Effect of Perceived Iso 9001 :2008 Quality Management System Product Identification on Product Realization at Maseno University, Kenya

Abstract

Educational institutions in Europe began to implement the ISO 9000 family of standards in the 1990s followed by United States and Asia. These institutions encountered enormous challenges because the ISO 9001 :2008 standard was designed mainly for manufacturing. However the interpretation of the term "product" in educational organizations is not uniform. Performance of Maseno University as ranked among public universities in Performance Contracting has deteriorated in the last three years. These may be attributed to its approach to Product Identification and Product Realization. The status and relationship between the two at Maseno University is not known. The purpose of the study was to establish the effect of perceived ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System product identification on product realization at Maseno University, Kenya. The study specifically sought to establish the perception of a Product by academic staff of Maseno University, determine the perceived sequential flow of Product Realization process and finally determine the effect of Product Identification' on Product Realization at Maseno University. The study used correlation case study design with a target population of 393 academic staff, a sample of 194 respondents was generated through stratified random sampling. A questionnaire was used to collect data and analysis done from generated percentages and means. The instruments were reliable at alpha (a) equal to 0.8. Findings showed 68.9% of staff perceived the product as a combination of Qualified Student, Learning Programmes and Research work, implying that staff regarded the three as product of Maseno University. The respondents however do not have a common understanding of" the Product Realization process with the highest number (11.5%) perceiving a process that is different from the documented process and describing Product Realization process in 24 different patterns. The effect of Product Identification ~1 on Product Realization was found to be -.838 (p = .021) implying that a unit standard deviation in Product Identification causes 0.838 unit decrease in Product Realization. The study concludes that the combination of Qualified Student, Learning Programmes and Research is the product of Maseno University and that Sequential flow is different from what is documented in the standard and the quality manual. Product Identification affects Product Realization inversely. The study recommends that quality management system documents be revised to reflect the Product of Maseno University; Maseno University should endeavor to have staff conduct the Product Realization process as documented in the standard and its quality management systems documents. The University should carry out sensitization of staff on the quality management system documents. This may help in matching Product Identification with Product Realization processes. Further studies should be carried in other service organizations: