Influence of Leader’s Balanced Processing on Employee Commitment in Agencies Implementing Public Financial Management Reforms in Kenya

Abstract

In many developing countries, Public Financial Management Reforms (PFMRs) have been considered an instrumental element of governance with the intent to curb wasteful expenditure and corruption. Before making any budgetary or financial decision, leaders are expected to make objective analysis of theavailable financial data and to take into consideration all available options from their subordinatesbefore deciding on a way forward. This is what defines balanced processing. The aim of this paper wastherefore to evaluate how leader’s balanced processing influence the commitment of employees inagencies implementing Public Financial Management Reforms (PFMRs) in Kenya. The study was guided by the positivism research philosophy and applied a descriptive correlational research design inconducting the study. This design is deemed relevant particularly as it reveals accurate informationallowing for inferences through hypothesis testing. This approach was favored because it explains what is in existence and, in turn, assists in revealing new realities and meanings, thus broadening the scope of the phenomenon under study. The study targeted 747 managers from the Kenyan PFMR implementing agencies from which a sample of 260 managers was obtained through simple random sampling technique. A structured questionnaire was used for data collection with analyses being done and presented using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The Binary logit regression model depicted a significant association between the variables with Chi-square χ² (1) = 139.881, p<.001, and the model summary result showed the Nagelkerke R square of .731 (equivalent to R 2 on the linear regression model) hence accepting the alternative hypothesis, which stated that leaders' balanced processing significantly influenced employee commitment among managers in agencies implementing PFMRs. In its recommendation, this study guides that leaders should listen carefully to ideas from every employee fairly and understand that different employees work differently. Some ideas can be implemented to improve the organization, and some can be implemented later; therefore, it effectively attracts employees in decisionmaking and enhances employee commitment.