COACHING AS A STRATEGIC TOOL FOR IMPROVING EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE IN DEVOLVED GOVERNMENT SYSTEMS: A CASE OF MURANG’A COUNTY

Abstract

This paper examined the role of coaching as a strategic tool for improving employee performance in devolved government systems, focusing on the County Government of Murang’a. Globally, coaching has emerged as a strategic human resource development approach that enhances employee self-awareness, skills, and goal attainment. However, in Kenya’s devolved governments, limited empirical evidence exists on how structured coaching influences performance outcomes. The research adopted a descriptive research design to assess the nature and impact of coaching practices on employee performance. The target population comprised 1,022 management-level county employees, from which a sample of 287 respondents was selected through stratified random sampling. Data were collected using structured questionnaires and analyzed using SPSS Version 20, employing both descriptive and inferential statistics. Reliability was confirmed through Cronbach’s alpha coefficients exceeding 0.7. Findings revealed that coaching had a strong positive and statistically significant relationship with employee performance (r = 0.753, p < 0.05) and accounted for 56.7% of performance variation (R² = 0.567). Coaching was found to enhance job satisfaction, skills development, teamwork, and goal achievement among county employees. The results supported Bandura’s (1986) Social Cognitive Theory, demonstrating that guided learning and feedback improve self-efficacy and organizational effectiveness. The study recommends institutionalizing coaching within county performance management frameworks, training supervisors as workplace coaches, and allocating resources for continuous coaching programs. Future research should employ longitudinal designs to explore the long-term impact of coaching on performance and examine its interaction with other learning mechanisms such as mentoring and peer learning.