CORPORATE GOVERNANCE PRACTICES, ORGANIZATIONAL FACTORS AND SERVICE DELIVERY OF COUNTY OWNED WATER ORGANIZATIONS IN WESTERN KENYA

Abstract

Corporate governance practices enable organizations to achieve their objectives through better decision making, effective use of scarce resources and good service delivery. County owned water organizations in Western Kenya may have good governance practices but the extent to which they are implemented influence service delivery. The main objective of the study was to find out the influence of corporate governance practices, organizational factors and service delivery among county owned water organizations in Western Kenya. In order to achieve this purpose, it was hypothesized that internal auditing, transparency and accountability, ethical framework and CSR, have no statistical significant effect on service delivery. It was also hypothesized that organizational factors have no moderating effect on the relationship between independent and dependent variables. The study was guided by Stakeholder Theory as postulated by Freeman and employed both descriptive and correlational survey designs. Study area included Amatsi, Nzoia and Kakamega water and sanitation companies and data was obtained from directors, managers and employees working in the organizations, and customers, who gave additional information on service delivery. Yamane formula was used to determine sample size for respondents and sampling done by stratified, simple random sampling method. Data was collected using self-administered semi structured and structured questionnaires and interview guides. Reliability, validity, normality and multicolinearity, were tested using Cronbach’s alpha, pilot study, Shapiro Wilk and variance inflation factor respectively. Data analysis was done using descriptive statistics of frequencies and percentages, and inferential statistics which included Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient that was used to find out the association between corporate governance practices and service delivery, Simple Linear Regression was used to analyze the first four objectives. Multiple Regression was tested for statistical significant effect between corporate governance practices and service delivery. Hierarchical Regression Analysis was used to find out the moderating effect of organizational factors on the relationship between corporate governance practices and service delivery and interview data was analyzed qualitatively. Data is presented in form of tables and charts and the findings of Pearson correlation coefficients indicated that there existed associations between individual and combined corporate governance practices and service delivery among county owned water organizations in Western Kenya. Transparency and accountability had the highest influence on service delivery, followed by CSR and internal auditing while ethical framework had the least. Results of Simple and Multiple Regression Analysis indicated transparency and accountability, and CSR had statistical significant effect on service delivery. Hierarchical Regression Analysis findings showed that organizational size and culture moderated the relationship between independent and dependent variables however, collective organizational factors did not moderate the relationship. The study recommended adoption of corporate governance practices by organizations in order to ensure that there is improved service delivery. It is hoped that the findings will benefit stakeholders in Kenya such as county and national government, customers, donors, researchers among others