Role of Mentoring Programs on the Employee Performance in Organisations: A Survey of Public Universities in Nyeri County, Kenya

Abstract

The literature on workplace training highlights that the mentoring program is an important employee development method practiced in successful organizations. The ability of mentors either informally or formally to implement the mentoring program activities may lead to higher individuals’ psychosocial support and career development, and hence their overall work productivity. The nature of this relationship is interesting, but the role of the mentoring program as a predicting variable of individuals’ advancement and productivity has been given less attention in mentoring program models especially in the Kenyan organizational context. Therefore, this study was conducted to examine the role of mentoring programs on the performance and productivity of employees at Dedan Kimathi University of Technology and Karatina University. The research provides new insights regarding the benefits and reasons for undertaking the mentoring programs in organizations. A conceptual framework aided the researcher to develop a focus on the key variables and sub-variables that were measured. The research adopted a survey research design where the selected Universities were considered. The target population consisted of top university management, middle management, academic and non-academic staff. Stratified random sampling was used to select the subjects included in the sample. The data was analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively by use of descriptive and inferential statistics administered to measure the formulated objectives so as to establish the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. The study established that mentorship programs play an important role in employee performance and are enhanced through knowledge transfer, career development guidance and skills enhancement in mentoring.