The Influence Of Job Evaluation On The Wage Bill In Public Sector Organizations

Abstract

Public service is the main driver of growth for most developing countries. It is a key component because it facilitates the delivery of services to the citizens. However, despite the efforts to grow the economy and deliver quality services, there are challenges with the costs associated with ever-increasing public sector wages. Although a well-paid public sector could be more efficient, the wage bill should be maintained at fiscally sustainable levels to enable the achievement of development goals. Kenya like other developing countries has been grappling with the management of costs associated with wages in the public sector, which were growing at an alarming rate. This is mainly because of the large number of employees, arbitrary determination of wages and implementation of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010. This study will seek to examine the influence of human resource strategies for managing the public sector wage bill in Kilifi County, Kenya. The study will particularly focus on human resource strategies such as job evaluation, total rewards, and performance-related pay and their influence on the management of the public sector wage bill in public sector organizations within Kilifi County. These public sector organizations are expected to be implementing these strategies although the degree of implementation may be varying. The study will, therefore, seek to find out the extent to which their application influences the management of the wage bill costs to a manageable level. The study will also examine the theories associated with wage management. The theories of equity, efficiency wage, and public sector motivation will be examined to determine their influence on the management of wages in the public sector. Questionnaires will be developed and self-administered to the human resource management professionals in the public sector organizations. This will enable the Researcher to capture perceptions of the application of these strategies in their organizations. Their in-depth understanding of the human resource strategies being studied will be useful to the study. The study design will be a survey of the 52 government organizations within Kilifi County thus the target population for the survey will be a census of the 52 public sector organizations. The sampling method applied will be purposive thus the HR professionals will be the respondents. The data collected will be analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) which will be used to establish the relationship between the independent variables and the dependent variable. The findings of the study will be presented in the form of tables, charts and statistical measures such as an analysis of variance