Effect of the High Performance Organizational Framework on the Performance of Chartered Public Universities at the Kenyan Coast

Abstract

Interest in creating high performance organizations (HPOs) has been growing at the Kenyan Coast and managers have been looking into practices that will help them elevate 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 organizations framework in the Kenyan Coast context, particularly in the chartered public universities. The goal of the study was to evaluate whether this framework could be applied in the Kenyan Coast context and hence help improve performance of these universities. The study was based at Technical University of Mombasa, Pwani University and Taita Taveta University. Stratified random sampling technique was applied and Slovin’s formula was used to arrive at the desired sample size. The research instrument used in data collection was a questionnaire which was given to the sampled population of the workers. Only one variable had a score above 80%. The model statistically significantly predicted university performance F (5, 29) = 6.888, p (.000) < .05, R² = 0.543. Out of the five variables, only Continuous Improvement added statistically significantly to the prediction, p (.025) < .05. Individually, Technical University of Mombasa had a higher score in university performance than Taita Taveta University, even though the score was below 70%. The overall high performance organizations score (66.10%) was below the 85% score for an accepted high performance organization. This study fills the gap between high performance organizations framework and chartered public universities at the Kenyan Coast, highlighting key areas that needs improvement, to make these universities high performance organizations. Keywords: High Performance Organization Framework, Management Quality, Long-term Orientation, Continuous Improvement and Renewal, Workforce Quality.