Performance management and employee performance in financial institutions in Uganda: a case study of equity bank Uganda limited

Abstract

The study focused on performance management and employee performance in financial institutions in Uganda using a case of Equity Bank Uganda Limited. The purpose of this was to assess the relationship between performance management and employee performance in financial institutions. The study objectives were; to establish the relationship between performance planning and employee performance, to analyse the influence of performance monitoring on employee performance and to establish the relationship between performance reward and employee performance in financial institutions in Uganda. The study adopted a case study research design and both quantitative and qualitative approaches were used to collect data. Data was collected from a simple random sample of 100 participants and purposively selected samples of 9 respondents were able to fill and return the questionnaires and interviewed respectively out of the total targeted sample size of 118 individuals. A 5- point Likert scale questionnaire, two interview guides and documentary review were used to collect data. The study findings indicated that there is a positive significant relationship between performance planning and employee performance at Equity Bank Uganda Limited. The results also revealed that performance monitoring strongly influences employee performance. The study findings established that performance reward had significant positive relationship with employee performance. The results of the study revealed that the selected performance management explained 52.4% of employee performance while 47.6% was explained by other factors. Basing on the study findings, it is recommended that the managers in financial institutions should ensure performance planning be decentralized in order to allow full employee participation in setting goals and performance expectations by all workers regardless of their cadre. Secondly, institutional management must also ensure that performance management is continuous processes that provide immediate feedback to the concerned workers. Lastly, financial institutions' manager should ensure that the reward systems are modernized to create a competitive advantage that attractive and induce employee performance. In addition, managers must ensure that there is effective use of rewards that can encourage employees to gain the skills that are necessary to help them and sustain the institutional cooperate governance principles.