Effects of Reward Strategies on Employee Performance at Kabete Technical Training Institute, Nairobi, Kenya

The main objective this study was to investigate the effects of reward strategies on employee performance at Kabete Technical Training Institute (KTTI). The study was guided by four specific objectives: To determine the extent to which personal drive for achievement influences employee performance at KTTI; to determine how growth opportunities influence employee performance at KTTI; to establish the extent to which recognition influences employee performance at KTTI; to establish the extent to which staff promotion influences employee performance at KTTI. The study reviewed several theories of motivation as possible avenues towards a framework of understanding what motivates employees. It also conducted an empirical literature review in order to establish a link with similar past studies. A stratified random sampling technique was used to select a sample of 159 respondents from a target population of 270 employees. The study adopted a descriptive research design and utilized both primary and secondary data. Structured and unstructured questionnaires were used to collect primary data while secondary data was collected through document review. Data analysis was carried out using both qualitative and quantitative techniques with the aid of SPSS while the main method of data presentation was frequency distribution, pie charts, graphs and cross tabulation. The study found a significant relationship between the reward strategies and employee work performance. The study concluded that personal need for achievement played a key role in influencing employee performance and given a choice employees showed preference for promotion, better remuneration, cash gifts and training opportunities as reward strategies. The study recommends that KTTI should: Leverage on the intrinsic motivation factors by providing a working environment that encourages employees sense of achievement; develop and maintain a training policy for all categories of employees; establish a criterion for recognizing employee performance to ensure the whole process of reward strategy is deemed fair by all employees; design an attractive scheme of service that will also enhance retention and have a structured method of identifying and recommending teachers for promotion by the Teachers Service Commission; finally, the research study recommends a similar research study on the negative effects of reward strategies to avoid a situation where they can backfire and bring exactly the opposite of the desired behavior. Keywords: Motivation, Reward, Reward Management, KTTI, Reward policies, Performance contract, TVET, Extrinsic rewards, intrinsic rewards,