Relationship between Compensation Disparity Factors and Job Satisfaction among Civil Servants: A Survey of Government Institutions in Nairobi County, Kenya

Abstract

The objective of the study was to determine the relationship the relationship between compensation disparity factors and job satisfaction among the civil servants in government institutions in Nairobi County, Kenya. It focused on employee on employee rank, level of education, working experience and career advancement. A descriptive research design survey of a stratified random sample of 100 respondents drawn from a target population 237 was conducted in five government ministries and four parastatals in Nairobi County using questionnaires for data collection. The collected data was analyzed using quantitative techniques comprising descriptive and inferential statistics. It was found that the level of education, employee rank, job experience and career development were compensation disparity factors, which means that compensation was differentiated based on these factors and that the four factors were positively and significantly correlated with compensation disparity as perceived civil servants. Further, only job experience based compensation differentiation significantly (β=0.8, p<0.001) influenced job satisfaction while the level of education, employee rank and career advancement compensation disparity factors did not significantly (p> 0.05 for all coefficients) influence job satisfaction in the civil service at 5% significance level . Besides, the combination of the four factors significantly explain about 30% of variation in job satisfaction. It is recommended that there be harmonization of salaries by civil service for all civil servants in parastatals and the ministries, and across the job groups. Further, the civil service should review the ranking of employees to ensure promotion on merit and that opportunity should be provided to civil servants to advance their education hence career. Similarly, the number of years the employee has worked should be considered when deciding the compensation in government institutions since it was found to be the most influential compensation disparity factor in predicting job satisfaction. These findings have important implications for the Kenya's salary and remuneration commission regarding compensation policies, and for the human resource managers in government ministries and parastatals in their effort to appropriately motivate staff for high performance.