Effect Of Business Process Improvement Mechanisms On Revenue Collection In Nairobi County Government, Kenya

Abstract

For organizations to survive and excel in today’s highly dynamic and competitive business environment, they must continually transform their way of doing business. Business process improvement is a systematic methodology created to help organizations make significant advances in the way their business processes operate. The aim of business process improvement is to devise new ways of organizing tasks, people and resources so that organizational processes become more effective and efficient. The underlying essence of business process improvement is to improve the quality of process and service, with customer-focus, with a view of achieving and sustaining operational and service excellence. This study sought to determine the effect of business process improvement mechanisms on revenue collection in Nairobi County Government. Specifically, the study explored the effects of change management, automation, performance management and outsourcing on revenue collection in Nairobi County Government. The study adopted a descriptive research design. The study’s target population was 3,000 management staff of Nairobi County Government. The study employed stratified random sampling technique in sample selection. The study sample size was 300 respondents. A validated self administered semi-structured questionnaire was used for primary data collection. In data analysis, quantitative data was analyzed through descriptive statistics in the form of frequencies, percentages, mean and standard deviation using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS, version 23.0). The study also conducted regression and correlation analysis to test the relationship between the study variables. The study established that the management staff of Nairobi County Government did agree that the adopted change management practices had helped the county government enhance its revenue collection (mean = 4.262); the county government was leveraging on technology based applications to increase revenue collection (mean = 4.117); the performance management system had yielded measurable benefits to the institution such as improved morale, productivity, quality, work methods and operational performance (mean = 4.290) and that functions outsourcing had improved the county’s revenue collection process (mean = 3.865). Further, the study results revealed a significant positive relationship between change management, automation, performance management as well as outsourcing and revenue collection in Nairobi County Government as indicated by beta values of 0.729; 0.806; 0.762 and 0.661 (with all having p<0.05), respectively. The study concluded that change management, automation, performance management and outsourcing as BPI mechanisms played a significant role in enhancing revenue collection in the Nairobi County Government. The study recommended that to make the change management process successful, the Nairobi County Government should ensure proper planning and communication of the change process as well as ensure adequate participation of all the stakeholders. Further, the study recommends that the Nairobi County Government should continually finance the automation of its various functions and services especially in areas where the existing manual operations are inefficient and wasteful. In addition, the Nairobi County Government should embrace and promote the use of performance contracting measures among its staff in order to enhance employee productivity while also being able to identify possible areas of improvement in the employees’ work.