Influence of Career Development on Performance of Local Non-Governmental Organizations in Kenya

Abstract

Career development in the recent past has received more attention not only as a concern for the management of human resources, but also as institutional strategic management component for ensuring performance and growth. The purpose of this study therefore was to establish the career development practices on performance of local non-governmental organizations in Kenya. The unit of analysis was the employees working with these local non-governmental organizations. A sample of two hundred and ten employees was drawn from the population. The study used purposive and stratified sampling to sample ten local non-governmental organizations from which simple random sampling was used to get the sample size. The study adopted a cross sectional design. The main instrument for collecting primary data was a questionnaire. Each participating organization filled ten questionnaires. Descriptive and Inferential analysis were used to determine the strength of association between career development and organizational performance. The findings revealed that career development has a significant effects on internal business and significantly contributes to performance of Non-Governmental Organizations. Based on the findings and conclusions, the study recommends that there is need for the NGOs to have well documented human resource plans as well as mechanisms to operationalize them; this should be done with the participation of all the staff and frequent feedback taken for possible modifications. There is need for top management to be sensitized on the potential influence of human resource planning and organizational performance to win their commitment and support.