Socio-demographic and relationship parameters that affect performance among teacher training college employees in Kenya

Abstract Factors influencing performance of employees have previously been reported majorly in convectional setting. Hence, this study aimed at determining socio-demographic characteristics affecting employee performance and evaluating appraiser–appraisees relationship and how it affected performance. A cross-sectional study involving 282 employees (185 appraisees and 97 appraisers) was conducted in all Public Teacher Training Colleges (PTTCs) in Kenya. The study participants were selected through proportionate stratified sampling. A structured self-administered questionnaire was utilized to collect data. Results show that, appraisers and appraisees characteristics significantly differed in categories of age, education level, employment terms and gender. A significantly high proportion of appraisees (60%) reported to have achieved their targets (P = 0.0001). This was in agreement with 60.1% appraisers who reported, their appraisees achieved their performance targets (P = 0.0005) and PA had influenced performance (P = 0.0001). Socio-demographic factors that influenced employee’s performance included; gender (P = .0001), marital status P = .0023 and employment terms P = .00001. The appraisers–appraisees relationship was good (P = 0.0014) and the relationship did not affect their performance. Factors affecting appraisers–appraisees relationship included academic difference (P = .0128), gender (P = .0005) and wealth status (P = .0429). Overall, socio-demographic factors influenced performance by small percentage as shown by the regression model. Employee performance in PTTC was good. Apart from PA, other factors could influence the employee performance.


PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT
The relationship between employees and supervisors or appraisers and appraisees is known to affect employee performance. This study examined socio-demographic characteristics affecting employee performance and the effect of appraiser-appraisees relationship on performance of employees in Public Teacher Training Colleges (PTTCs) in Kenya. Socio-demographic factors that influenced employee's performance included were gender, marital status and employment terms. The appraisers-appraisees relationship was good and the relationship did not affect their performance. Factors affecting appraisersappraisees relationship included academic difference gender and wealth status. Sociodemographic factors did not significantly contribute to employee performance. The current study provides a framework for research in other organizations.

Introduction
Most organizations consider employee performance as a significant parameter in gaining competitive advantage and superior production. Vermeeren et al. (2009) reported that employee performance was crucial in improving service delivery in the public sector. In response, public organizations have tried to formulate policies and enhance service delivery, especially employee performance (Kuldip, 2016). Previous studies reported that employee performance had benefits to the organization, the customers and individual employees. To measure employee's performance therefore, Performance appraisal (PA) plays a key role and helps the organization to monitor the progress made towards attainment of the desired goals and objectives (Aloo et al., 2017). Institutions whose staff undergo PA are examined periodically to establish the extent to which an individual has achieved mutually agreed operational targets (Obong'o, 2009). Performance appraisal contributes to decisions about salary increase, provides answers relating to management of people in the organization and improves productivity (Cappelli & Tavis, 2016). According to Ashraf (2020), PA is key to provide incentive to the talented personnel to be satisfied with the organization. Effective PA has been shown to increase employee satisfaction, positive attitudes toward the organization and improved performance (C. F. Chen & Yu, 2014;Getnet et al., 2014).
A number of factors affect employee performance. For instance, previous research has shown variation in socio-demographic characteristics such as gender, age, academic qualification, marital status and ethnicity to affect employee performance (Van Den Berg et al., 2010;Pullano et al. (2020). Studies conducted by Asadullah et al., (2021), Ogunleye andOsekita (2016), andShaiful Anuar et al. (2009) on the relationship between gender and employee performance revealed that gender impact on employee performance was insignificant. However; Shaffril and Uli (2010) study noted that women compared to their counterpart had better employee performance. Lyness and Heilman (2006), noted that there was increased men's performance with career stage, a case that was not corresponding to women. Similarly, on career development, Sevilla and Snodgrass Rangel (2022) stated that women's career development differed to that of men. He further argued that whereas the career development of women is deemed disjointed, for men it was continuous. Study by Pahos and Galanaki (2019), noted that employee performance was not affected by age, thus contradicting a revelation by Smedley and Whitten (2006), who reported that a potential factor for employee performance could result from age differences. Similarly, study conducted by Shultz and Adam (2007) noted existing significant differences among various age groups concerning employee performance. Although Birren and Schaie (2001) opposes the idea that younger people are poor performers, Kujala et al. (2005) emphasizes that this situation exists. Furthermore, Kehoe and Wright (2013) noted that employees were making organizational contribution, decisions and opinions without estimating their level of education. Therefore, the relevance of educational qualification is often viewed to be more relevant to goals accomplishment more than expertise. Similarly, the; Nemteanu and Dabija (2021) study determined that employee performance was not influenced by the level of education. A report by McBey and Karakowsky (2001) indicates a likelihood of a causal relationship between education level and employee performance. In addition, education was reported to somewhat affect employee performance (Z. X. Chen & Francesco, 2003). Overall, less educated employees are less likely to register better employee performance.
The relationship between employees and supervisors or appraisers and appraisees has been reported to affect employee performance. A study by Rahman et al. (2008) recommends maintenance of good employee relations between the top management and the employees for achieving excellent employee's performance. Evaluation of an employee's job performance over the previous period by one's supervisor, are a standard practice in virtually every organization. Kuvaas and Dysvik (2010) suggest that line managers are of vital importance in implementing developmental HR practices, because they influence how such practices are perceived by employees, which, in turn, affects employee relationship (positively or negatively) thus influencing employee performance.
Employee performance, in provision of services to the public, especially in the government sector, was a significant management challenge that needed to be addressed (Hassan & Wright, 2020;Pyöriä, 2007). Studies on factors affecting employee performance in the education sector in Kenya are scanty. This study therefore aimed to establish the relationship between sociodemographic and employee performance in PTTCs in Kenya, the following research objectives were formulated:-(i) To compare demographic and social-distance characteristics of appraisers and appraisees?
(ii) To determine socio-demographic factors affecting achievement of employee targets.
(iii) To determine the relationship between appraisers and appraisees.
(iv) To determine the factors affecting appraiser-appraisee relationship.
(v) To determine how appraiser-appraisee relationship affect their performance.

Study design and sampling
Data was collected using a cross sectional design from 1881 academic staff members of 27 PTTCs. This design was appropriate as it allows comparison of different variables at the same time among appraisers and appraisees. The population consisted of 27 principals, 27 deputy principals, 27 deans of curriculum, 27 deans of student, 189 heads of departments, 351 heads of subjects and 1,233 tutors. The study targeted the principals, deputy principals, deans and heads of departments because they are both appraisers and appraisees depending on the level of management in the college organizational structure. The heads of subjects and tutors were also targeted since they are appraisees in their respective departments. Yamane's formula (cited in Israel, 1992) was used to determine the sample size of 330 from the population of 1881. The proportionate sampling technique was used to select the respondents from the population, as previously described by Sekaran & Bougie, 2010). This technique ensures that the sample represents a good estimate for all groups of interest (7 different level of management in PTTCs).

Collection of data
Self-administered structured questionnaire was used in collecting socio-demographic data and performance appraisal practices. Positive and negatively phrased questions were used to avoid similarity in answering questions (De Winter & Dodou, 2010). Employee performance items were derived from Koopmans et al. (2011) and instruments of PA were derived from Demo et al. (2012). An introductory to explain the research objectives and encourage employees to participate in the study was attached to questionnaires. A total of 282 (comprising of 185 appraisees and 97 appraisers) questionnaires, representing 85.5% were returned from a total of 330 questionnaires administered.

Statistical analysis
In this study, SPSS version 21 was used to conduct data analysis. Baseline characteristics of appraisers and appraisees were presented in frequencies. A chi square test for association of categorical variables such as the age, education level, gender etc. Risk factors associated with employee performance were determined using independent T-test for comparison of mean. All statistical tests were interpreted at 5% level of significance (95% CI). A regression model was used to test the hypothesis and an ANOVA was used to test the significance of the results obtained from the model.
In order to ensure reliability of the questionnaire, almost all constructs were measured and adopted from past studies and peer review, which is proven to be reliable where the reliability is more than 0.80. The reliability of the construct can be referred in the past researcher's articles where the Performance Appraisal targets were adapted from Meyer and Smith (2000) and Employee Performance from (Kuvaas & Dysvik, 2010;Meyer & Smith, 2000). Moreover, a cover letter was attached with the questionnaires to explain the research objectives and encourage employees to participate in the study. The respondents were assured that their responses will be treated with confidentiality and anonymity.

Employees background information in PTTCs
A majority of appraisers were over 41 years of age while appraisee's ages ranged from 25 years with a few 55 years of age and above. On gender, there were more male appraisers (56.7%) than appraisees (43.2%) while for female, the appraisees were more than the appraisers (56.7%; 43.3%, respectively). Most of the employees in PTTCs were married with more of the married staff being appraisees (81.6%) than appraisers (75.3%). Majority of the employees in PTTCs were residing within the counties where the colleges were located with more appraisers (75.3%) being residence than appraisees (69.7%). Regarding the educational level, there were more appraisees (35.8%) who had A-level qualification compared to appraisers (13.4%). For graduate and Masters level employees, there were more appraisers (34%; 44.3%, respectively) than appraisees, who were 28.1% and 28.1% for both levels. In PTTCs, most of the employee's terms of employment was permanent and pensionable, of which more appraisers (93.8%) than appraisees (82.2%) being in this category. Majority of the employees in PTTCs had worked at college for more than 10 years, followed by those who had worked for a period of 5-10 years. More appraisers (51.6%) than appraisees (41.1%) had worked for more than 10 years in their current workstation. This has been summarized in Table 1.

Comparison of employee socio-demographic characteristics in PTTCs
Statistical analysis revealed that there was a significant difference in the number of PTTCs employees in various age categories. There were more appraisees 23/181 (12.4%) than appraisers 2/97 (2.1%) aged 36-40 years (P = .0039) but appraisers aged 46-50 years and 51-55 years were significantly more than appraisees: (P = .0327) and (P = .0056), respectively. In regards to employee's gender, majority 56.7% of the appraisers were male and 56.8% of the appraisees were females with both categories presenting a significance difference of P = 0.0314. More appraisers compared to appraisees 9.3% (P = .0156) were widowed in PTTCs. More appraisees (35.8%) had A-level education qualification (P = 0.0001) while 44.3% of the appraisers were Master's degree holders (P = .0063). In regards to the terms of employment, majority of the employees in PTTCs were permanent and pensionable, 93.8% appraisers and 82.2% appraisees, respectively, with a significant difference among them (P = .0074). There was a significant difference between appraisees 25/185 (13.5%) and appraisers 5/97 (5.2%) who  were on contractual terms with (P = .0321) majority of them being appraisees as shown in Table 2.

Factors affecting appraisee-appraiser relationship
We evaluated the factors that affect appraisee-appraiser relationship including: Academic difference, age, gender, ethnicity and wealth status. Out of the 181 appraisees and 97 appraisers, the respondents identified the factors that they considered critical in influencing appraisee-appraiser relationship as indicated in Table 3. Out of the five variables, three (3) were significantly affecting the appraisee-appraiser relationship. A majority of appraisees (80) representing 44.2% and 28 appraisers (28.9%) reported that academic difference significantly affected their relationship (P = .0128). In addition, 13 (7.2%) and 21 (21.6%) appraisees and appraisers, respectively, reported gender affected their relationship and the difference was significant P = 0.0005. Wealth status (P = 0.0429) also significantly affected the appraisee-appraiser relationship. In PTTCs, employee's age and ethnicity were not statistically significant factors affecting appraisee-appraiser relationship.

Relationship between appraisers and appraisees
The relationship among employees (appraisees and appraisers) was determined whether it was good, neutral or bad. A majority of both appraisees 133/185 (73.5%) and appraisers 59/97 (62.1%) reported they had a good relationship with their appraisees and appraisers, respectively. Results indicate that the relationship between appraisees and appraisers was good with a significant difference (P = .0014). This has been summarized in Table 4.

Factors affecting achievement of performance targets
Analysis of results indicate that 111/185 (60%) of appraisees had achieved their set performance target, which was significant (P = .0001) compared to those who did not 74/185 (40%). Achievement of target by appraisees was confirmed by appraisers, who 58/97 (60%) revealed that the appraisees had indeed achieved the set targets as opposed to 39/97 (40%) who reported they did not and the difference was significant (P = .0005). According to appraisers, the PA process significantly (P = .0001) influenced achievement of performance target among appraisees. The   study sort to establish the employee socio-demographic characteristics that influence achievement of performance targets among appraisees. Results indicate that employee gender (P = .0001), marital status (P = .023) and terms of employment (P = .0001) were crucial social demographic factors in determination of whether appraisees had achieved their set performance targets (Table 5).

Appraiser-appraisee relationship and employee performance
This was determined using regression model (Table 6, ANOVA (Table 7) and regression coefficient. The regression model results of relationship between socio-demographic parameters and employee performance indicates that 2.1% of employee's performance in PTTCs in Kenya was contributed by employee socio-demographic parameters ( Table 6). The value at R column (r = 0.145), shows an insignificant correlation existing between employee socio-demographic parameters and employees performance. The variability in employee's performance contributed by employee socio-demographic parameters is depicted by R-Square (R 2 = 0.021).
The ANOVA results of F = 1.261 with 1 and 94 degrees of freedom and F were insignificant. This shows that employee socio-demographic parameters do not have effect on employee's performance in PTTCs in Kenya (P = .266 > .05) as shown in Table 7.
A unit (1) increase in employee socio-demographic parameters led to a decrease in employee performance by .041 as indicated by the regression coefficient results. There also exists a negative and statistically insignificant relationship (P > .05) between employee's performance and sociodemographic parameters ( Table 8).
Coefficient of determination shows the employee socio-demographic parameters, the predictor variable contributes to the model. The information on the change in the value of the dependent variable corresponding to the unit change in the independent variable provided in this equation.

Discussion
The results of this study showed variation in the age difference of appraisers and appraisees with the appraisers being older. This indicates that the older staffs were more likely to be given the responsibility of being appraisers. It could be also be an indication of rising to managerial position over years of working in the institutions as a majority had worked in the institutions for more than 10 years. With 70% of both appraisers and appraisees being over forty years old and over 40% representation of each gender, the study revealed that in PTTCs there was diversity of the social status and considerable experience in matters PA of the respondents. It is not surprising that a more appraisees were on contractual terms of employment compared to appraiser. This could be as a result of the young employees who could still be on contract basis. The study showed more appraisers had masters level of education but five appraiser had acquired a doctorate degree. In terms of being appointed as an appraiser, this could indicate that academic qualification did not inform the consideration of an employee being appointed as an appraiser. In addition, this illustrates that the all staff including appraisees are knowledgeable and are well versed with concept of the use of PA in establishment of employee performance in PTTCs.
This study revealed that the relationship between appraisers and appraise was good. However, academic qualification, gender and wealth status were reported to affect the appraisee-appraiser relationship. These findings concur with Vasset et al. (2011) who noted that relationships, personal biases and personality conflicts can affect the rating of peers by individual employees. The appraise-appraiser relationship did not affect employee performance. This shows the 40% of appraisee who did not accomplish their performance target were attributed by other issues. In this study, factors that affected achievement of targets included gender marital status and terms of employment. This is contrast with a study by Ogunleye and Osekita (2016) that revealed that gender did not impact on employee performance. In the present study, more men had achieved their targets than women unlike a study by Shaffril and Uli (2010) that noted women compared to their counterpart had better employee performance. Lee and Park (2021) reported female managers were more productive than their male counterpart. This study agrees with studies by Selvaraj (2015) on work diversity in Singapore that showed age did not affect a performance.
The appraisers reported that PA practises influenced achievement of targets. This shows importance of PA in monitoring employees towards the attainment of desired goals and objectives (Aloo et al., 2017). Previously, Effective PA process has been reported to improve employee satisfaction and attitude toward the organization hence improvement in performance (C. F. Chen & Yu, 2014;Getnet et al., 2014). Others factors could have attributed to achievement of targets resulting in improved performance. In this study, we note that a majority of permanent and pensionable appraisees achieved their targets unlike those on contract. In addition, employees who had worked in the institution for 5-10 years had achieved their targets unlike those had worked for lesser period (>5) and for longer period (>10). A study by Shrivastva (2012), revealed that the younger employees perceived appraisal factors to be fairer as compared to middle-level employees in private sector banks. However, in this study, age did not influence achievement of targets. Although PA is reported by (Cappelli & Conyon, 2018) as one of the most time-consuming, and unpopular tasks in management, its effect cannot be underscored improving employees performance.
Although the results of regression model show socio-demographic factors did not significantly contribute to employee performance, the identified factors by this study could be addressed and help improve performance in the PTTCs in Kenya.

Conclusion
This present study in an organizational setting makes several contributions to employee performance. There was no great variation in the baseline characteristics of appraisers and appraisees. The appraise-appraiser relationship was good although academic difference, gender and wealth status affected the relationship. The relationship did not however, affect performance. PA appraisal process affected performance and a majority of appraise achieved their performance target. Gender, marital status and terms of employment influenced achievement of targets. However, the study shows overall the relationship between social demographic factors and employee performance was not significant. The current study was able to evaluate these variables as a stepping-stone for further research in other organizations. Although several studies have pointed out some of the social demographic factors that influence employee performance in other organizations, no documented study has reported the effect of these factors on employee performance in the PTTCs in Kenya. The benefit of this research could be realised if replicated in other organizations outside PTTCs in order to establish whether social distance factor varies among appraisers and appraisees.

Limitations
The study was conducted in PTTCs and therefore cannot be generalized in private institutions. The assessed only if the appraisees had achieved target and not appraisers. Appraisers reported on appraisees.

Practical implications
The practitioners and policy makers of teacher training colleges should use this study in developing policies and strategies to manage their human resources.

Suggestions for further studies
Research should be conducted to evaluate the impact of computerizing performance appraisal systems both in government owned and private colleges in Kenya. This will help human resource managers understand the role of modern technology in designing performance appraisal system. training college employees in Kenya, Miriti Justine Majau, Lucy Kirima, Mirriam Nzivo, Simon Thuranira & Nancy Budambula, Cogent Social Sciences (2023), 9: 2186565.