| dc.description.abstract | In the last five years, hotels in Kenya have recorded an employee turnover rate of more than 50% suggesting dissatisfaction and disengagement. As a result, low engagement has led to poor productivity, high pressure on employees, poor customer service, high recruitment and training costs which negatively affect customer satisfaction and overall success of these hotels. This study examined the effect of work-life balance practices on employee engagement in five-star hotels in Kenya. Specifically, the study sought to establish the effect of flexible work arrangements, corporate wellness programs, leave programs and employee assistance programs on employee engagement in five-star hotels in Kenya. Further, the study sought to examine the moderating effect of organizational support on the relationship between work life balance practices and employee engagement in five-star hotels in Kenya. The study was guided by the Social exchange theory as the main theory. It was also supported by Spillover theory, Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs theory, and Organizational Support Theory. The study adopted a positivism research philosophy and a descriptive research design. The study had a target population of 25 five-star hotels in Kenya. Multistage sampling technique was employed. Purposive sampling was adopted to select seven five-star hotels in Kenya then stratified random sampling was used to distribute the sample size among the selected five star hotels. Slovin’s formula was employed to obtain a sample size of 369 employees. A structured five-point Likert questionnaire was adopted in data collection. Descriptive statistics employed percentages, mean, standard deviation and coefficient of variation. Correlation and regression analysis were applied in inferential statistics. A pilot study was conducted in two five-star hotels which represent 8% of the entire population. Cronbach's Alpha was used to measure the reliability of the research instrument and all variables had coefficients above 0.7 which is considered as high reliability. Factor analysis, expert reviews and pilot test were conducted to ensure validity of the instrument. The results of multiple linear regression analysis indicated that work life balance practices account for 84.4% of the variance in employee engagement. Organizational support increased R2 by 3.2% and was found to have a moderating effect on the relationship between work life balance practices and employee engagement. The findings of this study contribute to the development of existing theories, provide meaningful insights to policy makers to enhance employee engagement and will give researchers crucial empirical evidence in future studies. Findings of this study contribute to empirical evidence, and fill both contextual and theoretical gaps. The study concluded that there was a significant relationship between work life balance practices and employee engagement. The study recommended that five-star hotels should provide necessary tools and technology to support remote working. Further, the study recommended that the medical insurance cover should be expanded, that safety training should be regular, that employees should be allowed to use recreational facilities availed in the hotels and that employees should be given paid time off. Further research is recommended to explore the generalizability of these findings to other sectors such as health, education, manufacturing and retail. Future studies can consider other determinants of employee engagement, conduct comparative studies across different regions and employ other tools; interviews and focus groups in data collection. | en_US |
