dc.contributor.author | Wasike, Wycliffe S | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2013-05-10T12:59:36Z | |
dc.date.available | 2013-05-10T12:59:36Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2006-06 | |
dc.identifier.citation | Masters Of Business Administration (MBA) Degree,University of Nairobi | en |
dc.identifier.uri | http://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/21434 | |
dc.description | A management research project submitted in
partial fulfillment of the requirements for
the Masters Of Business Administration (MBA)
Degree, School Of Business, University of
Nairobi | en |
dc.description.abstract | The study sought to investigate and assess the nature and identify salient aspects of agency
relationship between the government as the principal and public universities in Kenya as
agents for the provision of higher education. All the six commissioned public universities
were selected and five agents' - semi structured questionnaires send to each university. Ten
principal's questionnaires were send to the various Government departments concerned
with the governance, administration and monitoring of Public Universities. The
questionnaires were structured to capture data on the agency relationship, identify specific
areas of conflicts and their resolutions and determination of specific agency costs. The
response rate was 85% on the returned questionnaires. The data was analyzed using tables,
percentages and proportions.
Results indicate that agency relations between the government and public universities are
direct and are expressed in form of parliamentary legislations, financing higher education,
policy, establishment, research and collaboration. Agency conflicts emerge from lack of
provision of optimal levels of the above aspects, which support smooth functioning of
public universities. The resolutions on conflicts were found to be sub optimal since there
exists a breakdown in communication systems between the principal and it's agents. The
underpinning aspect is inadequate provision of resources by the principal leading to moral
hazard and adverse selection of functions by the agents.
The government is now determined to boost its performance monitoring and evaluation of
agents using the aspect of performance contracting. This is by emphasizing on results per
resource allocated rather than processes used to achieve the output. The study found that
salaries paid to senior management staff of public universities, directly consume a big
proportion of allocated resources; this propounds the critical aspect of higher agency costs
being incurred by the government to run Public Universities. | en |
dc.language.iso | en | en |
dc.publisher | University of Nairobi | en |
dc.title | An investigation of the nature of the agency relationship in public universities in Kenya | en |
dc.type | Thesis | en |
local.publisher | School of Business | en |