The extent to which public universities in Kenya experience managerial and environmental challenges
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Date
2014Author
Mathooko, Francis M
Ogutu, Martin
Language
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The environment in which organisations operate is continuously changing, thereby posing challenges to the
organisations, and higher education institutions are no exception. This study was undertaken to understand the
managerial and environmental challenges faced by public universities in Kenya. The study design was
descriptive and utilized a cross-sectional survey of all the public universities in Kenya through administration of
a structured questionnaire to the top management team. Secondary data were collected from published works and,
universities and government documents in public domain in order to corroborate the data collected from the
primary sources. Positive responses were received from 63 respondents out of 91, yielding a 69.4 percent
response rate. Of the respondents, 76 percent had basic training in the sciences and only 3 percent in business; 79
percent had no training in management and only 8 percent each had training in management at postgraduate
diploma and postgraduate degree levels. The universities faced managerial challenges ‘to a greater extent’ than
they faced environmental challenges. The control function of management, and competitive and economic
macro-economic factors posed the highest challenges. A significant difference (p<0.05) in the managerial and
environmental challenges existed between new and old universities, and rural and urban universities,
respectively. There was significant difference (p<0.05) and no significant difference (p<0.05) among the three
categories of public universities (old, new and university colleges) in managerial and environmental challenges,
respectively. The results indicate that the managerial and environmental challenges experienced by public
universities in Kenya could be related to lack of training in management. The results further indicate that public
universities in Kenya are dependent on the environment in which they operate and, therefore, the study
contributes to the environment-dependence theory of organizations.
Citation
Mathooko, F. M., & Ogutu, M. (2014). The Extent to Which Public Universities in Kenya Experience Managerial and Environmental Challenges. European Journal of Business and Management, 6(5), 72-84.Publisher
University of Nairobi