Organizational Ethical Leadership Practices and Adoption of Solar Photovoltaics in Climate-Smart Agriculture in Uasin-Gishu County, Kenya

Abstract

The study examined the influence of organizational ethical leadership practices on adopting solar energy technology in Climate-Smart Agriculture in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya. The study adopted a positivist research philosophy and descriptive correlational research design targeting the county's 240 executive, policy, legislative, and decision-making level staff as of December 2022. A census was applied to all the target population. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire and analyzed in terms of descriptive and inferential statistics using SPSS version 28. The study showed a strong positive correlation between organizational ethical practices and solar photovoltaic adoption, while the Chi-Square test results strongly associated organizational ethical practices with solar photovoltaic adoption. Regression analysis revealed that the organizational ethical leadership practices significantly predicted solar photovoltaic adoption. Thus, the study rejected the null hypothesis that organizational ethical practices did not significantly influence solar photovoltaic adoption in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya. The findings for the regression analysis after moderation showed that stakeholder perceptions significantly moderated the relationship between organizational ethical practices and solar photovoltaic adoption, and thus, the study rejected the null hypothesis that ‘stakeholder perceptions did not significantly moderate the relationship between organizational ethical practices and solar PV adoption.' The results of the study indicated that the respondents agreed on the need for high-level commitment and worker empowerment and hence concluded and recommended that the Uasin Gishu County government leadership develop an appropriate reward system to recognize employees' efforts in Climate Smart Agriculture toward solar photovoltaic adoption. It further recommended that the county leadership establish codes of conduct to regulate and align with environmental, sustainability, and governance standards to support business dealings with ESG-compliant stakeholders that incorporate solar PV adoption in their mitigation measures against climate change.