| dc.description.abstract | University education in Kenya has undergone major reforms in the last ten years which
have come with challenges to employees and universities. This study was motivated by
the need to understand how universities in Kenya responded to these reforms, focusing on
their leadership which is critical in both managing the transformation and creating
academic excellence. To realize these goals the universities need a proactive leadership
and a motivated workforce which transformational leadership can provide as it has the
ability to motivate and empower employees to better organizational performance. This
study set out to answer three research questions. What are the factors that influence the
relationship between transformational leadership and performance of these universities?
Is the effect of transformational leadership and the performance of these universities
direct or is it mediated by other factors? Are there factors that moderate the relationship
between transformational leadership and employee outcomes of these universities? The
study employed a positivist approach to research and used a descriptive survey research
design. Data was collected in April 2014 from the top leadership of the 52 fully-fledged
universities in Kenya using a questionnaire. A response rate of 73% was realized.
Descriptive statistics were used to obtain a general understanding of the universities
while different statistical techniques such as regression analysis, correlation analysis and
multiple regression analysis were used to analyse the data and test the hypotheses. The
study had eight hypotheses. The findings of the study support hypothesis one, showing a
positive and statistically significant relationship between transformational leadership and
the performance of universities. Hypotheses two and five are supported as all the
indicators of organizational characteristics show a positive relationship with
transformational leadership and with performance except for reactor strategy as expected.
The results support hypotheses three and six on the relationship between transformational
leadership and employee outcomes and employee outcomes and performance. The
findings of this study do not support a moderating effect by leader-member relations on
the relationship between transformational leadership and employee outcomes. The results
of hypothesis seven show that employee outcomes fully mediate the relationship between
transformational leadership and performance while organizational characteristics show
mixed results. Hypothesis eight predicted that all the predictor variables would have a
joint effect on performance that would be stronger than that of each of the predictor
variables. The results, however, show a joint effect of employee outcomes, management
systems and leader-member relations on performance that is stronger than that of each of
these predictor variables. Transformational leadership, structure, strategy and technology
did not contribute to the joint effect. In summary, it emerged, that transformational
leadership behaviour of the top leadership of universities in Kenya led to high employee
and organizational performance and that the top leadership of these universities is able to
match their strategy with the correct structure, systems and technology to achieve
organizational effectiveness. The results of the study have important implications for
theory, policy and practice for the Kenyan universities. Specifically the findings suggest
that universities need visionary leadership and sound policies that will strengthen their
position as a fundamental sector in generating human capital for the county‟s
developmental and economic needs as well as the development of training programmes in
leadership skills and competences in transformational leadership for the leaders of these
institutions | en_US |
