Total Quality Management Practices and Performance of Deposit Taking Savings and Credit Cooperatives in Mombasa County, Kenya

Abstract

Savings and credit cooperatives are a crucial part of Kenya’s financial system. Compared to commercial banks, this is smaller but its significance is far much greater. Despite their important contribution towards the growth of the economy, many challenges are faced by the Saccos. Key among the drawbacks facing Savings and credit cooperatives is increased level of competition in the financial sector. The Savings and credit cooperatives to remain driven and focused in achieving their objectives, they have re-strategize their direction. The study sought to how Mombasa County deposit taking Saccos are impacted by TQM practices. Particularly, the study sought to examine how Mombasa deposit taking saccos’ performance was affected by Customer focus, employee involvement, supplier partnerships and commitment of top management. Performance was addressed from increased market share and revenue growth point of view. Quality improvement theory, Knowledge-based theory and RBV theories guided the research. A descriptive research design was employed. Board members and top managers of all the thirteen deposit taking Savings and credit cooperatives in Mombasa County were targeted. A census approach was used in identifying and subjecting all the County’s operational and registered Saccos. The preferred study respondents were then purposively selected CEOs, Branch managers, Operations Managers, Credit Managers and 4 Executive Board Members. As a result, the total respondents of the study were104, eight from each deposit taking Sacco. Primary data collection was by questionnaires and secondary data gotten from the Saccos’ financial statements and other reports. Analysis was by inferential and descriptive statistics and the primary analytical models were regression and correlation analysis. A wide performance disparity in the Saccos was discovered. It was demonstrated that Mombasa deposit taking saccos’ performance was affected by Customer focus, employee involvement, supplier partnerships and commitment of top management. The Determination Coefficient is at 0.785 implying that a variation of 78.5% in the SACCOs’ performance is explained by independent variables’ variability; customer focus, employee involvement, supplier partnership and commitment of top management. Pearson Correlation Analysis indicated that all TQM practices variables studied i.e customer focus, employee involvement, supplier partnership and commitment of top management and performance of deposit taking SACCOs positively related. Given that the study focused only on deposit taking saccos in Mombasa county, the results may not apply to all Saccos across Kenya. Therefore, it is recommended that a study is done cutting across all the Saccos in Kenya that would allow for broader generalization of findings. The findings will be beneficial to Managers, academicians, Investors, researchers, and the government as it will inform their decisions regarding the important subject of performance.