THE EFFECT OF THE GROUP LEADER’S CONFLICT MANAGEMENT SKILLS ON PERFORMANCE OF THE GROUPS FUNDED BY WOMEN ENTERPRISE FUND IN KIAMBU COUNTY IN KENYA
IRENE KIBATI
Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture
and Technology, Kenya (JKUAT).
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DR KABARE KARANJA
Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture
and Technology, Kenya (JKUAT)
DR GEORGE ORWA
Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture
and Technology, Kenya (JKUAT)
Citation: Kibati., I, Karanja., K. & Orwa., G. (2015).The Effect of the Group Leader’s Motivation Skills on Performance of the Groups Funded by Women Enterprise Fund in Kiambu County in Kenya. European Journals of Business Management 2 (12) 1-14.
ABSTRACT
A Women’s Enterprise Fund (WEF) was established by the government in 2007 to provide women with access to financial services for their economic empowerment. The sustainability of the fund is crucial to enable the government realize the 5th Sustainable Development Goals on gender equality and empowerment of women and Vision 2030 which is a flagship project in recognition of the critical role women play in socio-economic development. Therefore, the establishment of effective and efficient leadership skills among women group leaders in the fund is critical for the performance of these groups since leadership is considered a critical indicator of organizational and group success.
This study sought to establishthe effects of the group leader’s conflict management skills on performance of the women groups. The target population for group members was 53 women groups. The sample size used was 307 respondents. Simple random sampling was used. Primary data was used and questionnaires were used to collect data. The data collected was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics usingIBM SPSS Statistics 20.0.1. The inferential statistics involved the use of Pearson’s correlation and mlogit. The results indicated that leader conflict managementskills have an influence on the Women Enterprise group’s performance.A collaborative conflict management culture has a positive effect on job satisfaction whereas a dominant management culture has a negative effect on job satisfaction. Collaborative conflict management culture is characterized by conflict management norms of cooperation and open discussion of the issues surrounding conflicts. Underlying this conflict culture is the assumption that individuals have agency to deal openly with conflict. Unlike in the dominant culture, cooperative behavior and actions which best serve the interests of the group as a whole are rewarded. An avoidant conflict management culture is characterized by conflict.
The estimated M-Logit model is established to be significant as indicated by a chi-square statistic of 9.328 with 1 degree of freedom. This is further supported by a significance level of less than 0.05 critical value (p-value= 0.002). The results of the Nagelkerke R2 (0.058) indicates that the variations in the dependent variable that is Women Enterprise group’s performance is explained by the variation in conflict management skills which is the independent variable to the extent of 5.8%. The multinomial regression results also indicated that the log odds of a unit increase in conflict management skills of the group leader multiplies the odds of the Women Enterprise group’s performance being high than being of average performance by 3.367 as indicated by the exponential beta results (Exp(B)= 3.367). An increase in conflict management skills increases the probability of having high firm performance by 3.367 times. The findings imply that those women’s groups with leaders with good conflict management skills have higher chances of having higher firm performance as compared to those without or with low conflict management skills.
The study concludes that there exists a positive and significant relationship between group leaders’ conflict management skills and performance of the women groups.It is therefore recommended that WEF should put in place a conflict management policy that will guide the women groups on early conflict intervention to promote group performance. The policy should encourage groups to embrace a co-operative approach that encourages members to solve conflicts together to enhace cohesion and guidelines on how to handle conflicts in their groups. WEF should also sensitize leaders on the importance of listening to members’ views during conflict for group performance.
Key words: conflict management skills, performance, women groups
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