The Influence of Intellectual Stimulation of Judicial Officers on the Performance of Judicial Staff in Kenya

Abstract

Purpose: Across all sectors of the society, leadership is pivotal in ensuring that organizational goals and objectives are achieved as well as its continuity. Moreover, the type of leadership style has a significant contribution on an organization’s performance and overall success. One such leadership style, that most scholars have attributed with good performance in organizations, is transformational leadership. Transformational leadership has different components that, in aggregate, lead to better performance and success of organizations. One such component that is exhibited by leaders who are transformational, is intellectual stimulation. It is based on this influence of transformational leadership in organizations and its people that motivated this study. The study set to find out the influence of intellectual stimulation of judicial officers on the performance of judicial staff in Kenya.Methodology: Descriptive correlational research design was used in the study to find out the degree, direction and the significance of influence of individualized consideration on the performance of judicial staff. The target population of the study consisted of 770 judicial staff in the Kenyan Judiciary. The study used stratified random sampling technique to select 385 judicial staff from High Courts and Magistrate Courts in Nairobi County. Bivariate correlations were used to establish the relationship between the study variables, while one-way ANOVA was used to examine variability. Besides, the strength of association between the variables was determined using Chi-square tests.Findings: The study found that intellectual stimulation of judicial officers significantly influenced the performance of judicial staff, r (312) = 0.679, p< .05; r (312) = 0.685, p< .05; r (312) = 0.630, p< .05. The study found out that intellectual stimulation of judicial officers did positively and significantly influence the performance of judicial staff in Kenya.Policy recommendation: The study recommends that to improve judicial staff performance, judicial officers should be innovative on efficient ways of completing work duties, should encourage creativity in solving work-related problems, and appreciate staffs who are inquisitive and seek to know more.