Effect of People Management on Performance Excellence in Universities in Kenya

Higher Education Institutions play major role in enabling countries economic development. Consequently, the performance of Higher Education Institutions in both developed and developing countries is of great concern to any state. In Kenya, there has been a growing concern of her universities performance gaps. Some of the issues observed are diluted quality of teaching, financial instability, inadequate staffing and inadequate facilities. Performance gap is also evidenced by low ranking of universities in Kenya in various global university rankings. A number of factors influence the performance of organizations, however the drivers of performance excellence in universities has not been adequately researched. This study aimed at investigating the influence of people management to performance excellence of universities in Kenya. A survey was carried out from 12 Universities selected using purposive sampling. The population of interest was 40 public and private Universities in Kenya that were accredited in Kenya as at May 2016. A sample size of 277 management staff was selected using Yamane formula and proportionately allocated to six private universities and six public universities. Primary data was collected through self-administration of semi-structured questionnaire. The unit of measure were the departmental heads comprising of the Deans, Directors, Chairpersons, and Heads of section. A total of 240 questionnaires were return giving a response rate of 86.6 % and 230 accepted for further analysis. Statistical package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to undertake data analysis including, descriptive statistics, Principle component analysis (PCA) and Bivariate linear regression. Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) test of normality, Durbin Watson d test for autocorrelation and correlation coefficient (r) test for linearity were used to assess data for regression assumptions. Model fitness (R-Square), F statistics and regression coefficients were generated. The bivariate regression results indicated that people management explain approximately 36.3 % of the variations in university performance. Based on the study findings using the p-value to test significance, people management was found to be independently statistically significant. These results imply that people management is an opportunity for universities to enhance their performance excellence.