Institutional context, collaboration, human resource development infrastructure and performance of Universities in Kenya
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Date
2012-10Author
Kilika, James M
Type
ThesisLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of the institutional contexts of
universities and the phenomenon of University-Industry Collaboration on the relationship
between the Human Resource Development Infrastructure and performance of universities in
Kenya. The study was guided by five objectives, namely to determine: the relationship among
the various components that constitute the HRD Infrastructure for universities in Kenya; the
relationship between the HRD Infrastructure and University-Industry Collaboration; the
influence of the University-Industry Collaboration on the strength of the relationship between the
HRD Infrastructure and University Performance; the influence of the Universities'
responsiveness to institutional contexts on the strength of the relationship between University
HRD Infrastructure and University Industry Collaboration and the influence of the Universities'
responsiveness to institutional contexts on the strength of the relationship between University
Industry Collaboration and University Performance. The design of the study was guided by the
positivism epistemological orientation and used a descriptive survey design that targeted 180
respondents from 19 Universities. 130 of them responded from 16 universities. The research
found that the degree of responsiveness to the national culture is just slightly above the level of
indifference, moderate for the institutional context and high for human capital development
needs and the HRD value base. The study reports low scores on responsiveness to the tolerance
to mistakes, an aspect that was considered to reflect in the design of the HRD Infrastructure with
low scores on building the ability to solve problems and encouragement of managers to take
risks. The reported mean scores show that the universities have a clear picture of the set of OD
Needs which reflects in the components of the HRD Infrastructure. However, they rate lowly on
areas that are critical to building learning systems. The reported score on the motivation to
pursue collaboration is slightly above the 50-50 chance while the level of collaboration is
relatively moderate with high variation in responses. The types of collaboration programs were
found to be slightly high for all the items except in technology licensing, research parks and
technology transfer where low scores and wide variation among the universities were reported.
The readiness for change performance registered a higher mean score than that of bottom line
performance. Hypothesis one was partially supported, hypotheses 2, 3 and 4 fully supported
while hypothesis 5 was not supported. The study found that: there is a significant correlation
between the University HRD Infrastructure and University Industry Collaboration; U-I-C
partially mediates the relationship between HRD Infrastructure and University Performance;
responsiveness to the institutional context moderates the relationship between the HRD
Infrastructure and U-I-C and not the relationship between U-I-C and University performance.
The findings of the study provide an insight into the situational positioning of HRD in
universities in Kenya whereby it is reported that HRM is yet to become strategic. The findings
offer some practical and epistemological lessons to managers in this sector and scholars in
management respectively. The findings provide empirical evidence that strengthens the calls for
U-I collaboration and those for the integration of the resource based view and the institutional
theory in research. The findings also confirm the empirical and theoretical underpinnings drawn
from the multidisciplinary set of theories and provide an epistemological support for research in
HRD based on a positivist perspective. The study recommended that universities adopt programs
that will strengthen their learning capability and alignment of the learning cultures with their set
of HRD Practices. The study called on future research efforts to replicate the current study from
the industry side using objective indicators of the variables used and integrate the organization
theory imperatives of size and strategy.
Citation
Masters Of Business Administration (MBA) DegreePublisher
University of Nairobi School of Business
Description
A Thesis Presented In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Award of the Degree
of Doctor of Philosophy in Business Administration, Department of Business
Administration, School of Business, University of Nairobi.