Perceptions Of Employees Towards Automation: A Case Study Of The New Kenya Cooperative Creameries Ltd.

ABSTRACT

As Organizations continue to automate in order to reduce costs and increase quality, the employee's

perceptions towards automation on the other hand have become a major critical area. This is because

most employers are having to determine how they can implement automation and at the same time

retain their workers.

Automation has resulted into companies having to make unpopular decisions such as organizational

downsizing, employee layoffs among other changes. This study sought to find out the perceptions of

New Kenya Cooperative Creameries employees towards automation. Having explored automation

and its main problems, the researcher's goal was to investigate employee perceptions and recommend

measures that can be taken in order to improve the current situation.

The investigations conducted utilized the qualitative and quantitative methodologies. The target

population being all N.K.C.C employees, the researcher divided the employees into two subsets, the

first subset was top level managers and the second subset was factory based workers. Included in this

study were 32 employees from the various departments ofN.K.C.C Ltd.

The researcher used stratified sampling to determine the sample size. This was done by dividing the

population into strata according to the different characteristics of each group. This method ensured

homogeinity, increased precision and accuracy. A self administered questionnaire was then utilized to

collect primary data and contained three categories as follows; Demographic response, general

automation opinion and intensive automation opinion. The Likert scale was used in the last category

to measure respondents opinions as follows; 4 (strongly disagree), 3 (agree), 2 (disagree) I (strongly

disagree).

A letter was then presented to N.K.C.C General Manager, requesting permission to conduct the

research in the organization. After the researcher was granted permission, the data was collected from

the respondents, compiled and analyzed to present the Research findings.

The research findings, according to the study, showed varied opinions; this is in view of the responses

the researcher received from the respondents. Most N.K.C.C employees had no negative feelings

towards automation, what they needed to be addressed by the management is automation benefits and

how it affects their duties. The findings also revealed that N.K.C.C employees were willing to enter

into a mutual relationship with the management so as to create a productive working environment.