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Local authorities in Kenya have been known for poor performance. In the recent past, the trend has changed due to the introduction of performance contracting where employees must set and meet work targets from their supervisors, hence the need to be enabled to perform. The local authorities’ service provision would be largely improved with the implementation of employee empowerment within the local authorities. This study sought to establish the extent to which the City Council of Nairobi (CCN) had put in place employee empowerment programs and also to determine the relationship between employee empowerment practice and the performance of the City Council of Nairobi. In view of the above, a case study design was deemed appropriate to fulfill the objectives of the study, since data for research was obtained from one organization. The population of interest comprised all the employees of the City Council of Nairobi which was picked owing to the fact that it is the largest local authority in Kenya and is therefore expected to engage in the best human resource practices. A sample of 60 employees, 4 from each of the 15 departments comprised the respondents who were selected randomly. The study used both primary and secondary data. The primary data was collected through a structured questionnaire administered on drop and pick basis. Data on performance as measured by return on assets (ROA) was collected from secondary sources. The analysis was done mainly using descriptive statistics such as mean scores, frequencies and percentages. Pearson product moment correlation technique was used to establish the strength and significance of the relationship between empowerment and performance.Findings of this study reveal that the employee empowerment score in the City Council of Nairobi indicate that the employees are empowered to a large extent. This is demonstrated by an average score of 3.546. The study also found that there is a very strong positive correlation between employee empowerment and performance. The study concluded that employee empowerment had a great positive influence on the performance of the City Council of Nairobi. Key words: performance contracting, employee empowerment, business process reengineering, total quality management, performance management, local authority, return on assets, performance.

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The objective of the study was to investigate the extent of the practice of the learning organization within the Kenyan commercial banks and determine the relationship between the aforementioned practice with organizational performance. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. It was a census survey comprising all the 43 banks licensed to operate in Kenya under the banking Act. The sample frame included all the commercial banks listed in the Central Bank of Kenya website. The 43 banks were further divided into 3 tiers based on profitability for the year 2008 as indicated in the Banking Survey 2009. Primary data was collected using a structured questionnaire while secondary data regarding organizational performance was obtained from the banking survey 2009. The data collected was analysed using descriptive statistics in terms of frequency and percentage tabulations, cross tabulations and Pearson’s correlation coefficient to determine the relationship between the practice of the learning organization and organizational performance. The study established that most Kenyan commercial banks had to a large extent adopted the following practices adopted by most organizations: development of information systems designed to inform and empower, formative accounting control, learning approach to strategy development, participative policy making, reward flexibility and supportive leadership. The practices least adopted were the ones involved in enabling structures, creating a learning climate and boundary workers as environmental scanners. Findings indicate that there is an inverse relationship between the practice of the learning organization and organizational performance. This would suggest that there are other factors that have to be taken into account to determine and explain this discrepancy, hence the need for further study. In conclusion, the study established that two thirds of the Kenyan banks had adopted the practices of the learning institution. The study also indicates that there is a tendency for Kenyan commercial banks to focus on certain aspects of the learning organization instead of seeing the whole picture and focusing on the organization as a dynamic entity. Interest in the learning organization has been stimulated by the need to attain sustainable competitive advantage The researcher recommends that the Kenyan commercial banks should embrace more systematic, definite and concrete steps towards adopting a learning culture, in order to survive the onslaught of competitive forces in the global market. The study suggests further investigation into whether the practices were adopted as part of a systematic strategy to develop the banks as learning organizations or whether they were simply adopted on an ad hoc basis for purposes of expediency and organizational survival. Key words: learning organization, organizational learning culture, performance indicators, sustainable competitive advantage, global business environment.

Performance is associated with quantity of output, quality of output, timeliness of output, presence or attendance on the job, efficiency of the work completed and effectiveness of work completed (Mathis et al., 2009). In an organization, committed employees are regarded as being willing to build and maintain long-lasting relationships with their employer (Argyris, 1998). Effective management teams need to recognize that positive employee attitudes are often vital to achieving organizational goals and this will be achieved when the employees are satisfied. The objective of the study was to determine the factors perceived to influence employees’ performance at Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission. The research design adopted was descriptive research design. The population of the study comprised of all the 175 employees in the commission head office. The study used primary data that was collected through self-administered questionnaires. The data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software and presented using tables and figures. The study found out that the employees of the commission perceived their performance to be influenced by rewards, job design and training and development opportunity. Management style was found to have hindered performance of employees. The employees were satisfied with wages and salaries paid, retirement benefit scheme, job security, performance appraisals were satisfactory hence encouraging the employees to work in the commission and improve their performance. Key words: employee performance, employee perception, Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission of Kenya.