OPERATIONAL PROCESSES AND PERFORMANCE OF PRIVATE CHARTERED UNIVERSITIES IN KENYA

Abstract

In today’s world managers play a very important role in ensuring organisations achieve their objectives and private universities are not any different for theme survive the turbulent and dynamic environment they need to align their internal operational processes in order to improve performance. This study sought to investigate the influence of operational capabilities on the performance of private chartered universities in Kenya. The study was anchored on the resource based view theory and the dynamic capabilities theory. The study was pegged on a positivist research philosophy while the research method employed was a mix of both qualitative and quantitative techniques. The research collection tool was subjected to validity tests where the lowest acceptable Cronbach alpha threshold was 0.7. Data was collected from all the twenty five private chartered universities in Kenya. The sample size was 230 respondents from all the private chartered universities in Kenya using self-administered questionnaires. The data was then cleaned, coded and analysed using SPSS software. The study used binary logistic regression to carry out the inferential statistics. Binary logistic model was fitted so as to establish the cause-and-effect relationship existing among the study variables. From the research findings private universities that had strong processes were 1.640 times more likely to increase their log odds of recording improved performance. The study also conducted diagnostic tests which were recommended for logistic regression models. The study therefore recommended that private universities need to invest in technology that would enable them to automate their processes and ease the flow of processes from one department to another. The study also recommended that universities need to integrate all their university processes in order to ensure seamless transactions for students.