Operations Management Practices and Performance of Telecommunications Firms in Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of operations management practices on the performance of telecommunication firms in Kenya. The specific objectives were to: determine whether there is an effect of design operations management practices on performance of telecommunication firms in Kenya, find out whether operations management practices affects the performance of telecommunications firms in Kenya, and establish the relationship between systems operations management practices on performance of telecommunication companies in Kenya. The research design used in the study was a survey design. The target population comprised firms in the Telecommunications industry in Kenya namely: Safaricom Limited, Airtel Kenya, Orange and Essar telecom which operated under the brand name Yu Mobile, Equitel Limited, Jamii Telecom, Sema mobile services, Zuku and Liquid Telecom. A census survey was conducted since the number of firms was small. The study sought to collect primary as well as secondary data using a structured questionnaire instrument. Supplementary information was obtained from relevant publications and websites of these firms. Descriptive statistics such as mean scores, standard deviation, frequency distributions and percentages were used to analyze data in the study. In order to investigate the relationship between the dependent and independent variables, the study conducted a multiple regression analysis. The results of the study revealed that majority of the respondents in the organizations studied (76.9%) were in supervisory positions. An analysis of the firms indicated that they all had an operations management department in place as shown by the 100% of the respondents who indicated that there existed an operations management department in their companies. From the study findings, it was established that there was a significant effect of the design operations management practices on the performance of the telecommunication firms in Kenya. The companies should invest more on design improvement strategies in order to spur their organizational performance. The study further established that there was a significant effect of the operations management practices adopted by the telecommunication firms in Kenya on their performance. The firms should therefore invest on the quality improvement of their products and services. On the firms’ competitive strategies, there is need to consider their customers concentration in choosing the location of their facilities. This is aimed at reducing their operating costs leading to an increase in their financial performance. The results of the study also revealed that there was no significant effect of systems operations management practices on the performance of the telecommunication firms. However, there was a positive relationship between the systems operations practices and the performance of the firms, hence, there is need to pay attention to the maintenance and enhance inspection of products and service delivery. Other vital areas of operations management practices that needs due attention are supply chain management practices, scheduling practices and inventory management practices. The improvement on the areas stated is expected to increase the performance of telecommunication firms in Kenya. The study recommends that operations managers should consider utilization and restructuring of operations management policies. Finally, it is recommended that firms consider offering more capacity development opportunities to their employees through mentoring, coaching, training in order to enhance operations efficiency