Relationship between ISO 9001 Certification and the Number of Non-Conformities Identified during System Audits in Selected Public Universities in Kenya

The quest for International Standard Organization (ISO) 9001 certification as an international quality tool has been embraced for process improvement and positive perception by customers. With ISO 9001 certification, an institution is anticipated to offer exemplary goods or services that meet client prerequisites, needs and expectations thus enhance organizational performance. As evident in previous studies, despite ISO 9001 certification, cases on wastages, missing student marks and time wastage were indicators of non-conformance. There was no clear evidence of past studies on the relationship between ISO 9001 certification and organizational performance with special interest on number of non-conformities identified during systems audit being a component of organizational performance. The purpose of the study was therefore to establish the relationship between ISO 9001 certification and the number of non-conformities identified during system audits in selected public Universities in Kenya. Explanatory research design was used in the study. The research targeted a population of 433 respondents from which a sample size of 205 respondents was selected using purposive and simple random sampling designs. A questionnaire was used to collect data. To answer the objectives of the study, simple linear regression analysis was performed. From the model, (R2 = .600) shows that ISO 9001 certification account for 60% variation in number of non-conformities identified during system audits. There was a positive significant relationship between ISO 9001 certification and number of non-conformities identified during system audits (β=0.611 and p <0.05). Therefore, a unit increase in ISO 9001 certification led to reduced number of non-conformities identified during system audits. The ISO 9001 certification had a significant influence on the number of non-conformities identified during system audits. For every adoption of the ISO 9001 certification in public universities the number of non-conformities identified during system audits reduced. The study concludes that ISO 9001 certification had a significant positive influence on the number of non-conformities identified during system audits. Thus, for every adoption of the ISO 9001 certification in public universities the number of non-conformities identified reduced. The study recommends that there is need for management of public universities through the department of quality management to address the non-conformities raised during system audits, need for university management to raise awareness on the importance of standardization and conformity assessment and to entrench the culture of quality in the Kenyan society by promoting practical usage of standards and development of quality related curricula in public universities.