The Structure of Corporate Identity Public Universities in Kenya have Adopted

Abstract

Faced with growing competition, universities are beginning to adopt Corporate Identity as a means to attract and maintain competent employees to drive their mission and goals. This study therefore seeks to examine the structure of Corporate Identity that public universities in Kenya have adopted. The research was carried out through the mixed methods design which comprised a descriptive survey for the qualitative data, in-depth interviews and documentary analysis for qualitative data. The target population consisted of ten public universities in Kenya. The sample size was 386 participants which included lecturers, administrative staff, registrars and public relation managers drawn from three older universities and seven recently charted universities. The findings indicated that even though the universities have visible visual identity markers, they share similar colors as well and the various meanings and interpretations of colours, logos and symbols are not well cascaded to the staff members, again as universities the visual Corporate Identity is also geared towards academic advancement and this leads to a disconnect from the administrative staff who may not be able to connect their services directly with elements of academic advancement such as research or curriculum development. The study recommends that the differentiation that exists in the meaning of university colours be fully cascaded to employees to create the unique association.