EFFECT OF QUALITY OF WORK LIFE ON ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT IN THE BANKING SECTOR IN UASIN GISHU COUNTY, KENYA

Bank employees feel maximum work pressure and have to deliver timely service in order to meet organizational goals and ensure satisfaction of heightened customer expectations creating more stress and decreased quality of work life and organizational commitment. In this regard the Kenyan banking industry has witnessed considerable human capital flight despite the growth in profitability for the past five years. However, there is slight research evidence from the developing countries such as African continent in terms of quality of work life and organizational commitment. In this regard the current study purposed to investigate the effects of quality of work life on organizational commitment in the banking sector in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya. The study focused on how job security and social support affect organizational commitment in the banking sector in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya. The study adopted an explanatory research design with a target population of 748 employees drawn from 25 Commercial Banks within Eldoret town, Uasin Gishu County, Kenya. The study used a sample size of 254 respondents which was arrived at by use of Krejcie and Morgan table. Result of multiple regressions revealed that quality of work life programs jointly and independently influenced organizational commitment in the banking sector in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya. Jointly the two constructs namely job security, social support contributed 53.4 % of the variation in organizational commitment (Adjusted R Square = 0.529). The β value for job security (.633), social support (.176) were positive. This implied that the management of banking sector should pay high premiums in strategically formulating and implementing quality of work life programs which can effectively galvanize organizational commitment. Quality of work life programs should be bundled through mutually consistent policies to enhance their synergy in achieving high organizational commitment.


INTRODUCTION
Globally, the Banking Sector remains pivotal in driving the world's economy, thus their development of a committed workforce is of strategic importance. In this regard securing organizational commitment through effective human resource management practices are central to improve the quality of services offered by banks and their competitiveness (Gathungu, Iravo& Namusonge, 2015). This is corroborated by the fact that securing employee loyalty, commitment or enthusiasm in the attainment of organizational objectives is preceded by the salient human resource management practices engaged by banks.
However, the human resource management practices should advance Quality of Work Life (QWL) which is a precursor of Organization Commitment. This is echoed by Parvar, Allameh and Ansari (2013) who opined that there is a positive relationship between Quality of Work Life (QWL) and Organizational Commitment. Quality of Work Life (QWL) is what will differentiate good companies from poor companies (Carr, Kelley, Keaton& Albrecht, 2011). Organizational Commitment (OC) refers to individual's power of attachment or involvement in an organization Mowday et al., (1982) cited in (Rao & Gebremichael, 2013).
Employees who are committed become more adaptable, productive and have a sense of responsibility and are not financial liabilities to the organization (Demir, 2012). Committed employees identify with the organization and are inclined towards actively continuing and meaningfully participating in the organization. OC resonates with the employee's belief in the mission and goals of the organization and their avidity to expend their efforts, accomplishments and intentions to continue working in the organization. The Organizational Commitment attitude is ingrained by a number of personal variables such as age, tenure in the organization, career adaptability, and internal or external control attributions and also the organizational variables such as job design, values, support, procedural fairness and the leadership style of one's supervisors (Al-Qutop & Harrim, 2011).
The precursors of Organizational Commitment aforementioned are incarnate of Quality of Work Life. This is underscored by the fact that Quality of Work Life aims at changing the entire organizational climate by humanizing work, individualizing organizations and changing the structural and managerial systems (Sawhney & Khatri, 2014). Several literature show a significant relationship between Quality of Work Life (QWL) and Employee Commitment (EC) (Farjad & Varnous, 2013). Quality of Work Life refers to a philosophy, a set of precepts which keep employees as the most important resources in the organization as they are responsible and competent to make precious contribution (Pelin, Selahattin, Aylin & Fatma, 2018). The strategic importance of human resources in the business world gives credence to their effective and efficient utilization while taking cognizance of their Quality of Work Life. In this regard broad recognition of favorable human resource procedures at the behest of attaining Organization Commitment. This is corroborated by Nair (2013) that Quality of Work Life provides positive outputs both employees and organizations rather than negative consequences such as sabotage, turnover intention, absenteeism, emotional exhaustion. Quality of Work Life (QWL) includes working conditions such as health and safety issues, monetary and non-monetary benefits, relationships between employees, development opportunities and management styles which provides for employees treatment with respect and dignity (Tabassum, Rahman & Jahan, 2011).
Retail Banking institutions in Kenya play a pivotal role in the country's socio-economic development. They act as a catalyst in spurring the development of all other industries.
However, the rapid technological growth, increased competition and turnover of employees have forced Commercial Banks in Kenya to aggressively compete for employees in order to remain competitive(Central Bank of Kenya, 2010). The Kenyan Banking industry has witnessed considerable human capital flight despite the growth in profitability for the past five years (PWC,2013). The survey report released on business daily noted increased competition for high end clients, qualified, trained and experienced staff to implement banks strategies. These trends have invoked a lot of interest on the effect of Quality of Work Life on Organizational Commitment in the Banking sector.
Most studies confirmed that there was a positive relationship between QWL and OC (Daud, 2010;Bashir & Ramay, 2008;Hyde, Gill, Agrawal, Gupta & Sethi, 2012).However, the strength of the relationship depends on the QWL dimensions that are being used in the study (Normala, Yazlinda, Siti & Musliha, 2015). This was justified by the fact that employees have developed varying attributions for the same HRM practices which generate different level of employee commitment and satisfaction (Gathungu, Iravo & Namusonge, 2015). In some studies, QWL and OC did not correlate (Lee, Hung & Chen, 2012;Lu, Lu, Gursoy & Neale, 2016;Sundaresan, 2014). This portends inconsistencies in findings calling for further research on this theme to fill the research gap. Even though empirical evidence from the developed countries like the USA and Europe exists, such evidence has very seldom been corroborated in an African research context. Thus the current study was to confirm or deny the effect of Quality of Work Life outcomes in an African context, as these appear to have a different pattern of values and beliefs from those of the developed Western countries (Chinomona & Cheng, 2013).

Statement of the Problem
Commitment of employees to work has been found to have a strong relationship with competitiveness of an Organization (Obeidat, Taisir & Abdallah, 2013). Staff that has high desire to Organizational Commitment will give maximum contributions to the organization. Thus, organizations that are passionate about creating employee commitment through its human resource policies appreciate that it is a vital component of business success. Thus, High Quality of Work Life (QWL) is essential for organizations to achieve high Organizational Commitment and growth in profitability (Masoud, Hamid, & Manoochehr, 2013;Diraviam, 2016). It is therefore, important to understand factors that could be contributing to the trend (Wacheyel, Kuria & Musiega, 2013). Organizational Commitment is a challenge that many organizations are facing with regard to productivity (Zaituni & Hazel, 2016). Bank employees feel maximum work pressure and heightened customer expectations which creates more stress and decreased Quality of Work Life and Organizational Commitment. In this regard the Kenyan Banking Industry has witnessed considerable human capital flight despite the growth in profitability for the past five years (Kariuki, 2015). This is compounded by the quick sands of time which has warranted the dissipation of the hired for life mentality as workers are increasingly changing employers an index of poor Organizational Commitment. In this regard HR must therefore, place emphasis on proper Quality of Work-Life practices to secure their commitment (Njuguna, 2012). Most of the research evidence regarding the relationship between Quality of Work Life and Organizational Commitment are from the first world countries (Farid, Izadi, Ismail & Alipour, 2015;Kermansaravi, Navidian, Rigi & Yaghoubinia, 2015). Besides light research evidence from the developing countries such as the African continent is available in terms of QWL and OC (Chinomona & Dhurup, 2014). But the prevailing view is that the developing countries' cultural context was different from developed countries with the Western Culture such that Western-Derived and tested arguments cannot be used to explain and understand organizational problems in developing African countries (Diraviam, 2016;Onyango et al., 2016). In addition Employee Performance Management policies are clear and concise in outlining its principles, processes and objectives. However, the extent to which these are followed differ between countries, managers and employees respectively within the organization (Saajida & Ukpere, 2014

Research Objectives
The general objective of the study was to investigate the effect of quality of work life on organizational commitment in the banking sector in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya. The study was guided by the following specific objectives;  To assess the effect of Job Security on Organizational Commitment in the Banking Sector in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya.  To determine the effect of Social Support on Organizational Commitment in the Banking Sector in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya.

Review of Related Literature
Job security was the feeling of having a proper job and the assurance of its continuance in future as well as the absence of threatening factors (Jandaghi, Mokhles &Bahrami,2011). Employees remain very valuable company assets that must be managed well by the company to engender their commitment in order to contribute optimally. Job security was the probability of an employee to keep his or her job. The higher the probability of keeping employment, the higher the job security. According to Industrial and Organizational Psychologists, Job Security was one of the creators of Job Satisfaction and Commitment (Thomas, Tram & O'Hara, 2006). This explained by the fact that when employee feel appreciated by the organization, they will also feel the need to reciprocate by going beyond their formal job obligations and get enthusiastically attached to their organizations. In the converse when employees start experiencing a high level of job insecurity, fearing greatly for their jobs, they actually start decreasing their performance of Organization Citizen Behavior and Organizational Commitment back to a high level once again trying to give their employers a reason to keep their jobs (Lam, Liang & Ashford, 2015).It therefore, seems that different types of people may be especially fearful of job loss and feel a greater need to compensate by performing Organization Citizen Behavior and Organization Commitment. This implies that organizations should understand how Organization Commitment was impacted negatively when job security was not guaranteed Strategies for enhancing job security seeks to create a situation that generates a sense of belonging to each employee to the company where the employee was working. Employees' Commitment to job evoke their working consciousness which will lead into performing the affairs better and rationalism due to faith enhancement (Ozer & Gunluk, 2010). Perceived job security influences the employee's organizational attitudes and health (Sverke, Hellgren & Näswall, 2002).
If an employee identifies with the organization, the fear to lose the job will decrease since the employee feel comfortable in the organization and does not fear to lose his employment (Sverke, Hellgren & Näswall, 2002).There was a difference in terms of rights and obligations under different employment status. Most companies, either large or small, now employ more impermanent or temporary employees, than full-time (permanent) employees. (Dwiyanti,2018). Impermanent or temporary employees usually bear the same workload as regular employees or even more. However, in terms of salaries or other facilities, it was completely different for temporary employees, so they tend to feel less comfortable at work (Mahaputra) Riantoputra& Respati, 2013). Impermanent employees are also not entitled to employment period allowance, severance pay, and money refunds when his employment time expires. One of the problems that arise from the inconvenience was the lack of commitment of temporary employees to the organization (Dwiyanti,2018). The impact of job security on Organizational Commitment was respected less in certain Organizations (Jandaghi, Mokhles, Bahrami,2011). The review provided evidence which underpins the fact that satisfaction with job security was positively correlated with both Organizational Commitment and Job Performance. However, the relationship between Job Satisfaction with Job Security, both Organizational Commitment and Job Performance vary across national cultures (Yousef, 1998;Ahmad & Oranye, 2010;Bellou, 2010). There were several studies about job security and possible influence factors (Clark & Postel-Vinay, 2009;Farber, 2010;Ahmad & Oranye, 2010;Bellou, 2010). However, most of the studies focus on external factors like the economy (Farber, 2010) . Social support was defined as the "actions of others that were either helpful or intended to be helpful" and was conceived to be information leading an individual to believe that he/she was cared for, loved, esteemed and valued, and that he/she belong to a network of communication and mutual obligation (Chou, 2016). Social Support was defined as the belief that one cared for and loved, esteemed and valued and belong to a network of communication and mutual obligation (Thoits, 2011). By virtue of social support, employees can occur a large social network which provide a person with regular positive experience and a large set of stable socially rewarded roles in the community. Hence, Social Support can directly or indirectly help in forming Organizational Commitment. in most of the cases, it was observed that owing to lack of Social Support, most employees of the organization fail to accomplish Organizational Commitment (Arabinda & Suman, 2015). There three types of Social Support include Instrumental or Practical Support, Emotional Support, Informational Support (House & Kahn, 1985). Another way of classifying Social Support was by source. In the working context, typical sources of Social Support were Co-Workers, Supervisors, and the organization in general (Kalemci & Arzu, 2012). The sources of Social Support were often termed as 'Perceived Co-Worker Support, Perceived Supervisor Support and Perceived Organizational Support.

METHODOLOGY
The current study employed explanatory research design. This research design formed the framework of the whole study, constituting the blueprint for data collection, measurement and data analysis. The target population consisted of all the employees of the banking sector in Kenya. In this study the accessible population was 748 employees drawn from 25 Banks within Elmore town, Uasin Gishu County, Kenya. The employees were targeted because they were affected by the quality of work life practices employed by the banks and as such, could give a feedback on the causal relationship between the study variables for purposes of  (1970) to calculate the sample size which was 254. The study used questionnaires as well as reviewing existing literature. These instruments supplemented each other to give a deeper and wider exploration to research perspective. Selfadministered structured questionnaires based on the specific objectives were used to gather primary data. Data was analyzed using descriptive (mean, standard deviation, frequencies, skewness and kurtosis) and Inferential Statistical Techniques. Under Inferential Statistics, Multiple Regressions will be used to determine the effect of a set of independent variable (QWL) on dependent variable (OCB), Co-efficient of Correlation using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0 package. The Regression Model was as follows: y = β0 +β 1 X 1 +β 2 X 2 +ԑ……… Equation 1 Where will be OC, dependent variable will be QWL, was the standardized Regression Coefficient. X 1 represent Job Security X 2 represent social support

Descriptive Statistics for Job Security on Organizational Commitment
The researcher sought to establish the level of agreement to various aspects of job security as per objective one. Five response items were used to examine the prevailing status of job security. According to the findings presented in Table 1, 89.1% of the respondents agreed and strongly agreed that they felt proud to tell people about the organization, where they work (M=4.44 SD=0.740), 6 % were in disagreement and 10.3% were undecided. 76.3% of the respondents both agreed and strongly agreed that they were able to control events in their environment (M=4.19 SD=.710) while 1.9% and 21.8% were in disagreement and undecided respectively. Besides, a majority of the employees both agreed and strongly agreed (70.3%) that they were confident that they would work for their organization as long as they wish (M=3.99 SD=0.911), 6.1% disagreed while 23.6% were undecided. 71.5% of the respondents were in agreement that in their opinion their companies are reliable (M=4.12 SD=0.839), 0.6% disagreed while 27.9% undecided. Lastly 69.7% respondents agreed and strongly agreed that when they are confronted with a situation during work, they can find several solutions (M=3.86 SD=.740), 2.4% disagreed while 27.9% were undecided. The implications of these results is that the banks should guarantee job security to their employees so as to acquire better performance results.  Table 2 revealed that a total of 74% of the respondents both agreed and strongly agreed that they get financial assistance from the organization, when they need (M=3.90 SD=1.045), 13.3 % were in disagreement while 12.7% were undecided. Besides, a majority of the employees 66.1% of the respondents agreed that when they were not able to understand a challenging task, they get assistance from their colleagues (M=3.85 SD=1.322), 24.2% were in disagreement while undecided were 9.7%. A total of 70.9% of the respondents also agreed and strongly agreed that they get encouragement from their supervisors (M=4.11 SD=.988), 7.3% disagreed and strongly disagreed while 21.8% were undecided. A total of 66.7% of respondents agreed and strongly agreed that they get advice from their co-workers and supervisor as long as they need, (M=3.96 SD=1. 050), 7.2% strongly disagreed and disagreed while 26.1% were undecided. Lastly 77.5% of the respondents agreed and strongly agreed that organization provides favorable rewards which makes employees feel valued (M=4.07 SD=.856), 5.5% were in disagreement while 17.0% were undecided. The banks offered room for social support but this is within the confines of the regulation of professional roles. The implication of this was that there should be policy frameworks which recognize and influence social support within various domains of their work.

Regression Coefficients of Organizational Commitment
From the results (

Effect of Social Support on Organizational commitment
The model summary presented in table 6 involves social support as the only independent variable. The coefficient of determination (R square) of 0.240 indicated that the model explained only 24.0% of the variation or change in the dependent variable with the remainder of 76.0% explained by other factors other than social support.

Regression Coefficients of Organizational Commitment
Results of the regression coefficients presented in Table 7 showed that the estimates of β values and give an individual contribution of a predictor to the model. The β value for social support (.490) was positive. The model was then specified as: -y= β 1 X 1 +ɛ………………..Equation 3 Organizational commitment = .490 social support + ɛ This implied that an increase of 1 standard deviation in social support is likely to result in a 0.490 standard deviation increase in organizational commitment. T-test was used to identify whether the predictor was making a significant contribution to the model. When the t-test associated with  value is significant then the predictor is making a significant contribution to the model. The results show that social support (t =7.170, P<.05),

Effects of Quality of Work life on Organizational Commitment
Results presented in Table 8 revealed that the two constructs namely job security and social supportexplain 69.7 % of the variation in organizational commitment (Adjusted R Square = 0.697). Therefore, the remaining 30.3% is explained by other factors not considered in the study.

Regression Coefficients of Organizational Commitment
Results of the regression coefficients presented in Table 9 showed that the estimates of β values and give an individual contribution of each predictor jointly to the model. The β value tells us about the relationship between Organizational Commitment with each predictor. The positive β values indicate the positive relationship between the predictors and the outcome. The β value for Job security (.633) and social support (.176) . From the results, the model was then specified as:-y= β 1 X 1 +β 2 X 2 + ɛ………………Equation 4 Organizational Commitment = .633 Job security +.176 social support + ɛ Results reveal standardized regression coefficient for Job security =.633 implied that an increase of 1 standard deviation in Job security is likely to result in 0.633 standard deviations increase in organizational commitment. Standardized regression coefficient for social support = .176, implies that an increase of 1 standard deviation in social support is likely to result in 0.150 standard deviations increase in organizational commitment. T-test was used to identify whether the predictors were making a significant contribution to the model. The results show that Job security (t =10.497, P<.05), social support (t =2.920, P<.05). These findings indicated that Job security and social support, significantly affect organizational commitment in the banking sector. These results imply that Job security is the most important predictor for organizational commitment.

SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Employees who perceive job insecurity are certain that they will be able to continue working for their organization thus they will get committed to their organization. Thus, the work environment should assure the employees of their jobs and marginal chances of a job loss. These arguments are justified by the findings of the study where multiple regression analysis showed that a significant relationship exists between dependent variable and independent variables. The model explained only 50.5 % of the variation or change in organizational factors variable with the remainder of 49.5 % explained by other factors other than job security. From the regression analysis table t value is = 12.899 Similarly, P value is equal to 0.000 that is less than 0.05 that is sufficient to show relative importance r=.711 ** . Therefore, it is evident from the results that job security was found to be a positive and a significant predictor of organizational commitment. This finding supports the findings of Lam, Liang and Ashford, (2015), Dwiyanti,(2018) who also found a significant relationship between job security and organizational commitment. They added that when employees start experiencing a high level of job security, they actually start increasing their organizational commitment trying to give their employers a reason to keep their jobs. This implies that the banking sector in Uasin Gishu County should be strongly committed to enhances job security as this can strengthen their organizational commitment which includes reducing loss of job, enhancing pay and promotional opportunities among others. This finding is also underpinned by Social Exchange theory which calls for cultural mandate, in which those who experience job security from the organization must reciprocate in particular behavior which in this context organizational commitment. Social Support can directly or indirectly help in forming Organizational Commitment. In most of the cases, it was observed that owing to lack of Social Support, most employees of the organization fail to accomplish Organizational Commitment (Arabinda & Suman, 2015). Thus, it's important for the management of the banking sector should ensure that employee's organizational commitment is at maximal potential. Besides it remains significant for managers in all trades and industry worldwide to identify social interactions and support could foment organizational commitment of their employees. The model explained only 24.0% of the variation or change in organizational factors variable with the remainder of 76.0 % explained by other factors other than social support. From the regression analysis table t value is = t =7.170 Similarly, P value is equal to 0.000 that is less than 0.05 that is sufficient to show relative importance r=.490 ** , Therefore, it is evident from the results that social support was found to be a positive and a significant predictor of organizational commitment. This findings are supported by the argument of Arabinda and Suman, (2015) that social support can directly or indirectly help in forming Organizational Commitment. In most of the cases, it was observed that owing to lack of Social Support, most employees of the organization fail to accomplish Organizational Commitment. Besides the findings of this study are supported by Arabinda and Suman (2015), Najib (2018), (Lobburi,2011) who also found a positive and significant effect of social support on organizational commitment. These findings and arguments submit to the social exchange theory and theory of reasoned action which explains that employee motivation to commit to the demands of both work and non-work contexts as a function of social support whose outcomes are organizational commitment among others. This implies that the banking sector in Uasin Gishu County should be strongly committed to strategies that enhances social support to employees as this can help foster high organizational commitment. It therefore behooves the banking sector to remain supportive, friendly and considerate, consult subordinates and recognize their contribution (K'osuri, Kalei, & Onyango, 2018). These findings and arguments submits to the social exchange theory and theory of reasoned action which explains that employee motivation to commit to the demands of both work and non-work contexts as a function of social support whose outcomes are organizational commitment among others.
Result of multiple regressions further revealed that quality of work life enhancing practices jointly and independently influence organizational commitment in the Banking Sector in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya. Jointly reveal that the two constructs namely job security and social support, work life balance and recognition programs 52% of the variation in organizational commitment This suggests that in the light of quality of work life, Job security as a concept, when embraced by the banks in Uasin Gishu county will contribute extensively to improving organizational commitment as compared to social support. However, the synergistic effect of the quality of work life enhancing practices understudy cannot gains aid. This implies that the management of banks should pay high premiums in strategically formulating and implementing quality of work life practices which can effectively galvanize organizational commitment.
In view of the findings of the study and the guidance from the literature review, it is apparent that strengthening the organizational commitment in the banking sector is an important ingredient for eliciting high organizational commitment. While there are other factors crucial for organizational commitment. From the results, the banking sector should pay more attention in addressing job security and social support for purposes of increasing organizational commitment. In this regard, the current study makes the following