Top management team characteristics and organizational culture in Private and Public Universities in Nairobi

Abstract

The study analyzed the effect of TMT characteristics on organizational culture in charted universities, both private and public, with operations in and around Nairobi. Upper echelon theory and Schein's model of organizational culture were the two theories that the study was anchored on. The study applied the descriptive research design. The study focused on sixteen private and public universities with operations in and around Nairobi as the target population. The study population was small therefore a census study was conducted. Inferential and descriptive statistics were used to analyze quantitative data. Descriptive statistics entailed frequencies, standard deviation, and mean. For inferential statistics, correlation analysis was used. The study concluded an insignificant association between gender and organizational culture of private and public universities in Nairobi as the computed p value was higher than the critical p value. The study also established a significant association between age of employees, level of education, years worked in the university, the number of years working under the current role, size of the university and functional background on the organizational culture since the estimated p values for age of the employees, number of years working under the current role, level of education, years worked in the university, size of the university and functional background were less than the critical p value. The study recommended that gender should not be taken as a crucial factor influencing the organizational culture within the private and public universities in Nairobi since gender was insignificantly associated with the organizational culture. The study recommended that the top management team should comprise those with much experience in the field since there was a significant association between the employees’ age and organizational culture. Study’s recommendation is that top management team be well educated since the executives' cognitive capability and highly trained senior managers can better understand their internal and external environments, thus equip the institution with the necessary skills to be innovative, thus influences the cultural behavior. The study also recommended that the length of service in years of TMT in the university should be long to be well conversant with the organizational culture. The study further recommended that TMTs should spend more time in organizations to become more committed to the organization's objectives since more time will be able to convince other employees to adapt to the organization’s culture and encourage greater diversity in terms of information and perspectives. The study also recommended that private and public universities in Nairobi should have more top management team members with diverse backgrounds and this will tend to have higher chances of conflict management among members, which will lead to better organizational culture. The study further recommended that the senior management team in these private and public universities in Nairobi should be coming from different functional backgrounds since the managers from different functional backgrounds have different experiences resulting in variations in their views, knowledge and attitudes, which impact on organizational culture.