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Taxes form a significant portion of a company’s expenses and in order to increase probable returns, tax planning is vital to financing and investment decisions of an entity. This study sought to find out the influence of tax avoidance on financial performance of all the nine manufacturing firms listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange during the period 2010-2017. The study was anchored on tax planning theory, capital structure trade-off theory, agency cost theory and political power theory. The study adopted a positivism research philosophy and an explanatory research design. SPSS version 23 was used to analyze data where both descriptive and inferential statistics was done. Multiple linear regression model was adopted to study the association between the variables while utilizing panel data. The study findings showed that there is no significant statistical association between tax planning and financial performance of the manufacturing companies listed in the Nairobi Securities Exchange. The findings indicated that capital intensity, research and development expenditure and company size have a positive insignificant association with financial performance. Further, debt to equity ratio indicated an insignificant negative relationship with financial performance. The study points out that the manufacturing companies should invest more in non-current assets and increase expenditure on the research and development expenditure to realize significant positive impact on financial performance. They should also manage their debt to equity ratios to avoid excess financing costs that may be detrimental to their financial performance.

The Insurance industry is essential to the economic course of every nation attaining sustainable growth and prosperity. However, the industry continues to experience a marginal growth of 2.5% compared to the global real term growth of 4%. This study analyzed the relationship between employee empathy and customer satisfaction in the Kenyan insurance industry. The study was guided by the causal research design. The study applied the linear mixed-effect models of structural equation modeling (SEM) considering the multi-level structure of the data collected. The study concluded that a client who perceives empathy from his/ her insurer’s employees is bound to have higher satisfaction than a customer who does not perceive empathy from their insurer. Employee empathy however, does not significantly affect the variations of customer satisfaction between the insurance companies.

Parastatals continue to experience difficulties in trying to achieve employee engagement. Consequently, governments have transitioned to the transformational leadership style to effectively achieve employee engagement. Nevertheless, it is still ambiguous whether the institution of transformational leadership style dimensions has boosted employee engagement levels in parastatals in Kenya. The objective of the study was to investigate the influence of idealized influence on employee engagement in parastatals in the energy sector in Kenya. Also, the study sought to determine the moderating influence of employee motivation on the relationship between idealized influence and employee engagement. This study targeted the 10 parastatals within the energy sector in Kenya with a population of 315 middle-level managers. The study adopted a positivist research philosophy to examine how idealized influence influences employee engagement and data were collected using structured questionnaires. A correlational research design was conducted with the purpose of determining the strength of the relationship between parameters of idealized influence and employee engagement in parastatals in the energy sector in Kenya. The findings showed that employee engagement has a statistical significant relationship with charisma, r(166) = 0.590, p < 0.01; ethical leadership, r(165) = 0.553, p < 0.01; teamwork, r(166) = 0.531, p < 0.01. Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that employee motivation positively and significantly moderates the relationship between idealized influence and employee engagement, R2= 0.405, F(2, 159) = 54.100, p <0.05, ? = 0.225,  p < 0.05. The study concluded that charisma, ethical leadership, teamwork, and employee motivation positively enhance employee engagement.

Contemporary employees spend most of their working lives in the workplace. Work provides economic, social and psychological experiences that promote the mental wellbeing of individuals. The work environment should be devoid of hazards as much as possible to provide healthy and decent work for the workforce. However, numerous injuries, illnesses, property damages, and process losses take place at different workplaces. It is unclear how effectively OSH programs are being implemented in Kenya’s water sector since no study has been done. The general objective of the study was to establish an influence of management commitment on Occupational Health and Safety policies implementation in Water and Sanitation Companies in Kenya, a study of water and Sanitation Companies in Nyeri County. The study was based on the theoretical foundation that comprises two theories Leader-Member Exchange theory and Bourgeois and Brodwins Five Models of Strategy Implementation. The target population consisted of 474 employees in all water & sanitation companies in Nyeri County. From this population, a sample of 243 respondents was drawn using a random sampling technique but only 188 respondents filled and returned valid questionnaires giving the study an 80% response rate. The study employed both descriptive and inferential statistics to present and analyze the data.  Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistical tools namely frequencies, percentages, mean and standard deviation while inferential statistical tools such as multiple regression were used to determine the relationship between variables. The study findings revealed that there was a statistically significant positive relationship between management commitment and implementation, the 27.9% unit change in the implementation of OSH policies was explained by the management commitment. The study recommends that the water companies’ management should be committed to the implementation of OSH.

Sub-Saharan Africa lags other regions in the adoption of both Patient-Centered (PC) and Facility Centered (FC) mobile health (m-health) applications. Transformational Leadership Style (TLS) of Hospital Management Boards (HMBs) is catalytic for the adoption of disruptive technologies such as m-health by hospitals. There is limited evidence on the effect of TLS of HMBs in the adoption of innovations in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICS). This study investigated the moderating role of TLS of HMBs on the adoption of PC and FC m-health by hospitals in Kenya. It used the Logit Regression Model to test null hypotheses that the four constructs of TLS (Idealized Influence (II), Individualized Consideration (IC), Inspirational Motivation (IM), Intellectual Stimulation (IS)) individually or combined had no significant moderating effect on adoption of PC and FC m-health applications.  Primary data was collected from a representative sample size of 211 Top Executives (TEs) of level 4 to 6 hospitals who evaluated the TLS of their HMBs on m-health adoption. At a 5% level of significance, the study found that only the combined application of the four constructs (II, IC, IM, IS) significantly moderated the adoption of PC m-health (p=0.046) but did not moderate FC m-health (p=0.345). Each incremental application of TLS would increase the odds of adopting PC m-health by 1.002 but not for FC. Therefore, this study recommends the capacity strengthening of HMBs in TLS to scale up PC m-health adoption in Kenya and other LMICs. It also recommends a differentiated approach to policies, practices, and theories of adoption of innovations using the PC-FC models.

This study sought to establish the influence of understanding, stakeholder requirements, good rapport with stakeholders, healthy competition with competitors, conflict resolution, and effective communication on organizational performance among insurance companies in Kenya. Positivism research philosophy was adopted for the study. Descriptive and explanatory cross-sectional research designs were used. Data analysis was conducted using descriptive statistics and inferential analysis. The study concluded as follows: (i) Understanding stakeholder requirements, creating and maintain good rapport with stakeholders, healthy competition with competitors, conflict resolution and effective communication were deployed to a moderate extent in insurance companies in Kenya, (ii) There was a strong positive correlation between organisation performance, understanding stakeholder requirements, good rapport with stakeholders, conflict resolution, and effective communication, (iii) There was a weak positive correlation between organisation performance and healthy competition, (iv) Understanding stakeholder requirements, creating and maintain good rapport with stakeholders, healthy competition with competitors, conflict resolution and effective communication had significant influence on the performance of insurance companies in Kenya. (v) Relationship management has a significant influence on organizational performance.

The purpose of this study was to determine the Moderating Effect of Management Control System (MCS) in the relationship between Organisation Processes and Institutional Performance of Technical Training Institutions (TTIs) in Kenya. The study was a cross-sectional survey in nature and used explanatory research design with the population obtained from the TTIs that were registered with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MOEST) and Technical and Vocational Education and Training Authority (TVETA) by 2015. The main research instrument was a closed-ended questionnaire. The hypotheses in this study were tested using Hierarchical Moderated Multiple Regression (MMR) and the study found that organization processes had a significant positive influence on the institutional performance of TTIs in Kenya. The study findings indicated that the estimated coefficient was 0.555 indicating that organization processes had a significant influence on institutional performance. Further, the study found evidence that (i) MCS moderates the relationship between organizational processes and institutional performance, (ii)) MCS had a moderating effect on the relationship between organizational processes and institutional performance of Technical Training Institutions (TTIs) in Kenya.

Taxes form a significant portion of a company’s expenses and in order to increase probable returns, tax planning is vital to financing and investment decisions of an entity. This study sought to find out the influence of tax avoidance on financial performance of all the nine manufacturing firms listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange during the period 2010-2017. The study was anchored on tax planning theory, capital structure trade-off theory, agency cost theory and political power theory. The study adopted a positivism research philosophy and an explanatory research design. SPSS version 23 was used to analyze data where both descriptive and inferential statistics was done. Multiple linear regression model was adopted to study the association between the variables while utilizing panel data. The study findings showed that there is no significant statistical association between tax planning and financial performance of the manufacturing companies listed in the Nairobi Securities Exchange. The findings indicated that capital intensity, research and development expenditure and company size have a positive insignificant association with financial performance. Further, debt to equity ratio indicated an insignificant negative relationship with financial performance. The study points out that the manufacturing companies should invest more in non-current assets and increase expenditure on the research and development expenditure to realize significant positive impact on financial performance. They should also manage their debt to equity ratios to avoid excess financing costs that may be detrimental to their financial performance.

The study sought to examine the extent to which directive and achievement-oriented path-goal leadership styles influence employee performance of coffee trading companies in Kenya. The positivism philosophy was adopted and the design used was a descriptive correlational research design. The population for the study was 180 senior managers of coffee trading companies in Kenya. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. The descriptive statistics were mean and standard deviation while the inferential statistical analysis included correlational analysis, chi-square and multiple linear regression analysis. The results of the multiple linear regression analysis revealed that directive leadership style negatively and significantly predict employee performance, R2= 0.035, F(1, 114) = 4.141,  p? .05, ? = -0.153, p? .05. Multiple linear regression analysis further revealed that achievement-oriented leadership style positively and significantly predicted employee performance, R2= 0.161, F(1, 116) = 20.686, p ?. .05, ? = 0.391, p? .05. The study provided a unique contribution to the theory and practice of leadership by contributing to knowledge in the application of Path-goal leadership styles in coffee trading companies. The study findings led to the conclusion that the use of a directive leadership style in coffee trading companies can adversely affect performance and leaders should exercise caution if they have to use this style.

The purpose of the study was to examine the influence of directive and supportive leadership style on employee job satisfaction in commercial banks in Kenya. The study adopted the positivism research philosophy and descriptive correlational research design.  The target population of the study was 15,030 employees in all the 43 commercial banks licensed to operate in Kenya as of June 2018. Using a stratified sampling technique, the study drew a sample size of 386 employees reporting to middle-level managers. Data was collected by means of a questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. The results of the study showed that a directive leadership style and supportive leadership styles positively and significantly predicted employee job satisfaction. The results of the regression analysis after moderation showed that environmental contingency factors significantly moderated the relationship between path-goal leadership style and employee job satisfaction.