Influence of leadership practices on employee development in the Presbyterian church of east Africa: a case of eastern region, Kenya

Abstract

The Church has an elaborate employee structure that makes it possible to achieve her mission. The practice of Church leadership is key to the growth and development of the employees. However, little information regarding leadership practices that influence employee development in the Kenyan context exists. Specifically, the study examined the influence of leaders’ status quo practices, policy implementation practices and leadership role modeling practices on employee development in the Presbyterian Church of East Africa. The study adopted a descriptive research design using survey method. The study population was 291 church leaders comprising of 255 elected leaders from the 47 Parishes and 4 mission areas and 36 elected leaders drawn from the 9 Presbyteries of Eastern Region of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa. Stratified sampling method was used to select a sample of 145 parish leaders and 20 Presbytery leaders totaling to 165 respondents.Questionnaires were personally administered to the respondents. A pilot study on a sample of 17 respondents was conducted in Mount Kenya region of PCEA. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were adopted for data analysis. The study established that PCEA leadership challenges the status quo,sets clear goals and advocates for innovative ways in promoting employee development. It was also established that strategies such as training, financing, offering study leaves with pay and promotions have been adopted to promote staff development. Practices that were found to have a slight influence on employee development included creating standards of excellence in staff development and leading by example for staff to emulate. The study will have implications for church leadership and employee development in Kenya. Based on the findings it was concluded that the church leadership in PCEA sets clear employee development goals, empowers employees under their jurisdiction to challenge the status quo with respect to development, identifies ideas that stand a better chance of success with regard to employee development, advocated innovative ways of promoting employee development as well as proposing improvement in efficiency. Leaders in PCEA also implemented the strategies such as personnel training, financing employees to undertake further training, and offering study leaves with pay and promotions to enhance employee development and productivity. The study further concluded that creating standards of excellence and leading by example constituted much of modeling the way practices adopted by PCEA leadership in promoting staff development. The study recommends that Church leaders should shift their focus of management and leadership from control of work or overt efforts to influence employee behaviors to an emphasis on collaborating with employees in challenging the status quo and helping them to do their jobs better by taking on professional courses, among others.The study will be of great importance to different stakeholders among them the church leaders in the PCEA and beyond, as well as in the academic front. The study findings will also be of great importance in influencing employee development practices.