Influence of Organizational Politics on Lecturers’ Job Performance in Public Universities in Kenya: a Case of the University of Nairobi

Abstract

Higher education is a major contributor to high skills development necessary in the economic development of all nations. However, a variety of factors, including organizational politics, have an impact on how well this important role is performed, for example, at public universities. This thesis examined the impact of organizational politics on the work performance of lecturers in Kenya's public universities, using the University of Nairobi as a case study. The purpose of the study was to evaluate how organizational politics affected public university lecturers' job performance in the areas of workforce diversity, performance appraisal, promotion, organizational climate, and resource allocation. The Organizational Justice Theory and the Organizational Politics Model are the theoretical foundations upon which this study was anchored. In this study, a descriptive survey design was used. Purposive, stratified proportionate sampling and simple random sampling techniques were used to sample 11 deans of faculties, 19 chairs of the departments, 100 lecturers and 100 post graduate students 100 lecturers, Questionnaires, interview guides, and document analysis guides served as the data collection tools. The content validity of the instruments was determined by expert judgement and pretesting instruments while Cronbach alpha method was used to establish reliability; Lecturers’ questionnaire was 0.812 and HoD Questionnaire 0.845. Descriptive statistical analysis and Chi-Square (χ²) test were used to analyze quantitative data which was presented in tables. The study established that organizational politics in: promotion process, performance appraisal process, organizational climate, workforce diversity and resource allocation had significant influence on lecturer’ job performance. The study recommends that the governing Council to enhance fairness in the promotion process; adherence to established policies on provision of feedback in performance appraisal process and utilization of appraisal results so as to improve lecturers’ performance; Council and CUE to regularly review the performance appraisal tool; and provide adequate resources to enhance working environment for effective lecturer performance.