Effect of People Management on
Performance Excellence in Universities
in Kenya
Introduction
World Class Universities are widely used to describe the top universities in the world (WCU).
According to Salmi (2009), colleges have been using the phrase "World Class University" as a
catchphrase for the past ten years in an effort to raise the caliber of their instruction and build
their capability for international competition. According to Salmi (2009), university reputation
on a worldwide scale is becoming a more important factor as it guides prospective students
looking to enroll in the world's top universities. Altbach and Salmi (2011) contend that rather
than self-declaring, the WCU's prominent status is known due to international recognition. In an
endeavor to achieve world-class status and increase their level of competitiveness on the
international stage, several universities and countries throughout the world have taken a variety
of techniques. Salmi (2009) describes WCU as having a high concentration of talents for
teaching staff, researchers, and students, abundant resources making an excellent learning
environment, favorable governance that supports strategic vision, innovation, and creativity,
flexible governance that gives room for decision making, and efficiency in management even
though different nations have different cultural, social, and economic backgrounds. Similary,
High caliber professors are one of the main forces behind creating an excellent university,
according to Altbach (2004; Khoon, et al., 2005). People are identified as one of the enablers to
reaching exceptional results in models of excellence like the European Foundation Quality
Model (EFQM) (EFQM, 2013).
Kenya's Higher Education Sector
The government expanded access to higher education by converting tertiary colleges into
university colleges, and then into full-fledged universities, in order to achieve the Vision 2030.
This acknowledges the crucial part that higher education institutions play in building the human
capital needed to create a knowledge-driven economy. However, there are several difficulties
that Kenya's HEIs must overcome if they are to realize the knowledge-based economy that is
envisioned in the Vision 2030. Odhiambo (2011) asserts that the numerous difficulties faced by
HEIs in Kenya have contributed to a decline in the quality of higher education. This decline has
been exacerbated by recent expansion, which has brought with it unhealthy competition,
overcrowding, a shortage of skilled labor, and subpar facilities that have contributed to low
academic standards. The poor caliber has consequently impacted the graduates' employability
due to a lack of employability skills (Kalei, 2014). This has also been connected to an excessive
reliance on part-time lecturers, which has led to a decline in public interest as a result of the
caliber of instruction (Mbirithi, 2013). Gudo, Olel, and Oanda (2011) express a similar opinion
and blame the low quality on a lack of lecturers, ineffective administration, insufficient money,
and inadequate service delivery to the students, including sports and other welfare programs.
Inadequate research funding and a lack of research infrastructure make it harder to conduct
specialized local research, which are other factors limiting universities' productivity. As part of
the fundamental mission of HEIs, many faculty members are not actively engaged in research.
According to Chacha (2004), this is due to a variety of factors, including an uneven workload,
part-time employment, and a lack of staff commitment to conducting research.
The identified challenges could further explain the Kenya’s HEIs poor global academic rankings
while United States of America (USA) and the United Kingdom (UK) based universities
dominate in the international academic ranking with South African based universities namely;
University of Cape Town (UCT) and Stellenbosch University (SU) leading in Africa. According
to 2015-2016 The ranking released in January 2016, one Kenyan university, the University of
Nairobi featured in the THE World University Ranking for the first time on the top 601-800
range at position 697 and position 2 in Africa on impact and openness. Similarly, Wanzala(2015)
raises the same concern that in Qs World University ranking 2015, UON was the only Kenyan
university that ranked in top 900 at position 701. He further observes universities from South
Africa dominated the top position in Africa.
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