Green Employee Relationships and Employee Performance in Private Universities in Kenya

Private universities in Kenya face an ever-competitive landscape in which employee performance is key not only to academic quality but also to institutional sustainability. Even though Green Human Resource Management (GHRM) at large has been considered a means to better organizational outcomes, there has been little empirical research on the extent to which green employee relationships specifically impact performance in higher education. Under the guidance of Social Exchange Theory, this study investigated whether a supportive, trust-based, and environmentally focused relationship between the institution and the staff corresponded to enhanced employee performance. Through a descriptive cross-sectional design, the study was able to reach its objective. The population of the study came from 433 staff of ten chartered private universities in Nairobi City County, Kenya. After the stratified random sampling, a total of 208 respondents were selected, and 142 valid questionnaires were obtained for interpretation, analysis, and reporting. Data analyses were done using descriptive statistics and simple linear regression. The majority of respondents reported a positive outlook on green employee relationships. The regression analysis revealed a positive and significant association. Nevertheless, the adjusted R of 0.080 indicated that the variable explained only a small fraction (8%) of the difference in performance. These points to the fact that, on one hand, relational green practices do have an impact, but on the other hand, employee performance is subject to various organizational and professional factors, among others, accounting for 92%, that were not considered in this study.