Digital Workplace and Productivity: Evidence from Public Sector in Kenya

The digital workplace is a concept of how work is done while emphasizing the utilization of current technologies to enhance productivity, communication, and user satisfaction. Embracing the digital workplace is an important step toward improving service delivery in public sector entities. Public institutions in Kenya undeniably create a conducive environment for economic development. However, public sector productivity in Kenya remains a concern, hindering socio-economic transformation, global competitiveness, and job creation. There has been a long-term decline in overall productivity from 0.45 in 2009 to 0.40 in 2022 with both labor productivity and total factor productivity falling over several decades. Similarly, data showed that the productivity of government MDAs ranges from 45% - 65% which implies the existence of wastage in the majority of the MDAs assessed. It’s against this backdrop that this study assesses the effect of digital workplaces on the national productivity of public sector institutions. The study population included 433 state departments and agencies that have mainstreamed national productivity as provided by the National Productivity and Competitiveness Centre (NPCC). The unit of analysis of the study was 433 MDAs that had mainstreamed national productivity while the unit of the observations was Heads of departments of performance monitoring units in the MDAs. The formula adopted yielded a sample of 204 respondents from the target population. The study further established that digital workplace adoption was a significant driver of productivity, with the strongest direct effect among the digital dynamics components. The regression coefficient for the digital workplace was β = 0.859, p < 0.05, indicating a significant positive relationship. Public institutions that implemented digital workplace technologies, such as remote working platforms, collaborative tools, and digital communication channels, recorded better employee engagement and efficiency. Digital workplace innovations support a flexible and modernized work culture, critical for addressing emerging challenges such as remote operations and hybrid working arrangements.