Moderating effect of Government Policies on Relationship between shared Responsibility and Service Delivery by County Government Workers in Kenya

Abstract

Shared responsibility means that everyone gives a little and everyone benefits. It is a win-win situation for all the members and the community as a whole. It is a participative leadership whereby the manager tries to encourage and facilitate the subordinates so that they make decisions that otherwise would have been done by the managers. The leaders attempt to make subordinates participation happen by partly asking for advice, asking the group to commonly discuss and make a decision and leaving the entire decision to the group and taking responsibility for the group outcome. The leaders should be courageous to approach leadership as a collective effort so that the response is rapid and efficient. This study attempted to examine the influence of share responsibility on service delivery by county government workers in Kenya. The data used was delivered from 228 senior county government officers drawn from five Counties in Lower Eastern region of Kenya. Service delivery was to be measured by use of the following indicators; provision of water, quality health services, adequate food production, presence of county roads and provision of quality education. Multiple regression was used to analyse the data. The study found significant positive influence of shared responsibility on service delivery by county government workers in Kenya. The study findings further revealed that the moderating variable which was government policies on resource distribution, monitoring and evaluation did not have significant influence on the independent variable which was shared responsibility that influenced dependent variable the service delivery. Based on the finding the paper concluded that there was moderately strong correlation between shared responsibility and service delivery. This study recommends that the county governments need to increase shared responsibility strategies and enforce them to achieve better service delivery. This should be supported by presence of clear work guidelines and organizational structure that enhances delegation and empowerment of all workers to put in all their best when offering their services to the county residents.