EFFECT OF HIGH-PERFORMANCE ORGANIZATIONAL FRAMEWORK ON PERFORMANCE OF CHARTERED PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES AT THE KENYAN COAST

Abstract

Curiosity in building high performance organizations (HPOs) has been mounting at the Kenyan Coast and administrators are considering ways that can assist in elevating organizational performance. These organisations include Universities. Due to the changes and challenges that face the entire education system in the world, the quality of university education is a high profile issue. This research examined the effect of the high performance organizational framework in a Kenyan Coast context, particularly in the chartered public universities based at Kenyan Coast. The purpose of the research was to assess if this framework is applicable in the Kenyan Coast setting and hence elevate performance of these universities. This study had five specific objectives, based on five main factors of high performance organizational framework. These factors are Management Quality, Openness and Action Orientation, Long-term Orientation, Continuous Improvement and Renewal, and Workforce Quality. The study based at Technical University of Mombasa, Pwani University and Taita Taveta University. Theories that applied in this research were scenario planning theory, Deming Cycle theory, goal- setting theory, Kaizen theory, administrative management theory and Herzbeg two- factor theory. A quantitative research design adopted for a study population of 70. Stratified random sampling technique applied and Slovin’s formula used to arrive to the desired sample size of 60. The study covered two levels of employees; senior level managers and middle level managers on permanent employment. The research instrument used in data collection was a questionnaire, given to a sampled population of the two levels of workers. The data was analysed quantitatively using descriptive statistics aided by statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 20. All variables under study were significant, leading to rejection of null hypothesis. Overall HPO score was 67.2%, which was below the recommended 85% for a HPO rank. The universities should improve on variables of the study objectives in order to raise HPO score. Future studies should include more number of respondents and more government owned service providers based in the same region