EFFECT OF ORGANIZATION CULTURE ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM ADOPTION AND PERFORMANCE OF PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES IN KENYA

Abstract

Globally, the capacity of Higher Education institutions to serve as drivers to economic competitiveness has been negatively impacted due to the exponential growth and numerous constraints which interfere with their quality. In Kenya, HEI in their attempt to cater for the 28% increase in student number, 6% government capitation cut and 14.3% of the 28 week, academic year time waste between the period 2014 and 2015 has come with many challenges caused by overcrowding, crumbling infrastructure, inadequate human capital with a 1:500 lecturers to student ratio and financial resources and declining quality of the professional courses on offer, has raised concerns about quality of public university education. This study sought to analyze the effect of organization culture on the relationship between QMS adoption and organization performance of public universities in Kenya. The objectives were to: establish the relationship between QMS adoption and organization Performance; determine the influence of organization culture on organization performance and to analyze the moderating effects of organization culture on QMS adoption and organization performance on public universities in Kenya. The study was guided by structural contingency theory and equity theory. The population of the study included 215 top management personnel of 11 public universities certified by Kenya Bureau of Standards. The study employed a census survey with response at 94.41%. Pre-validated questionnaires had reliability alpha of α = 0.917 organization culture, α = 0.815 Quality Management System adoption and α = 0.93 organization performance internal consistency. Results revealed R2 .421 p=.001 indicating that QMS adoption accounted for 42.1% change in organization performance and has a strong significant contribution to organizational performance; R2 .646 p=.001 indicating that Organization culture accounted for 64.6% variance in organization performance and has a strong effect on organizational performance. Further, the moderation perspective revealed organization culture (β=.492 p=0.030) moderated the relationship significantly implying the interactive effect of organization culture improved organization Performance by 0.7% (Δ R2 .007 p=0.030). The study concluded that organization culture increases the effect of QMS adoption on organization performance. The study recommends the need for universities to invest more on individual believes that can enhance organization performance through improving and maintaining QMS based on the existing organization culture. The study significance is that it has informed policy makers and academia’s on issues relating to organization culture and QMS adoption that can make higher education institutions attain peak performance.