Sugar Manufacturing Firms in Western Kenya

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the community focused CSR activities on employee motivation. A number of past studies done in the western world have established that there is a significant relationship between the CSR activities in the company and employee motivation. However, studies that support these propositions in an African setting and specifically Kenya are scarce. This paper therefore investigated the effect of community focused corporate social responsibility activities on the motivation of employees in sugar manufacturing firms in the western Kenya region.

Design/methodology/approach – The study employed a descriptive survey and correlation designs. Stratified random sampling was used to obtain a sample of 306 respondents from the research population. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect primary data. Data was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistical tools with the help of the SPSS software 20.0. Reliability and internal consistency of the study was tested using Cronbach's alpha.

Findings - The results from the hypothesis testing indicated that there is a significant positive association between the community focused CSR activities and employee motivation. The study also sought to establish associations existing between the community focused CSR activities and different indicators of employee motivation in the company as identified by intrinsic motivation theories and the findings of the study pointed at there being positive associations. Five indicators of employee motivation namely job satisfaction, job achievement, job responsibility, job recognition and job growth were correlated with the community focused CSR activities in the company and the findings clearly showed some significant positive associations among the variables. Only two indicators of employee motivation which are job recognition and job growth showed some low associations between them and the community focused CSR activities in the company.

Originality/value – This paper addresses an important area that is under-researched academically and provides a basis for further research on the relationship between the CSR activities and employee motivation.