The role of employee incentives on performance: a survey of public hospitals in Kenya

Abstract

The paper attempts to examine the role of employee incentives on performance in public hospitals in Kenya. In the recent past professionals in public hospitals in Kenya have participated in strikes meant to agitate for an improvement of their overall compensation system. This has been complicated further by the existing public outcry over the questionable quality and nature of healthcare services offered at the public health facilities. The study adopted a descriptive approach based on a correlation design with emphasis on a cross-sectional survey, by considering employee incentives as an independent variable and performance as a dependent variable respectively. The findings revealed that employee incentives played a key role in enhancing performance at both individual and organizational levels, while providing an opportunity for initiatives which are deemed to be instrumental in merging theory and practice in human resource management and development in the public health sector.