Effect of knowledge management on performance of research institutions: case study of KEMRI Kisumu county, Kenya

Abstract

Research institutions are here for social good. Parastatal research institutions engage in activities relating to social and economic rights and are formed not to be suppliers of the goods and services but to advance knowledge and provide Science and technological support. However recent trends in the research sector from 2015 to date show increased beneficiaries on one hand but high employee turnover and de-motivation on another. This suggests a shortfall in application of knowledge management strategies. The need for performance cuts across the public and private sector yet previous studies have focused on the profit making entities but there is no known study relating to knowledge acquisition, conversion, protection and application in research institutions. The purpose of this study was to establish the effect of knowledge management on performance of research institutions focusing a case study of KEMRI Kisumu County. The specific objectives were to assess the effect of knowledge acquisition, knowledge conversion, knowledge protection and knowledge application on performance of KEMRI Kisumu County. This study was anchored on resource-based view theory and cognitive learning theory and adopted a case study design. The target population of this study was 201 management staff working in the KEMRI. The study employed a purposive sampling technique where 164 Management staff was sampled for the study from the population. The study achieved a 96.3% which was sufficient. Primary data were collected from the respondents’ management staff working in the KEMRI using personally administered questionnaires. The instruments were tested for validity using the expert judgement of the supervisor and reliability using pre-test technique. A pilot study was conducted involving 16 respondents who did not participate in the final study representing 10% of the sample size. The pilot revealed Cronbach Alpha variables for Knowledge acquisition, conversion, protection and application as 0.888, 0.873, 0.743 and 0.831 subsequently. The Alpha Values were greater than 0.7 which was reliable. The data were cleaned which entailed checking for errors in entry, descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages, mean score and standard deviation was estimated for all the quantitative variables. Multiple regression analysis was used to establish the relations between the independent and dependent variables. From the regression analysis, knowledge acquisition, knowledge conversion, knowledge protection and knowledge application correlates positively to performance given by β=0.921, p=.013, β=0.664, p=.004, β=0.718, p=.025, β=0.629, p=.000 respectively. It is concluded that increase in knowledge acquisition, knowledge conversion, knowledge protection and knowledge application lead to improved performance at KEMRI. In line with the findings, the study recommends that the firm vigorously adopts knowledge acquisition, conversion, protection and application as it will directly lead to improved performance of in areas such as teamwork, operating systems and processes, staff knowledge and expertise, learning and development and the results of the learning process, beneficiary satisfaction rates and stakeholder engagements, number of the beneficiaries of the firm’s ventures, customer service quality, employee motivation and customer satisfaction. Additionally, to optimize the gains of this strategy, the paper recommends that the firm reduces bureaucracies in access to knowledge, top management should ensure knowledge creation is a top priority, and that knowledge sharing culture begin early in the employees’ career and knowledge workers should be held accountable for their knowledge exchange efforts