Effect of Staff on The Performance of Public Universities: A Case of North Rift Region, Kenya

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of staff on the performance of public universities in north rift region, Kenya.Methodology: The author in this paper adopts a cross sectional survey research design to achieve the study objective. Taking into consideration a population of three hundred teaching and nonteaching staff from public universities headquartered in the North Rift region, a sample size of 170 respondents from the target population was selected. The study sample was obtained through stratified proportionate sampling technique. Data collection was done by use of questionnaires. Data was analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics presented in form of frequency, mean and standard deviation, and correlation and multiple regressions respectively. Findings: it was found out that Staff perspective had a significantly positive effect on performance of public universities in North Rift region Kenya. This positive impact was attributed to the compensation plan used by the universities to boosts morale of staff which in turn improves their performance. Notably the study demonstrated a low rate of resignation among university staff implying high staff commitment. It was also clear that human resource practices positively affect strategy implementation with majority of the respondents agreeing that rewarding is based on merit. The overall mean effect of staff on performance was 74.4%. Correlation results revealed a statistically significant and positive relationship with performance of the universities (R2=0.339, p<0.000). Staff was therefore a good predictor of performance of public universities as supported by an F statistic of 11.944 and the reported p value (0.000) which was less than the conventional probability of 0.05 Nonetheless, the regression results confirmed that there was a significant relationship between staff and performance of public universities in North Rift Kenya with a beta coefficient of 0.246 and significance of (p=0.002). The study thus failed to reject the hypothesis that stated: there is a significant relationship between staff and performance of public universities in North Rift Kenya.Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: Public universities should practice the culture of providing feedback to the employees on their performance. The university management ought to develop strategies that are fully aligned to the human resource professionalism the government should appraise the universities on the extent of their strategic plan’s implementations. This is to encourage universities to transform their plans into action by showing evidence of what has been achieved in the time period that was proposed. Further research can be done to establish other factors that contribute to strategy implementation and performance in universities. In addition, more research should also be carried out to investigate the effect of the external environment on the implementation of strategic plans in public universities or other organizations.