ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE STRATEGY AND PERFORMANCE OF PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES IN WESTERN KENYA

Abstract

Many universities are currently embracing the use of organizational culture as a strategy of improving the university performance. Organization culture strategy enables many institutions in provision of quality services, handling complaints and conflicts arising among employees. Despite adoption of organizational culture, universities are still facing challenges of poor services and there are high cases of conflicts and complaints. The main objective of the study was to establish the influence of organizational culture as a strategy on performance of public universities in western Kenya. The specific objectives of the study were to evaluate the influence of adhocracy culture strategy on performance of public universities in western Kenya, to assess the influence of clan culture strategy on performance of public universities in western Kenya, to determine the influence of hierarchy culture strategy on performance of public universities in western Kenya and to find out the influence of market culture strategy on performance of public universities in western Kenya. The study was guided by resource-based theory, dynamic capabilities theory and social exchange theory. The study targeted 226 respondents comprising of 27 top management, 86 deans of schools, 9 in charge of strategic department, 95 senior assistant administrators and 9 students’ president in all the nine universities in western Kenya. Stratified random sampling was used in selecting a sample size of 144 respondents. Primary data was collected with the help of questionnaires. Pilot study was done in Moi universities. The results of pilot study indicated that all of the constructs examined in the study demonstrated high levels of reliability and validity. Data was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics comprised of mean, standard error and standard deviation. Inferential statistics comprised of correlation and multiple linear regression. Binary logistic regression showed that adhocracy culture strategy, clan culture strategy, hierarchy culture strategy and market culture strategy had a positive and significant influence on performance of public Universities in western Kenya with a coefficient of 3.884, 2.906, 4.731 and 2.955 respectively. The study indicated that organizational culture strategy causes 68.1% variation in performance of public Universities. Western Kenya Universities and other public institutions will benefit from this study since it will highlight the key organizational culture initiatives essential to their top performance, survival, and growth. Higher education institutions will find significant value in using this information as a guide when making decisions on strategic management. It was therefore concluded that adoption of adhocracy culture strategy, clan culture strategy, hierarchy culture strategy and market culture strategy improve performance of public Universities. It is also recommended that university management should motivate employees to use their creativity and to proactively seek out new ideas. They should empower employees and facilitate their participation, commitment and loyalty. They should ensure there is adherence to the rules and regulations of the university by all employees. They should also monitor the performance of employees to ensure that they complete their performance frequently and on time.