Organizational Agility, Product Development Processes, Operational,processes and Performance of Chartered Universities in Kenya

Abstract

The double admissions of students in 1987/88 and 1990/91 academic years to public universities, elevation of middle level colleges to university status, introduction of module (II) programmes, growth of private universities, regulation of universities, reduction in government funding, among other happenings created serious challenges for all universities in Kenya. These rapid changes embedded in the concept of agility, motivated the study whose broad objective was to establish the relationship between organizational agility, product development processes, operational processes and performance of chartered universities in Kenya. Product development processes was hypothesised as a mediator and operational processes as a moderator to the relationship. The study was anchored on general systems theory, socio-technical systems theory, theory of constrains and collegial theory. The research paradigm was positivism while research designs included descriptive, cross sectional and census survey. Four objectives and corresponding hypotheses were formulated and subjected to descriptive, factor and regression analysis to describe the variables and predict the relationship between the independent and dependent variable. The unit of analysis was 48 chartered universities whereas the unit of observation was all Faculties/ Schools. Each sector was analysed separately because preliminary results were different. Regarding objective one, there was a significant positive relationship between organizational agility and performance of public universities but the same was negative and insignificant for private universities possibly because government drivers of agility affected public universities more but market drivers affected both. Private universities also had superior capabilities and reacted better to the drivers. On objective two, there was partial mediation on the relationship for public universities as hypothesised. Same test was not performed for private universities because the initial model was not significant. Objective four that focused on the joint effect of independent variables on performance was confirmed and operational processes were found to have the greatest contribution to performance of each sector. The findings were consistent with previous studies and supported the theoretical view that organizations are continuously exposed to changes in the business environment and their survival is dependent upon the ability to adapt through flexibility and adaptations that trigger creations and innovations. The study, therefore, extended the knowledge borders in operations management through the finding that organizational agility influences performance directly and through partial mediation of product development processes and moderation of operational processes. The findings provided various contributions to theory, policy and practice and were consistent with the theories except collegial theory which may be partially applicable when rapid change occurs. There is need to rethink collegium orientation of universities but maintaining their missions. Policy makers can utilize the findings to formulate policies aimed at better performance with respect to agility, product development and operational processes. Policies and practices supported by the findings will create awareness of how universities can take advantage of opportunities created by agility. Future studies may need to focus on effect of individual dimensions of organizational agility and measures of performance on public and private universities separately. A modified replication of the study across industries is recommended on a continuous basis. There was evidence to suggest that organizational agility interacts with product development processes and operational process to influence performance through other paths apart from what was studied.