanjofu Sub County
has got 100 workers, out of 100 workers, 30 have got offices at the sub county headquarters
and 70 workers are on the parish level but they report the sub county. The report holds that
out of 100 workers, 50% have got positive attitudes towards work and the other 50% have got
neutral attitudes towards work. The community development based team which does not have
offices at the sub county headquarters have got neutral attitudes towards work due to the fact
they earn less than those at the sub county, and they claim that they work a lot in the field and
yet they are paid less therefore they claim for equal pay with those owning offices like the
community development officer.”
Generally, the staff performance is moderate according to the recent assessments that were
conducted by the sub county chief, he said that “out of 100 workers, 60 can meet deadlines
for submitting reports, 40 can miss by one to two days. This has showed great improvement
24
his year and quite god performance but all departments still need to improve for good
performance.
4.5.2 The relationship between employee attitudes and staff performance in Nawanjofu
sub county
According to the findings, employees of Nawanjofu Sub County have got both positive and
moderate attitudes towards work. It was found out that out of 100 workers 60% workers can
do their wok accordingly and submit reports needed in time, and the 40% can miss by two days
to meet their deadlines to submit their reports needed from them.
The community based services department has got the community based team which operates
in the field and they claim for equal pay with those owning offices and this makes them to have
mode~ãte and negative attitudes towards work, This led to delay in the service delivery which
results into poor performance at the sub county.
Following the literature review, Greenberg (~980) analyses survey from 550 employees of
USA about their attitudes and staff performance, he found out that co-operative membership is
associated with high satisfaction for workers and high performance in their fields. Therefore,
co-operation of the staff members, job satisfaction and commitment can lead to positive
attitudes towards work which in turn led to high or improvement of the staff performance
25
CHAPTER FIVE
5.Olntroduction
This chapter mainly presents the summary of key findings, conclusion and recommendations
related.
5.1.2. The relationship between employee attitudes and Service delivery in Nawanjofu sub
county Local Government.
The findings showed there is moderate and positive attitudes between Nawanjofu sub county
employees and Service delivery. This finding was subjected to verify the test of hypothesis.
These results imply that employee’s good attitudes towards work will lead to improved service
delivery. Therefore, once employees attitudes will be fully positive, this implies that positive
employee attitudes will enhance the proper service delivery in Nawanjofu sub county local
government.
26
5.1.3 The relationship between employee attitudes and staff performance in Nawanjofu
sub county
The findings revealed that the neutral and positive employee attitudes have a strong and
positive relationship with staff performance in Nawanjofu Sub County. This means that
increased adherence to employee attitudes is expected to improve staff performance because
they can meet deadlines, carry out development activities, empowerment programs and extra
5.2 Conclusions Q
Employees’ good performance is very essential for the effectiveness of the organization. As
discussed above there are many factors that affect the performance of the employees and as
well as of the organization. The descriptive statistics result proved that all the variables
(attitude, job satisfaction, job commitment, training and motivation) are positively affecting
the performance of the employees. While looking at the results drawn from the correlation we
find that motivation, job commitment and attitude of employees and leaders are highly
correlated with the performance and organizations need to create cooperative ‘and employee
oriented culture to achieve higher level of performance through these variables. Regression
analysis show that job commitment and motivation are highly significant and thus managers
need to link the pay with performance, provide timely training and set an appropriate job design
to improve the performance level.
Results proved that all the factors have equal effect on the performance level of different gender
and as the level of experience increases the attitude of the employees and leaders, job
satisfaction and job commitment show more strong effects on their experienced personnel and
devise effective retention policy by giving competitive salary, experienced base pay,
experienced based promotion etc.
Job satisfaction does impact future performance through the Job involvement, but higher
performance also makes people feel more satisfied and committed. It is a cycle of events that
is clearly in keeping with the developmental perspective (Alan Randolph .et.al, 1998).
Attitudes such as satisfaction and involvement are important to the employees to have high
levels of performance which was conceptualized and supported by the findings of the present
study. The results of the study and from the formulated hypotheses revealed that attitudes
namely satisfaction and involvement, and performance are significantly correlated. Correlation
between involvement and performance is somewhat higher than the correlation among
27
satisfaction and performance. Even though attitudes have a greater impact on performance.
Involvement has a greater impact rather than the impact of satisfaction on the performance and
hence hypothesis 2 is rejected.
28
5.3 Recommendations
Performance standards should be established and communicated to the employees the
~ Government of Uganda. This will help employees to achieve the standards and perform well.
Employees who are reaching standards and or above standard should be appreciated and
rewarded.
Fair pay, benefits, promotion opportunities and good supervision should be in the organization
\ to satisfy the employees in order to enhance the performance.
Good leadership styles as to fit for the organizational conditions may be satisfied the workers.
Identifying weaknesses of employees may be the best way to improve the Worker’s
\. performance, because it indicates the area which training should be provided.
29
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33
APPENDIX A:
QUESTIONNAIRE FOR GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS
The study examines the views, opinions, attitudes, and experiences towards employee
attitudes performance in Local Governments
This research forms part of the academic requirements for the award of Bachelors of Arts in
Social and Community Development. I request you to kindly fill this questionnaire genuinely
as it applies to you. Feel ifee to answer because the information provided will be treated with
much confidentiality and for academic purposes only.
r~i
(b) Gender of respondents _____
v) Separated
34
(d) Level of Education
5. What are the causes of poor employee attitudes in your local government?
6. Suggest possible solutions to the causes of poor employee attitudes in Nawanjofu sub
county
35
APPENDIX B: INTERVIEW GUIDE FOR HEADS OF DEPARTMENT (STUDY
OBJECTIVE 1)
4. In what ways has poor employee attitudes affected organisational performance in your
department?
6. What do you think are strategies to address the causes of poor employee attitudes?
APPENDIX C: INTERVIEW GUIDE FOR OTHER MEMBERS OF STAFF (STUDY
OBJECTIVE 3)
10. In what ways has poor employee attitudes affected organisational performance in your
department?
11. What are the causes of poor employee attitudes in your department?
12. What do you think are strategies to address the causes of poor employee attitudes in
you district?
37
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IINTERNATIIONAL E-mail: admin@kiu.ac.ug * Website: http://www.kiu.ac.ug
_______ UN WERS~TY
He is currently conducting a field research for his dissertation entitled, “Employee attitudes and
performance in the local government of Uganda, A case study of Nawanjofu Sub County in
Eastern Uganda.
Your organization has been identified as a valuable source of information pertaining to his
Research Project. The purpose of this letter then is to request you to accept and avail him with
the pertinent information he may need..
Any data shared with him will be used for academic purposes only and shall be kept with utmost
confidentiality.
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