A Study of the Intervening Effect of Political Stability on the Relationship between Performance Contracting and Measurement, and Public Service Delivery in Kenya

Abstract

The performance of public agencies is influenced and affected by many factors, both internal and external. The internal factors are in many cases controllable, while external factors tend to fall outside the control of public sector managers. Moreover, the effect may serve to ameliorate performance or intervene to weaken performance and thereby adversely affect delivery of services. This paper explored the intervening effect of political stability, an external factor, on the relationship between performance contracting and measurement, and public service delivery (expressed as customer satisfaction) in Kenya. The study was based on the results of measurement and evaluation of the performance of 470 public agencies that operated under performance contracts between 2004 and 2011. Using regression analysis, it was found initially that on its own, political stability had no significant relationship with or influence on customer satisfaction. It however had an effect on the relationship between performance contracting, measurement and public service delivery, where a unit change in political stability contributed negatively to customer satisfaction by a factor of 0.257, though not statistically significant. Correlation analysis established further that social chaos and turmoil, which result in political instability, negatively impact the attractiveness of a country in the global arena.