Effects Of Labor Relations Strategies On Employee Retention Among Medical Practitioners In The County Governments In Kenya: A Case Study Of Kirinyaga County

Abstract

As a result of the transfer of healthcare functions to county governments, they have been facing the challenge of retaining their medical practitioners who either join the private hospitals, start their own private hospitals and clinics or immigrate to other countries in search of greener pastures. The study’s primary focus was to analyze the effects of labor relation strategies on employee retention among medical practitioners in Kirinyaga County. The specific objective was to determine the effects of industrial action on employee retention. The study was anchored on Marxist theory. A descriptive research design was employed. Krejcie and Morgan tables and stratified random sampling were utilized to come up with a sample size of 272 respondents from a population of 930 medical practitioners. Primary data was collected through questionnaires from selected respondents while secondary data was sourced from Kirinyaga County website and database. Multiple regression using SPSS (version 24) was used to determine the effect of industrial action on employee retention. The coefficient of correlation (r= 0.751) indicated that there was a strong positive relationship between industrial action and employee retention. The coefficient of determination (R2 = 0.564) indicated that 56.4% of the variations in employee retention were caused by industrial action. The study concluded that industrial action affected retention of medical practitioners in Kirinyaga County and recommended Kirinyaga County Government to put in place policies to handle strikes and carefully address the pressing issues raised by the medical practitioners in their fight for better pay and working conditions. Keywords: Employee retention, Industrial action, Kirinyaga County Government, Medical practitioners