Influence of Follower Characteristics on the Growth of Horticultural Export Firms in Kenya
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59952/943pfx98Keywords:
Follower characteristics, Growth, Horticultural export firmsAbstract
Kenya’s horticulture export industry is a major contributor to the country’s economy, but the industry faces declining global market share and labour management problems. The internal dynamics of these enterprises on growth and sustainability of the industry, especially the relationship between leaders and followers, is yet to be extensively explored. The purpose of this study was to establish the influence of follower characteristics on the growth of horticultural export firms in Kenya. The study was anchored on the leader- member exchange (LMX) theory and guided by a positivist research philosophy using a descriptive correlational design. The target population was 3948 managers from each of the 658 horticultural export firms in Kenya. This study used purposive and stratified random sampling technique to obtain 363 participants. Questionnaires were sent out and
300 were completed and returned, providing a response rate of 82.6%. A pilot study was conducted on 36 respondents to assess reliability of the data collection instruments. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 28 for descriptive and inferential statistics. The study findings determined that conscientiousness was the most powerful predictor of growth (β
= .385), followed by openness (β = .197) and competence (β = .156). However, agreeableness was not significant (β = .065, p = .312). The overall results confirm that follower characteristics are key organizational resources which support sustainable growth of Kenyan horticultural export companies. The study recommends that industry regulators such as Horticultural Crops Directorate Advisory Committee should come up with regulations that foster in-service continuous professional development, and skill training programs.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.