Organization Social Practice and Performance in the Kenya National Police Service: A Case of Central Police Division, Nairobi

Abstract

The National Police Service of Kenya has gone through numerous transformations which are aimed at making it more effective and socially aligned to the needs of the Kenyan population. The transformation has seen the renaming of the policing unit from Kenyan Police Force to its current name. The Strategy such as renaming the institution to National Police Service implies that the institution is improving its commitment to improve service delivery to the citizens in a favorable social framework. However, minimal studies have been done to determine the existence of any relationship between organizational social practices and performance of the police institution. Therefore, the current study was formulated to establish the influence of organizational social practices on the performances of the National Police Service. The independent variables of the study included leadership style, organization structure, professionalism, and organization politics. Practice and system theories were reviewed alongside relevant sources of empirical literatures were reviewed to give the current studies sound theoretical and empirical foundations. Descriptive research design was used to guide collection, analysis, and interpretation of the research data. Semi-structured questionnaires were used to collect quantitative and qualitative data was collected from 150 police officers who were purposively sampled from Central Police Division in Nairobi County. A combination of descriptive and inferential analyses were performed to establish the current trends of the study variables and relationships thereof. The study found out that the respondents were in agreement with almost statements on the four organizational social practices including leadership style, organization structure, and professionalism and organization politics. Leadership style and professionalism were established to have the highest impact (0.300; p= 0.000) and the least impact (0.093; p=0.000) respectively. Organization politics, on the other hand had a significant negative impact (-0.254; p=0.001) on the NPS performance. The study concludes that the main belief or attitude influencing leadership style is the perceived manager versus subordinates’ role. Effective decision making is improved by decentralization, narrow control span and efficiency relate positively, task routine positively and negatively affect productivity. A respectful culture is fostered by professionalism, which ensure proper handling of conflicts. Boundaries are clearly understood and minor issues solve efficiently and respectfully by professional employees. Workers are motivated with the hope that there won’t be hampering of their interest due to existence of organizational politics. Employee’s indiscipline may be resisted by the organizational politics’ help. The study recommends that transactional and transformative leadership be embraced by national police service to assist in tapping the workers’ potential, they should be involved in making decisions and new idea be welcomed into the system for positive contribution to the entities’ exponential performance. National police service should adopt an efficient, simple and universally accepted organizational structure. Employees at national police service should exercise workplace expectations and rules by following all workplace rules, completing all projects and tasks and understanding what is expected of them. Delegation of duties depending on employees’ academic achievements, specialization and interests. Transparency must be maintained at all levels to reduce politics.