Iso Certification and Firm Performance of the Iso Certified Companies in Packaging in Kenya

Abstract

Performance of any organization in a competitive environment is affected by both internal and exogenous factors. Internal ones include resources. In as much a firm is endowed with a strong capital outlay, its performance may be compromised. To differentiate itself from the rest in the market and realize some competitive edge firms need to embrace the quality philosophy. This is the best frontier for driving organizational performance. This project aimed to ascertain the role of ISO certification on the overall performance of firms operating in Kenya’s packaging domain. The study’s design is cross sectional and descriptive, and it targeted 14 registered packaging companies and hence was a census study. Questionnaires were administered on the middle and operational staff of the respondent firms. The data collected to establish the influence of certification on company performance was analyzed with the aid of statistical software (SPSS-21). The findings of the study were presented by measures of central tendency and dispersion namely standard deviation, and mean. The study findings indicated that majority of the firms (40%) had already been ISO-certified for more than ten years while 30 % of the companies had been ISO-certified for a period less than five years and a period between 6 and 10 years respectively. The study established presence of a positive correlation of the study variables indicating that ISO certification positively influenced the performance of ISO certified packaging companies in Nairobi. The study findings established that ISO certification and continuous improvement had the highest influence on companies’ performance with (M= 2.2 SD = 1.09), ISO certification and regulatory requirements with (M=1.6, SD=0.802), ISO Certification and Process Approach with (M= 1.6, SD 0.802), ISO Certification and Workers Training Programs with (M=1.2 SD=0.748) and system advance to administration with (M=1.1, SD=0.648) respectively.