EFFECT OF VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL MULTI-SKILLING STRATEGIES ON EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE IN COMMERCIAL BANKS IN KENYA: A CASE OF KISUMU COUNTY
Abstract
Functional specialization has been challenged by the increasingly competitive and changing global business environment. Banks provide key services in the Kenyan economy and their productivity is key to their existence and survival in the wake of increased use of information technology, intense competition, globalization, and business expansion. The human factor adds more value in imparting organizational success and this has led to increased use of human resources to confer a variety of organizational benefits. To attain and maintain productivity, employee performance is a key contribution. Multi-skilling enhances employee response to irregular and emergent events quickly and effectively. The purpose of the study was to establish the effect of vertical and horizontal multi-skilling strategies on employee performance in commercial banks in Kenya, with a case of Kisumu County. The study adopted a survey research design. The target population was two hundred and thirty eight employees of commercial banks in Kisumu County from which sample of one hundred and forty nine employees were drawn through stratified random sampling technique. One hundred and thirteen (113) questionnaires were dully filled, returned and analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences to facilitate descriptive and inferential analysis of the study variables. Linear regression results indicated that vertical and horizontal multi-skilling significantly explained variance in employee performance. Pearson correlation results showed strong positive relationships between vertical and horizontal multi-skilling strategies. Commercial banks carried out management development and delegation of supervisory and administrative tasks selectively; employees were assigned different tasks only within their departments. Core horizontal multi-skilling practices were not done with exception only within the departmental levels, vertical multi-skilling strategies were applied only at the managerial levels. The study concluded that vertical and horizontal multi-skilling strategies play a significant role in employee performance in commercial banks. The study recommended that a combination of these strategies should be utilized for attainment of improved and sustained organizational productivity; and that employees be assigned other job tasks from other departments.
Key Words: Depth multi-skilling, Horizontal Multi-skilling, Employee Performance, Human Resource Flexibility, Organizational Flexibility.
CITATION: Okeyo, B. A., & Juma, D. (2020). Effect of vertical and horizontal multi-skilling strategies on employee performance in commercial banks in Kenya: A case of Kisumu County. The Strategic Journal of Business & Change Management, 7(3), 1643 – 1661.
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.61426/sjbcm.v7i3.1773
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