Factors Influencing Employee Job Satisfaction and Its Impact On Employee Performance: A Case of Unilever Kenya

The purpose of the study was to determine the factors that influence employee job satisfaction in Kenyan Organizations. The following research questions guided this study: What are the extrinsic factors that influence the level of employee job satisfaction in Unilever Kenya? What are the intrinsic factors that influence the level of job satisfaction in an organization? What impact does job satisfaction have on the level of employee performance? A descriptive research design was adopted, with Unilever Kenya being the focus organization. The population of interest was the employees of Unilever Kenya across various functions and divisions since this was the company under study. The study population comprised a total of 796 employees from all the various organizational functions or divisions. Stratified random sampling technique wasused to draw a sample size of 92 respondents. The data collection instrument was a tailor-made structured questionnaire developed by the researcher, specifically for this study. Data was analyzed using statistical methods that is, descriptive statistics; measures of central tendency such as mean, mode, and median, and measures of dispersion such as variance, standard deviation, range, percentiles, and quartiles, and inferential statistics (T-test was used to determine the factors that influence job satisfaction and its impact on employee performance. Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) version 21 was used to facilitate the data analysis. The results were presented in tables and charts such as pie charts, and bar graphs. The findings obtained show that extrinsic factors have a strong influence on employee job satisfaction. There was a 92.1% total cumulative agreement from respondents that their job satisfaction is influenced by extrinsic factors. The level of agreement in relation to the individual extrinsic factors was as follows (working environment 55.5%, remuneration structure75%, team cooperation 50.5%, leadership style 85.8%, nature of the job 78.9%, Co-workers 56.7%, Job security 76.6%, promotion opportunities 78.5%). iv The findings show that intrinsic factors have a strong impact on employee job satisfaction. There was a 92.1% total cumulative agreement from respondents that intrinsic factors influence their job satisfaction. The level of agreement for the individual intrinsic factors was as follows (employee autonomy 57.1%, Recognition 80%, work meaningfulness 80%, training and development 54.5%, responsibility 85.9%, participation level of employee 71.1%, contribution to vision and mission 85.5% employee attainment of performance feedback 62.2%). Findings on the impact of job satisfaction on employee performance show that job satisfaction has astrong impact on employee performance. There was a 91% total cumulative agreement from respondents that their performance is impacted by their job satisfaction. The results in relation to the individual impacts are as follows (Absenteeism 44.5%, Quality of work 86.7%, quantity of work 91.1%, safety practices 40%, timeliness 71.1%, employee creativity 81.1%, cost-effectiveness 52.2%, adherence to company 70% and employee meeting of company set objectives 92.2%). Conclusion was made that although all the extrinsic factors analysed had an influence on employee job satisfaction; leadership style, remuneration structure, nature of the job and job security had the strongest influence. Among all the intrinsic factors, it was concluded that the level of responsibility at work, Recognition, work meaningfulness and the extent to which employees believe their work has a significant contribution to the organisation‟s vision and mission had the strongest influence on job satisfaction. Among all the impacts of job satisfaction on employee performance that were under study, the ones which ranked highest were; impact on quantity of work, impact on quality, impact on creativity and impact of job satisfaction on ability of employee to meet company set objectives. The researcher recommends that the extrinsic factors where emphasis should be based areleadership style, remuneration structure, nature of the job and job security. The intrinsic factors where much emphasis is recommended includelevel of responsibility at work, Recognition, work meaningfulness and the extent to which employees believe their work has a significant contribution to the organisation‟s vision and mission.It was recommended that if these are parameters that the company values, then they should ensure that they keep their employee‟s job satisfaction high through the various factors that influence job satisfaction as were discussed in the study