CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION OF THE STUDY

1.1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter presented the background to the research study. It then situated and articulated

the research problem. It also highlighted the research objectives and questions. The chapter

also contained the significance of the study, limitation of the study, scope of the study and

conceptual framework of the study.

1.2 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

In today’s rapidly changing business environment, a well defined human resource strategy

plan and implementation was necessary for organizations to respond to its human resource

requirement in time. Therefore it was important to have a clear and concise human resource

strategy plan in place, which can be executed and has influence to recruit the best talent

pool for the selection of the right candidate at the right place quickly. Creating a suitable

human resource strategy helps ensure a sound recruitment process, retention of employees

was crucial to the overall success of any organization. (Armstrong and A. Baron, 2004)

notes that the lack of proper retention strategies was severely damaging to business

organizations, as replacing key employees was disruptive, expensive, time consuming and

may even threaten the sustainability of the organization.

Human resource planning was the process of searching for employees, stimulating

and ensuring that enough competent people with appropriate skills are available to

perform jobs where and when they will be needed. Since it involves the process of

searching for prospective employees, it was concerned with the range of sources of labor

and the techniques involved in getting the employees in an organization.

Human resource planning can also be defined as the source of obtaining labor in the

organization or, it was the first part of the process of filing a vacancy that includes
examination of the vacancy, consideration of the sources of suitable candidates, making

contact with these candidates and attracting applications from them. Human resource

planning procedures should be flexible enough to permit the personnel to respond flexibly

on demands made on them by recruiting department and by potential candidates.

(Armstrong, 1992)

The objective of the human resource planning was to attract genuinely suitable

candidates. This depends on how efficiently the human resource planning and job

analysis have been carried out and applied. A procedure was a system of sequential steps

or techniques that describe in detail how the various activities were to be carried out. A

procedure details how the various activities that was carried. The use of human resource

planning agencies or public institutions was an option which was used by many

companies to fill either permanent or temporary positions. To obtain a pool of suitable

candidates for a vacant post used to be seen to use a four part process to ensure that all

human resource planning activities contribute to expected goals and desirable company

image and to conduct human resource planning activities in an efficient and most

influencive manner (Cole, 1993).

According to Cole (1997) he explained that the importance of having efficient and

influence the procedures for human resource planning can hardly be exaggerated. If

organizations are able to find and employ staffs who consistently fulfill their roles, e.g.

capable of taking increased responsibilities, then they are immeasurably better placed to

deal with opportunities and threats arising from their operating environments. The

significance of efficient human resource planning process is: It enables the organization

to obtain the right number of people with right qualifications. It also helps the

organization to maintain consistent wage and salary structures.

 An influence and efficient human resource planning procedure should contain:

determination of a vacancy, job analysis, writing job description and person specification,

drafting an advertisement by staff appointed to carry out human resource planning, arrival

of applications, pre selection of candidates using resumes, the interview, the job offer, the

induction process and job placement (Gilles, 2006). The human resource planning

industry has four main types of agencies: employment agencies, human resource planning

websites and job search engines, “head hunters” for executives and professional human

resource planning and niche agencies which specialize in a particular area of staffing.

Some organizations use employer branding strategies and in-house human resource

planning instead of agencies (Armstrong and Baron, 2004). Human resource planning-

related functions are generally carried out by an organization’s human resource staff.

According to Petting (2005), attitudes are the mental moral ethical disposition adopted

by individuals to others and the situation and environments in which they find

themselves. They can be broken down in the following: emotional feeling of positive,

negative, neutrality or difference, anger, love, hatred, desire, rejection, envy and jealousy;

satisfaction or dissatisfaction. They were present in all work as part of the content,

working relationships with other people, reactions to the environment and the demand

placed on particular occupations.

1.2.1 PROFILE OF KENYATTA NATIONAL HOSPITAL

The hospital was built to fulfill the role of being a national referral and teaching hospital,

as well as provide medical research environment. Established in 1901 with a bed

capacity of 40, KNH became a state corporation in 1987 with a board of management

and is at the apex of the referral system in the health sector in Kenya. It covers an area of

45.7 hectares and within the KNH complex college of health sciences (University of

Nairobi); the Kenya medical training college, Kenya medical research institute and
 national laboratory services (Ministry of Health) KNH has 50 wards, 22 out-patient

clinics, 24 theatres (16 specialized) and accident and emergency department. Out of the

total bed capacity of 1,800 there are 209 beds within the private wing.

Kenyatta national hospital (KNH) has opened corporate outpatient centers. The center

opened its doors on Monday 11th July 2011 at 1st floor of the current KNH. Corporate

clientele registered with the hospital for inpatient services for their staff.

FIGURE 1.1: KNH ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

1.3 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The future of any organization depends more than anything else on human resource it has

in its employment. The hope of achieving organization to hire and employ people at all

levels that are suitable and capable for the jobs. Most public institutions such as Kenyatta

National Hospital are trying to make the best of the current slowdown in staff retention

and motivation, the technology is improving and with the nature of jobs the health

organizations undertake the hospital still faces human resource planning challenges such

as cost and retaining of staff, the hospital has always to stay in touch with the current

trends and while ensuring the hospital has more experts available to work on projects.

Health organizations today are dealing with highly educated customers who are aware of

the varied services and levels of quality available. There was a myriad of options for the

customer. However, competitors can not duplicate another organization’s products in the

market. This means that the hospital has to review its current trends of attempting to

revamp its image to ensure that enough competent staff with appropriate skills is

available to perform jobs and at any other time when they are needed therefore the study

was to investigate the factors affecting formation of human resource plans in healthcare

institutions.
1.4 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

1.4.1 General Objective

The main aim of this study was to determine the factors affecting human resource

planning in health organizations in Kenya.

1.4.2 Specific objectives

i) To determine effect of employee retention on human resource planning in health

organizations in Kenya

ii) To examine the effect organization structure on human resource planning in

health organizations in Kenya

iii) To assess on the roles of leadership style on human resource planning in health

care organizations in Kenya

iv) To evaluate the extent to which business plan affect human resource policies in

health organizations in Kenya

v) To establish the factors affecting the training of staff on human resource

planning in healthcare organizations in Kenya.

1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

i) To what extent does the factors’ affecting employee retention influence human

resource planning in health organizations?

ii) To what extent does organizational structure affect human resource planning in

health organizations?

iii) In what ways do the factors affecting leadership style influence planning in health

organizations?

iv) How does the factors affecting staff attitude influence human resource planning in

health organizations?
 v) In what ways do the factors affecting training of staff on human resource planning

become evident in health organizations?

1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

1.6.1 KENYATTA NATIONAL HOSPITAL MANAGEMENT

The objective of any organization is to optimally utilize its human resource influence

in order to remain competitive and to be profitable. The study will act as a reservoir of

knowledge on how the management will seek to develop better strategies, policy and

systems that the sector would use to not only train its employees but also retain them

as they expose them to the latest trends and techniques applicable in the sector.

1.6.2 THE GOVERNMENT OF KENYA

The government of Kenya especially the ministry of health will be of great benefit to

learn how to cope with staff shortage and imbalance and to understand the major

influence of poor human resource planning in service delivery. The study will also

help the management in formulating strategies that will enhance human resource

planning for the organization and to equip it with competent staff.

1.6.3 OTHER RESEARCHERS

The area of human resource was very critical if not crucial to the development of any

organization irrespective of its core functions. Strategies in surveying sector were not

well documented and thus there remains a gap in knowledge on exactly how strategies

were conducted in the sector. Thus, this study sought to provide insight and

knowledge on the area to further inculcate curiosity among researchers and scholars to

further explore the area of strategies in order new knowledge and literature that was
 used by sector players to incorporate this knowledge in the strategies manual and

programs.

1.7 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

1.7.1 LACK OF INFORMATION

Literature and information on strategies in the sector in Kenya are limited and not

very comprehensive. Furthermore what there was is well guarded by the management

to prevent any parties from customizing their own benefit. This difficulty may pose a

challenge to the progression of the study. To counter the setback, the researcher used

diverse and comprehensive literature used all over the worked in the area of strategies

in human resource planning in organizations.

1.7.2 NATURE OF THE WORK

The nature of the work proved to be a limitation during the study. The researcher

overcame this challenge by meeting the respondents frequently and left the

questionnaire with the respondents to fill at their convenient time.

1.7.3 FEAR OF VICTIMIZATION

The top management had a tendency to be suspicious of researchers. It may be

anticipated that some of the respondents were concerned about the extent of

information the management gave them to contribute without any repercussions, but

this concerns were addressed upfront using the letter from the Kenya institute of

management and providing the necessary assurances to the respondents.

1.8 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This study will focus on the premises of Kenyatta national hospital among Ngong road in

Nairobi. This focus is to analyze factors affecting formulation of human resource plans in

public institutions. The target population will be 90 staff members from the human

resource department. The population category will include top management, professional

staff, and support staff. This study was carried out for duration of three months, from

march-may 2017.
CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 INTRODUCTION OF THE STUDY

This chapter was based on the theoretical literature in relation to the study which included: on

sought review of the past studies, critical review, summary and gaps to be filled in the study

topic and finally the conceptual framework.

2.2 REVIEW OF THEORETICAL LITERATURE

2.2.1 EMPLOYEE RETENTION

Employee retention refers to the various policies and practices which let the employee stick

to an organization for a longer period of time. Every organization must invest time and

money to groom a new employee, make him a corporate ready material and bring him at par

with the existing employees. The organization is completely at loss when the employee

leaves the job once they are fully trained. Employee retention takes into account the various

measures taken so that an individual stays in an organization for the maximum period of time.

Several factors determine how much an organization can reward for a certain job so that it

can retain its customer base. The human resource varies from an organization to another.

Firstly it is the ability of the organization to pay. Organizations vary in their ability to meet

their wage and salary commitments. Those with high profits and which enjoy good cash flow

will find it easier to be generous to their employees (Cole, 1997).

Most employees feel that they are worth more than they are actually paid. There is a

natural disparity between what people think they should be paid and what organizations

spend in compensation. When differences become too great and another opportunity occurs,

turnover can result. Pay is defined as the wage, salary or compensation given to an employee

in exchange services the employee performs for the organization. Employee retention has the

influence of increasing human resource of employees as many employees would work as if

it’s their own jobs since they are not working to terminate their job soon. At Kenyatta

national hospital job retention is enhanced by a friendly relationship between management

and employees and giving of sufficient financial reward that include sufficient salary

depending on various jobs. Pay level is determined by some analysis as conducted by the

federation of Kenya employers and manpower services. These organizations carries out a

survey/study on salaries as paid in various organizations and writes a report on how much the

various jobs are paid. The following shows a report given by FKE in may 2001 (Hofstede,

1980).

Retention of skilled employees has become strategic and critical to sustainable

competition and influence has on service delivery among organizations in the ever changing

world of work. Globalization has tremendously enhanced mobility of skilled individuals

thereby accelerating the rate of employee turnover in organizations. This phenomenon has

dramatically changed human resource practice in the area of attracting skilled employees into

the organization and most importantly, retaining them. Given the high cost of turnover and its

destructive tendency, it has become imperative for manager to identify retention variables

that constantly satisfy and influence the decision of valuable employees to have a longer

tenure in an organization (Cole, 1997).

Retention is a voluntary move by an organization to create an environment where

employees are engaged for the long term. According to Chaminade (2007), this attachment

relationship should be durable and constant and link the employee to the organization by

common values and by the way in which the organization responds to the need of the

employees. The main purpose of retention is to prevent the loss of competent employees from

the organization, which could have an adverse influence on human resource and service

delivery. Also, retention allows senior and line managers to attract an influence and retain

critical skills and high performing employees. This is achieved by providing these mangers
with information on retention and retention strategies that will ensure that the goals and

objectives of the organization are realized. Creating a retention strategy means placing the

employees needs and expectations at the center of the organization’s long term agenda in

order to ensure the professional satisfaction of the employee remains in the organization

based on free will and considered decisions.

Retention of employees is crucial to the overall success of any organization (Brown,

2006) notes that the lack of proper retention strategies is severely damaging to business

organizations as replacing key employees is disruptive, expensive, time consuming an may

threaten the sustainability of an organization. Talented and high performing employees

should be encouraged to remain in the organization by designing retention policies that will

provide individual employees with opportunities to demonstrate their skills and ensure that

they are matched with the right jobs. Such retention review policies should, in the view of

(Nyoka, 2006) also include strategies that establish family friendly policies and enabling

flexible work arrangements to accommodate essential personal commitment. With such

influence retention policies in place, managers are able to keep the employee turnover at a

manageable rate.

The whole process of retention is to ensure that employees are retained in the

organization, especially employees with valued or needed skills or experience in a

scarce/critical field where recruitment is difficult. Employee retention stems from the

employment process. Three employment processes (recruitment, selection and placement)

predetermines the influence planning and retention strategy. For employee retention to be

successful it has to be linked to positively to the process and practices of recruitment and the

sources from which job candidates are recruited. Recruitment practice and empirical research

suggests that employees may differ in their propensity to quit depending on the source from

which they are recruited.

 According to Cohen (1997), the recruitment source in which an employee enters a job

may impact significantly upon work outcomes, including turnover. Broadly speaking,

recruitment sources can be divided into two types, namely internal and external. Internal

sources denote employees who are sourced from within the organization while external

sources provide employees from outside the organization. External sources include

candidates sourced through advertisements in various media, public or private employment

agencies, campus recruiting, internet applications, walk-ins, and head hunted candidates.

Internal sources include promotions or demotions (vertical moves), internal job postings

(horizontal moves), employee personnel records, intranet advertisement and referrals.

Empirical evidence indicates that internal candidates are less likely to quit (or will stay for

longer periods) than externally recruited employees. A large number of empirical studies

have confirmed that realistic recruitment does indeed lead to a reduction in turnover.

Many reasons explain why employees withdraw from an organization especially in an

economy where skills are relatively scarce and recruitment is costly, or where it takes several

months to fill vacant positions. Employees voluntarily resign their appointment in

organizations for various reasons which can be classified into two: push and pull factors. The

pull factors include the attraction of a new job especially in a growing economy with many

job opportunities or resignation by employees from an organization to go into private

business. In such cases, it is the availability of alternative jobs that attracts an employee to

withdraw from a particular organization. Sherratt, (2000) also explains that the push factors

may be dissatisfaction with the present job that makes an employee to seek alternative

employment elsewhere. Sometimes it is a matter of both the pull and the push factors.

However, some reasons for leaving are entirely explained by domestic circumstances outside

the control of any employer, as is the case when employees relocate with their spouse or

partners.
Although money may not be the most important consideration in the turn over intent of some

skilled employees nevertheless money remains an important factor in turnover decisions. He

argues that skilled employees need to earn a competitive package and also have the

opportunity to earning human resource based bonuses.

They will want their efforts to be rewarded and to have a fair share of the organization’s

success in monetary terms. This argument also reflects the outcome of research findings by

who found that although money may no longer be the most important motivator among career

professionals, nevertheless it remains a good combination in the retention equation.

According to Birt et al (2004), variables such as the need for organizational provision

of resources to help employee cope with stress, attention to the physical work environment

(in terms of facilities, office space, storage space, and car park) and the negative influence of

corporate these factors in the retention policies and review influence from time to time as

employees needs are dynamic and changes over time.

Managers have to be innovative and productive in developing strong recruitment and

retention policies that will position their organizations as employers of first choice. Such

retention policies should be checked for both internal and external equities to ensure fairness

in the system. Organizations should be open and reasonably disclose issues such as working

conditions, pay structure, opportunities of human resource and other conditions of

employment to job applicants during previews. This will assist prospective employees to

make up their minds on whether or not they want to accept a job offer from the organization

rather than getting on board only to discover a gap between the reality in their employment

terms and their career goals. When this happens, employees feel dissatisfied with their jobs

and subsequently leave the organization (Patron, 2004).

2.2.2 STAFF TRAINING

According to Mondy (1996), training is the process of teaching skills and presents

employees or beneficiaries with the skills they need to perform their jobs. It consists of those

activities which are designed to improve individual performances in currently held jobs or

one related to it. It was thus aimed at helping employees to do their present jobs influence.

Strategies and development programs are designed to educate employees beyond their

requirements of their current position so that they are prepared for a broader and more

challenging role in the organization. Strategies include in-house courses, coaching, seminars,

job rotation and professional programmes. The ultimate aim is to enhance the future

performance of the organization itself. The general strategies programme consists of

assessing the company’s needs, appraising the employee performance and the actual

strategies itself. Employee strategies can be said to be any attempt to improve employee

performance by increasing the employee’s ability to perform (Tan, 1995).

According to Noel (1996) employee strategies are a planned and continuous effort by

management to improve employee competence levels and organization’s performance.

However, a distinction is made between strategies and a development. Strategy is short-term

in nature and is usually designed to permit learners to acquire knowledge and skills for their

current jobs. Development on the other hand is long term in nature and aim at developing

employees for a future job assignment within the organization and to solve a problem.

Research has demonstrated that strategic efforts are unlikely to result in positive changes in

job performance, unless the newly trained competencies are transferred to the work

environment (Tan, 1995). As a result there has been an increased effort to understand the

antecedents and consequences of the transfer of strategic process. Noel define transfer of

strategies as the degree to which trainees influence may apply the knowledge, skills and

attitudes gained in the strategies context to their job. This suggests that transfer of strategies
first requires a trainee to learn new job related competencies. By learning, we are referring to

a relatively permanent change in knowledge, skills, and behavior of trainees. After learning

and retaining the strategies content, trainees should transfer the knowledge and skills

acquired to the work context with the intention of improving job performance over time

(Salas, 2000).

Given rapid changes that all organization faces, it is clear that employees must

continue the learning process throughout their careers in order to meet the challenges. This

lifelong learning will require the institute to make an ongoing investment on human resource

development. For the semi-skilled workers, learning management means taking advantage of

continuing educational opportunities. This is important for certified professionals who require

completing a certain number of year’s continuous course to maintain certification. For

managers lifelong learning may include attending management seminars to address new

management approaches (Barker, 2000).

According to Kotler (1997), human resource management has emerged as a set of

people at work. Its central claim is that by matching the size and skill of the workforce to the

productive requirements of the organization and by raising the quality of individual employee

contribution to production, organizations can make significant improvements on their

performance. The environment of an organization refers to the sum total of the factors or

variables that may influence the present and future survival of an organization. The factors

may be internal or external to the organization. Uses the terms societal environment to define

the varying trends and general forces that do not relate directly to the company, but could

impact directly on the company at some point in time. Four of these forces are identified as

economic, technological, legal and political and socio-cultural and demographic forces. The

second type of environment is the task environment that comprises elements directly

influencing the operation and strategy of the organization. These may include labor market,
trade unions, competition and product markets comprising of customers, suppliers and

creditors. The task environment elements are directly linked to the company and are

influenced by societal environment. The strategic management literature describes

environment in more detail (Salas, 2002).

The example has identified two sub-environments in the external environment that

they refer to as the macro and competitive environment. Other writers such as kottler and

Armstrong (2000) use the term remote, operative or industry environment. Variables in the

societal or remote environment affect all organizations in general and are beyond the ability

of an individual organization to control. From a company perspective, strategies and

development of company employees is essential for organizational operation, and

organization advancement from an employee perspective, these same factors are both crucial

for skill development and for career advancement. Retention of employees and the retention

of valued skill sets is important for continued business achievements.

According to Salas (2000), the successful retention of employees leads to knowledge

preservation within the organization. Employee turnover may lead to a loss of human

resource weakening competitive positions. At a company level, mechanisms that allow for

and promote knowledge transfer amongst employees can help minimize the influence of the

loss of skilled staff to other companies. Strategies employees lead to an increased sense of

belonging and benefit, increased employee commitment to the organization and strengthens

the organization competitiveness. Job related tasks; job satisfaction is an important motivator

for employee’s performance and negatively related to turnover. Company commitment to the

strategies and needs of its employees positively affects employee satisfaction leading to an

increase in employee motivation and an increase in retention. Such commitment culminates

in employee exposure to job related strategies leading to better employee morale, an

increased sense of employee achievement and accomplishment and ultimately to an increase

in organizational competitiveness (Kolter, 1997).

2.2.3 ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

All organization have some form of more or less formalized structure which has been defined

by Pfeffer, J. and Velga, J.F (1999) as comprising of all the tangible and regularly occurring

features which help to shape the members “behavior.’’ Structures incorporate a network of

roles and relationships and are there to help in the process of ensuring that collective effort is

explicitly organized to achieve specific ends. Organizations vary in their complexity, but it

was always necessary to divide the overall management task into a variety of activities, to

allocate these activities to the different parts of an organization and to establish means of

controlling, coordinating and integrating them. The structure of an organization can be

regarded as a framework for getting things done. It consists of units, functions, divisions,

departments and formally constituted work teams into which activities related to particular

processes, projects, products, markets, customers, geographical areas or professional

disciplines are grouped together.

The structure indicates who was accountable for directing, coordinating and carrying

out these activities and defines management hierarchies- the chain of command thus spelling

out, broadly, who was responsible to whom for what at each level in the organization.

Structures are usually described in the form of an organizational chart. This places

individuals in boxes that denote their job and their position in the hierarchy and traces the

direct lines of authority (command and control) through the management hierarchies.

Organization charts are vertical in their nature and therefore misrepresent reality. They do not

give any indication of the horizontal and diagonal relationships that exist within the

framework between people in different units or departments, and do not recognize the fact

that within any one hierarchy, commands and control information do not travel all the way
down and up the structure as the chart implies. In practice, information jumps (especially

computer generated information) and managers or team leaders will interact with people at

levels below those immediately beneath them (Sloan, 1963).

Organization charts have their uses as means of defining simplistically who does what

and hierarchical lines of authority. But even in backed up by organization manuals (which no

one reads and which are in any case out of date as soon as they are produced) they cannot

convey how the organization really works. They may for example lead to definition of jobs –

what people are expected to do but they cannot convey the roles these people carry out in the

organization; the parts they play in interacting with others and the ways in which, like actors,

they interpret the parts they are given. There are different types of organizations today that

are either defined by the process or the nature of management (Pfeffer, 1999).

The line and staff organization was the kind favored by the classical theorists

although the term was not so much used today, except when referring to line managers, it still

describes many structures. The line hierarchy in the structure consists of functions and

managers who are directly concerned in achieving the primary purpose of the organization,

for example manufacturing and selling or directing the organization as a whole. ‘Staff’ in

functions such as finance, personnel and engineering provides services to the line to enable

them to get on with their job (Handy’s, 1989).

The process of a divisionalization as described by Sloan (1963) involves structuring

the organization into separate divisions, each concerned with discrete manufacturing, sales,

distribution or service functions, or which providing a particular market. At group

headquarters, functional departments may exist in such areas as finance, planning, personnel,

legal and engineering to provide services to the division and most importantly to exercise a

degree of functional control over their activities. The amount of control exercised will depend

on the extent to which the organization has decided to decentralize authority to strategic
business units positioned close to the markets they serve. Some organizations, especially

conglomerates decentralized most of their activities and retain only a skeletal headquarters

staff to deal with financial control matters, strategic planning, legal issues and sometimes but

not always personnel issues, especially concerned with senior management on an across the

group basis recruitment, development and remuneration.

Matrix organizations are project based. Development design or construction projects

will be controlled by project directors or managers, or in case of a consultancy assignment

will be conducted by project leaders. Project managers will have non permanent staff except

possibly, some administrative/secretarial support. They will draw the members of their

project teams from discipline groups, each of which will be headed up by a director or

manager who is responsible on a continuing basis for resourcing the group, developing and

managing its members and ensuring that they are assigned fully as possible to project teams.

These individuals are assigned to a project team and they will be responsible to the team

leader for delivering the required results, but they will continue to be accountable generally to

the head of their discipline for their overall performance and contribution (Handy’s, 1989).

Flexible organizations may conform broadly to the category of an adhocracy in the

sense that they are capable of adapting quickly to new demands and operate fluidly. They

may be organized along the lines of ‘shamrock’ with core workers carrying out the

fundamental and continuing activities of the organization and contract workers and temporary

staff being employed as required. This is also called a core-periphery organization. An

organization may adopt a policy of numerical flexibility, which means that the number of

employees can be quickly increased or decreased in line with changes in activity levels

(Atkinson, 1984).

An existing structure can influence strategy formulation, for example once a firm

structure is in place it is very difficult and expensive to change, executives may not be able to
modify duties and responsibilities greatly or may not welcome the disruption associated with

the transfer to a new location. Further, there are costs associated with hiring, strategies and

replacing executives, managerial and operating personnel thus strategy cannot be formulated

without considering elements. The type of organizational structure can also strongly influence

a firm’s strategy day to day operation and performance; it can have an important influence on

how it competes in the market place. Mintzberg (1979) states that: organizational structure is

the sum of total of ways in which it divides its labor into distinct tasks and then achieves

coordination between them. An organizational structure referred to the formalized

arrangement of interaction between the responsibility for the tasks, people and resources in an

organization, it was mostly seen as a chart, often a pyramidal chart with positions or titles or

roles in a cascading fashion. Major efforts to improve organization structure seek to reduce

unnecessary control and focus on enhancing core competencies reducing costs and opening

organizations more fully to outside involvement and influence.

According to Cole (2002), the influence of organizational structure can be analyzed

through the five mechanisms of coordination. He states that there must be mutual adjustment

that achieves the coordination of work by the simple process of informal communication.

There must be direct supervision where coordination is achieved by specification set

procedures, programs basically scientific management ideas. There should be standardization

of work outputs. Coordination is achieved by means of output targets and specification like in

management by objectives and the standardization of work skills where coordination was

achieved by strategies staff in specific knowledge and skills.

Influence via feedback was essential to organizational influence Inverness. People

must know where they are and where to go nest in terms of expectation and goals. Feedback

can be reinforcing. If given properly, feedback is appreciated and motivates people to

improve. However in some organizations, supervisors are hesitant to give feedback. This was
mainly due to fear of causing embarrassment, discomfort, fear of an emotional reaction and

inability to handle the reaction. It was crucial that organizations realized how critical

feedback was to organization development. Withholding constructive feedback is likely to

affect efficiency in work (Bennet, 1997).

2.2.4 LEADERSHIP STYLES

Leadership describes the ability to influence, motivate and enable members of an

organization to contribute to the success of an organization. Positive, protective leadership

styles, based upon shared vision and interaction with staff have been demonstrated to increase

staff and patient satisfaction. By contrast, lasses-faire and responsive leadership, with

intervention only when problems occur, result in negative experiences (Doran et al 2004).

Leadership is a key construct in the organizational science and has spawned a large

number of empirical studies over the past fifty years. Leadership strategies ranks among the

most frequently conducted types of strategies in organizations. Industry report of 1997 and

the development of global leaders is seen as one of the central tasks of management

development programs conference board (1996). Leadership is important because it leads to a

number of desired outcomes at the individual, group and organizational levels, for a summary

(Van fleet, 1992).

Over the past fifteen year, much of the focus of leadership research has been on the

class of outstanding leadership theories. Those that takes as their core idea the concept of

charisma, defined early in this century by German sociologist Weber (1947) as the leader’s

authority based on devotion exemplary character and the normative functions or order

revealed by him. Based on this notion, Bass (1985) developed a theory of transformational

leadership style. Transformational leaders motivate their subordinates to perform at a higher

level by inspiring their followers, offering intellectual challenges, paying attention to

individual development needs and thus leading followers to transcend their own self interest
for a higher collective purpose of negotiation, offering subordinates rewards in exchange for

the attainment of specific goals and completion of agreed upon tasks (Bass, 1985). While

transactional leadership with its clear focus on specific goals and agreed upon rewards is

necessary and influence, transformational leadership appeals to effective states such as pride

to be working with a specific supervisor has been shown to exert an augmentation influence

that is to add to the levels of productivity, satisfaction and influence effectiveness associated

with transformational leadership alone. (Avolio, Bass and Jung, 1995).

The first set of research hypothesis is related to differences in leadership style in the United

States and Germany following the theoretical framework of Avolio and Bass (1991) six

leadership dimensions were investigated. Transformational leadership consists of charisma,

inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individual consideration. Charisma

involves gaining respect, trust and confidence towards the leader and transmission of

followers by the leader of a strong sense of mission and a vision of the desired future. A

sample survey item related to this dimension from Avolio, Baas and Jung’s (1995)

multifactor leadership questionnaire was used in the study.

Leadership style typically organization. Managerial and professional employee, for

example receives move and longer strategies than product level employees and leadership

development is focused predominantly on the higher ranks in an organization (industry report

of 1997). Because much of transformational leadership behavior is learned, conference board

(1997) there is a reason to expect that executives, professional employees and production

level workers differ in the ways they are being led. The concept of culture is central to

international work and has been used in HRD to measure country and groups and thus help

explain variance in the behavior of organizations and people. Culture has been

conceptualized as a complex web of norms, values, assumptions, attitudes, and beliefs that

are characteristic of a particular group and that are reinforced and perpetuated through
socialization, strategies, rewards and sanctions. Culture constitutes the successful attempt to

adapt to the external environment. It presents the group’s strategy for survival and it has been

described as the software for the mind (Hofstede, 1988).

Researchers have described a wide variety of categories of cultural dimensions see Lytle and

others (1995), and it is generally accepted that individuals can belong to any number of social

groups, each with its own set of norms and values (Kastova, 1997).

Cultural values are important to leadership behavior because as Hofstede (1998)

pointed out, leadership is a compliment to subordinate ship. Unless leaders are able to fulfill

subordinate’s expectations of what leadership behavior ought to be within the particular

cultural context, leaders will not be influential. The tendency of treating leadership (and other

practices and theories) as a cultural independent characteristic has been labeled by Lawrence

(1994) as ethnocentrism and managerial universalism, namely the erroneous assumption that

theories developed in one culture for instance, the United States would have global validity.

Much of the writing on cultural differences in leadership, however, is anecdotal or conceptual

and relatively few empirical studies have investigated the relationship between culture and

leadership. Gerstner and Day, (1994) compared leadership prototypes across eight countries

and found reliable differences of leadership behavior along cultural dimensions similar to

Hofstede’s power distance, uncertainty, avoidance and individualism. Tayed (1996) reviewed

the record of success and failure of quality circles in several countries and concluded that the

large degree if power distance in Hong Kong resulted in a greater centralization of decision

making and more autocratic management style. Because quality circles rely heavily on active

involvement by all members, reluctance to disagree with a superior made quality circles and

other participative styles of managing less influential in that country.

A conceptual article by Jung, Baas and Sosix (1995) addressed the relationship

between individualism and transformational leadership. They suggested that transformational

leadership processes are likely to be enhanced in countries that are low on individualism

because most subordinates in these cultures have high respect and are obedient towards their

leaders. Production workers, engineers and managers at each site reported similar level of

each leadership style. Although lower level employees, the findings of this study suggest that

leadership is homogenous within each plant. This finding might be explained by the fact that

the organization that was studied ranks among the industry leaders in the telecommunication

industry and invests heavily in supervisory, managerial and leadership development. Further,

the organization employs sophisticated production process that requires a high level of

expertise from frontline workers. Much of the organization’s strategies over the past fifteen

years have been focused on quality management principles such as worker participation,

teamwork and joint decision making and accountability leadership principles such as vision

and mission statements are common among the production employees of this high-tech

organization. Replication and extension of this study in different industries and with

organizations of smaller size are required to assess whether the level of homogeneity of

leadership is common phenomenon or specific to this organization (Cerdin, 2007).

2.3 REVIEW OF CRITICAL LITERATURE AND GAPS TO BE FILLED

According to Steve and Harris (2005) literature reviewed explored different hypothesis

concerning the role of staff training, leadership style employee training and organizational

structure on human resource formulation and strategies. Factors affecting formulation of

human resource strategies was a wide area of coverage because human resource affects many

factors that can be said to influence human resource planning directly.

The determination of human resource formulation strategies in healthcare

organization/institutions has led workers in joining trade unions which are aimed at helping

them in negotiating their pay as well as working conditions. The main importance of human

resource planning was to support the attainment of organizational strategic and short term
objectives by ensuring organization has the skilled, competent, committed and well satisfied

workforce it needs (Robbin, 1985).

According to Saleemi (1989), human resource strategies encourage behavior that will

contribute to achieving of organizational objectives. Human resource formulation helps work

in implementing organization change programmes concerned with the culture, process and

structures. When employees are well trained the organization is able to realize its key values

such as quality, customer care, teamwork, innovation, flexibility and speed of response. But

on the other negative part, failure to such formulation or strategies can result to unskilled

personnel, lack of team work and innovation and slow response which can affect the downfall

of an organization.

Human resource planning consists of organization’s integrated policies, processes and

practices for human resource planning in accordance to their contribution, skills and

competence and their market worth. This means there is no universal standard way of human

resource planning. The weight that is put on one particular factor differs from one

organization to the other. The same person may have that same qualification but the

management structure he gets differs from every organization. Every job in an organization is

important. This was because each job helps in achieving organization goals and mission.

When it comes to human resource planning, there are usually very great differences in

different jobs. This makes those getting lower human resource planning to be dissatisfied.

Though human resource planning is a very important motivating factor, it is not always the

only motivating instrument. Other factors of satisfaction like promotion, recognition need to

be included (Richard, 2005).

2.4 SUMMARY OF THE STUDY

Human resource planning consists of organization integrated policies, process and practices

for human resource planning in accordance to their contribution, skills, competence and
market worth. Human resource planning consist of basic pay and additional to basic pay such

as individual human resource planning related costs, bonuses, incentives, commissions,

competence related pay and allowances. The major factors that determine pay levels include

ability of organization to pay, job evaluation, trade unions, government legislation and labor

market conditions. It was important to plan in order for the organization to attain its strategic

and long term objectives. Human resource planning also encourages behavior that will

contribute to the achievement of organization objectives and also implementing change

programmes concerned with culture, process and structure. When organization reward

employees it’s able to realize its key values such as quality, customer care, team work,

flexibility and speed of response.

According to Mc Gregor Theory X, it can be concluded that the employees must be

persuaded, rewarded, punished and controlled to get them to put their efforts towards the

achievement of the organizational goals. Human resource planning is most effective in this

theory and its mostly lower levels. In theory Y it’s stated that there is no need to. Create a

condition such that a member of the organization can achieve his or her goals and which

employees can achieve self-control, sense of achievement and competence. In Herzberg Two-

factor theory, it can be concluded that job environment e.g. salary generally makes the

workers feel dissatisfied and this helps the management identify the kind of human resource

planning which could be offered to employees in order to satisfy them and work towards

achievement of organizational goals.

No simple generalizations of relative determinants of factor affecting formulation of

human resource plans in health organizations are possible. It must therefore be noted that

importance of determinants of factors affecting formulation of human resource plans in health

organizations would vary across different human resource planning gaps. In this view this

research explores the influence of the dimensions of factors affecting human resource plans
in health organization on satisfaction from customer perspective in the organization. This

research therefore will fill the gap by entering on how the factors influence or affect human

resource plans in health organizations.

2.5

FIG 2.1 SCHEMATIC PRESENTATION OF THE FRAMEWORK

Independent Variables

Employee retention

Staff training
Human resource planning in

Organization structure health organizations

Leadership style

Source: Author (2013)

2.5.1 EMPLOYEE RETENTION

Employee retention was about managing and retaining talented employees using innovative

retention programs. The main purpose of retention was to prevent the loss of competent

employees from the organization, which could have adverse influence on human resource and

service delivery. Also, retention allows senior and line managers to attract and influence that

retention of critical skills and high performing employees.

2.5.2 STAFF TRAINING

Training was a process of developing skills, knowledge and ability to improve the present

and future performance. Strategies improved proficiency and enabled a person to qualify for

promotion and it was supposed to be a continuous exercise. Therefore the purpose off

strategies was to improve knowledge, skills and change attitudes. This led to many potential

benefits for both the individual and the business.

2.5.3 ORGANZIATIONAL STRUCTURE

Organizational structure was less rigid and enables prompt decision making process which

was vital for the enhancement of influence human resource planning in health organizations.

Customers are usually very important when it comes to lost time. Strategic policies of the

organization that are user friendly could go along way into enhancing influence of human

resource planning in the health organization. Organization structure increased bureaucracy

which is the greatest impediment to the provision of efficient services to customers.

2.5.4 LEADERSHIP STYLES

Leadership was the aspect of influencing people’s behavior towards a certain goal. It largely

entails motivating, aspiring unlike using formal authority to direct people’s actions; a great

leadership style will encourage staff strategies in order to motivate the staff in the

organization. A great leader knows the power of staff empowerment and he takes employees

as partners unlike workers and as such will invest in the welfare of staff that they grow in

competitiveness and proficiency which translates into organizational success.

CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH AND DESIGN METHODOLOGY

3.1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents the methodology, which was used to carry out the study, the targeted

population and sampling methods and the techniques that were used to select the sample size.

It also described how data was collected and analyzed

3.2 STUDY DESIGN

Descriptive research design will be used in the study. It will be applied to obtain information

concerning a circumstance with respect to variables or conditions in a situation. It involves

data collection where a researcher involves a population of interest to enquire certain issues

concerning the planned study. The objective is to gather data without any manipulation of the

research context and it’s non-intrusive and involves naturally occurring phenomena, where

the researcher has no control over the variables (Sanders, 1997).

3.3 TARGET POPULATION

Target population is that population to which a researcher wants to generalize the results of

the study. Target population is defined by Borg and Crall (1989) as a universal set of the

study of all members of real or hypothetical set of people, events or objects to which an

investigator wishes to generalize the result. The target population of the study was as follows:
TABLE 3.1 TARGET POPULATION

POPULATION TARGET POPULATION PERCENTAGE

Top management 8 9
Middle management 20 22
Support staff 62 69
TOTAL 90 100
Source: Author (2013)

3.4 SAMPLING DESIGN

According to Kuul (1984), sampling is the process by which a relatively small number of

individuals, objects or events is selected and analyzed in order to find out something about

the entire population from which it was selected. A sample is a small proportion of targeted

population selected using some systematic form. Due to the nature of the study the researcher

used stratified random sampling technique because it enabled the generalization of a larger

population with a margin for error that was statistically determinable and also gives the

employees equal opportunity to participate (Mugenda and Mugenda, 1999). The sample size

will be as follows:

63%

TABLE 3.2 SAMPLE SIZE

DEPARTMENT TARGET SAMPLE SIZE OF 50 PERCENTAGE

POPULATION TARGETED POPULATION
Top management 8 6 9
Middle management 20 10 22
Support staff 62 34 69
90 50 100
Source: Author (2013)
3.5 DATA COLLECTION

A questionnaire with pre-determined questions was given to the respondents. This was hand

delivered and collected after a few days. The types of questions that will be sued included

both open and closed ended. Close ended questions were used to ensure that the given

answers were relevant. The researcher phrased the questions clearly in order to make clear

dimensions along which respondents would be analyzed. In open ended questions, space was

provided for relevant explanation by the respondent, thus giving them freedom to express

their feelings. This method was considered influential to the study in that it enabled

confidentiality. The presence of the researcher was not required as the questionnaire was self-

administered. The researcher collected data from primary and secondary sources. Primary

data was collected through questionnaires while secondary data was collected mainly from

literature, library books, and periodicals among other sources. Before data collection the

questionnaire was piloted and corrections made.

3.5.1 VALIDITY/ RELAIBILITY OF RESEARCH INSTUMENTS

The researcher obtained permission from relevant departmental authority to circulate

questionnaires. To ensure reliability and validity the researcher pre-tested the questionnaire

on ten respondents. These respondents were not included in the final study. The questionnaire

was then corrected before the final distribution.

3.6 DATA ANALYSIS METHODS

After the data collection and before analysis, all the questionnaires schedule were adequately

checked for reliability and validity. The data will be analyzed using qualitative and

quantitative techniques, this involves creating descriptive statistics namely percentages and

frequencies, the data was presented using tables and figures. According to Baily (1984), data
analysis procedures includes the process of packaging the collected information putting in

order and structuring its main components in a way that the findings can be easily read and

influence their communication. After the fieldwork, before analysis, all questionnaires were

adequately checked for reliability and validity. Editing, coding and tabulation will be carried

out.
QUESTIONNAIRE

Please answer the following by ticking or as appropriate, answers given will be used for

academic purposes only by the Kenya institute of management.

SECTION 1; GENERAL INFORMATION

1. Gender (a) Male [ ] (b) Female [ ]

2. Age in years

18 – 29 [ ]

30 – 49 [ ]

50 and above [ ]

3. What is your highest level of education?

a) Primary [ ]

b) Secondary [ ]

c) Graduate [ ]

d) Post graduate [ ]

4. What is your marital status

a) Single [ ]

b) Married [ ]

c) Divorced [ ]

SECTION 2: EMPLOYEE RETENTION

5. How would you rate employee retention effect in the organization?

a) Excellent [ ]

b) Good [ ]

c) Fair [ ]
 d) Poor [ ]

e) Others……………………………………………………………………………

6. In your view do you think employee retention would affect human resource planning

in health organization?

a) Yes [ ]

b) No [ ]

Explain……………………………………………………………………………..

SECTION 3: LEADERSHIP STYLE

7. How would you rate leadership style effect in your organization?

a) Excellent [ ]

b) Good [ ]

c) Fair [ ]

d) Poor [ ]

8. Do you think leadership style has an effect on human resource planning in health

organization?

a) Yes [ ]

b) No [ ]

Explain……………………………………………………………………………….
 SECTION 4: ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE

9. How would you rate organization structure effect?

a) Excellent [ ]

b) Good [ ]

c) Fair [ ]

d) Poor [ ]

Specify……………………………………………………………………………

10. Do you think organization structure has an effect on human resource planning in

health organization?

e) Yes [ ]

f) No [ ]

11. Generally how would you describe human resource planning in health organization in

your organization?

…………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

Section 5: STAFF TRAINING

12. How would you rate staff training effect on human resources planning in health

organization?

a) Excellent [ ]

b) Good [ ]

c) Fair [ ]

d) Poor [ ]

e) Others (specify)……………………………………………………………………
13. Do you think staff training has an effect on human resource planning in health

organization?

a) Yes [ ]

b) No [ ]

Explain……………………………………………………………………