Effect of Employee Focused Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives on Performance of Sugar Manufacturing Firms in

This paper sought to establish the effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives that target employees on the performance of sugar manufacturing firms in Kenya. Using a sample of two hundred and forty five employees from sugar manufacturing firms (n = 245), the study specifically examined the effect of provision of housing for employees, work safety arrangements, insurance of workers and motivation schemes on the performance of such firms over the years 2008 to 2012.The study employed descriptive causal survey research design. The study targeted a total of 2450 employees. A sample of 245 employees was selected through simple random to participate in the study. The research utilized both primary and secondary data collection instruments. Reliability and validity of the data collection tools was established through cronbach alpha test and expert analysis respectively. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 20. Descriptive and inferential statistical tools including mean, standard deviation, one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) of 95 % confidence, Pearson Correlation Coefficient regression analysis were used and the results were presented in tables. The findings showed that there is a positive statistically significant linear correlation between practicing employee oriented CSR activities and business performance of sugar manufacturing firms in Kenya. On the basis of these findings, it is recommended that managers, investors of sugar manufacturing firms as well as the interested parties in sugar firms should proactively utilise employee oriented CSR activities to improve employee performance as well as the performance of the sugar firms