ORGANIZATIONAL READINESS TO CHANGE AND PERFORMANCE OF PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES IN KENYA: AN EMPIRICAL PERSPECTIVE
Abstract
Purpose of the study: The goal of this study was to find out the effect of readiness to change on performance of public universities in Kenya through an empirical lens.
Statement of the problem: Public universities in Kenya face enormous challenges due to changing environmental conditions, including low global ranking, weak university-industry partnerships, and low research uptake. In 2016, only 69,000 students qualified for university education in Kenya, less than 20% compared to 170,000 in 2015, following reforms by the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) to curb malpractices.
Research methodology: The study employed a cross-sectional survey design to examine 10 Kenyan public universities. The study targeted 220 management staff respondents through proportionate random sampling and analyzed the data using descriptive and inferential statistics with multiple regression analysis.
Findings: The study found that readiness to change by university leadership has a significant positive effect on their performance outcomes, with a unit increase in organizational readiness to change associated with an increase of 0.185 units in university performance. The results also indicate a standardized coefficient value of β = 0.230, signifying the strength and direction of the relationship between readiness to change and university performance when all other variables are measured on the same scale. Thus, the study can be 95% confident that the true effect size of organizational readiness to change is between 0.028 and 0.343.
Conclusion: The study concludes that organizational readiness to change has a significant positive effect on the performance of universities in Kenya. The understanding of the concept of readiness to change by university leadership is found to be a key impetus towards the achievement of greater performance in these institutions.
Recommendations: The study recommends that top administrators of universities in Kenya should establish clear policy guidelines that encourage staff members to adopt organizational readiness to change by emphasizing aspects like change commitment, efficacy, and implementation effort. To effectively implement these policies, university leaders should engage in open communication with staff members, soliciting their input and feedback to ensure that the policies are well-understood and supported at all levels of the organization. Furthermore, universities should allocate sufficient resources to support the implementation of these policies, including funding for training programs, technology upgrades, and other initiatives that can facilitate organizational readiness to change.
Keywords: Readiness to change, performance, public universities, Kenya
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