| dc.description.abstract | The universities are under pressure to adopt and put in place Quality
Management and Quality Management Systems. The study investigated
internal factors perceived to be influencing institutionalization of ISO
9001:2008 QMS in the Management of Universities: A case of Maseno
University. The objectives of the study were: to establish the influence
of university management’s commitment in institutionalization of ISO
9001: 2008 QMS; to determine the contributions of quality procedures
towards institutionalization of ISO 9001:2008 QMS; to establish the
roles of quality policy on institutionalization of ISO 9001:2008QMS; to
identify the challenges the university faces in institutionalization of ISO
9001:2008 QMS. The study was guided by institutional theory which
considers the processes by which structures, rules, norms and routines
become established. It adopted a case study design. The study targeted
Maseno university students and employees totaling 9,500. The sample of
378 students and 344 employees was sampled using random sampling.
Two sets of questionnaires were used, one for the employees and the
other for the students. Also an interview guide for the management
representative was also used to collect data. To determine content
validity the questionnaire was ascertained through an approval by the
senior academic staff of the department of Educational Administration
and Planning, University of Nairobi. A pilot study was carried out to
check the clarity and completeness of the data collection instrument. The
reliability of the instruments was determined using Pearson moment
coefficient and the correlation coefficient of 0.52 for the students, 0.92
for the employees which was considered reliable. Descriptive statistic
such as percentages and frequencies were used to analyze data. The
findings of the study indicated that 64.34% of the employees and
61.06% of the students agree that the university management
commitment has influenced institutionalization of the ISO 9001:2008
QMS. 52.17% of the employees agree that quality procedures are
readily accessible at the place of work. The study also revealed that
majority of the employees 83.47% indicated that quality policy is in
place to define quality. Most of the students 61.06% agreed that quality
policy makes staff committed to serving students. 35.65% of the
employees agree that ISO based QMS is bureaucratic, 37.39% of the
employees perceive ISO based QMS to be time consuming. 39.06% of
the employees indicated that it is not relevant to university. The
following are the conclusions of the study; the university management
commitment is important in the process of institutionalization of ISO
9001:2008 QMS, quality procedures contribute towards
institutionalization process, quality policy in the university enhances
employees’ commitment towards duty. The management commitment is
seen through employee inspiration, support for ISO based QMS
activities and practicing ISO requirements. It was also found out that the
quality procedures are readily accessible at the university. The findings
consequently influencing institutionalization of ISO 9001:2008 QMS. A
number of challenges were found out facing the university in
institutionalization which include: poor change management,
favouritism in selection of employees for ISO training, non involvement
of employees and students, poor coordination between departments.
Based on the research findings the study recommends that the university
management should develop a mechanism of translating the
management commitment into individual employees commitment
inorder to successfully institutionalize the quality management system:
the university should tailor the quality procedures to suit the needs and
processes of the different departments: the university should establish
difficulties facing the employees in translating quality policy into
realizable work related goals: lastly the university should establish a
mechanism of detecting the challenges of institutionalization of ISO
9001:2008 QMS. | en_US |
