Influence Of Iso 9001:2008 Quality Management System On Academic Staff’s Service Delivery In Public Universities In Kenya

ABSTRACT

The implementation of International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001:2008 Quality Management System (QMS) in education has become a debated trend on whether or not the certification is appropriate for the Education sector. Some scholars consider its adoption as a strategic decision by educational institutions to ensure delivery of quality service therein while others do not. Complaints by some academic staff and students in public universities in Kenya on the impact of ISO 9001:2008 QMS casts doubt on their level of satisfaction with it based on non conformities. For instance between 2012 and 2015 one university recorded 5310 non-conformities and another one recorded 5340 non-conformities which were higher than the other 12 Universities that recorded below 3940 non-conformities in examination processing, curriculum review, teaching process and provision of quality teaching/learning facilities. The purpose of this study therefore was to establish the influence of ISO 9001:2008 QMS on academic staff’s service delivery in public universities in Kenya. Objectives of the study were to; establish the influence of ISO 9001:2008 QMS on teaching, determine the influence of ISO 9001:2008 QMS on management of examinations, determine the influence of ISO 9001:2008 QMS on quality teaching/ learning facilities and establish the influence of ISO 9001:2008 QMS on curriculum review in public Universities. A conceptual framework was used to show the influence of the independent variable ISO 9001:2008 QMS on the dependent variables: teaching, management of examinations, quality teaching/learning facilities and curriculum review in public universities. Descriptive and correlational research designs were adopted. Study population was 759 academic staff consisting of 420 from one university and 333 from the other. Fisher’s formula was used to determine sample size of 254 teaching staff. Proportionate and purposive sampling was used to select 254 teaching staff, that is, 142 from one university and 112 from another; and saturated sampling was used to select 4 students’ leader and 2 management representatives. Questionnaire, interview schedule and document analysis guide were used to collect data. Face and content validity of the instruments was determined by experts in education administration. The content validity indices for the four instruments were academic staff questionnaire .89, interview schedule for academic staff .78, observation guide .89 and document analysis guide .89 This means that all the instruments were valid. Cronbach’s alpha was used to determine reliability of the instruments using 75(10%) of study population whereby a coefficient of .7 and above at a p-value of 0.05 was considered reliable. The instruments were reliable as their coefficients exceeded .7 at p-value of .05. Quantitative data was analyzed using frequency counts, means, percentages and regression analysis. Qualitative data was transcribed and analyzed in emergent themes and sub-themes. The study established that ISO 9001:2008 QMS had significant influence on teaching, management of examination, provision of quality teaching /learning facilities and curriculum review such that for every one unit increase in ISO 9001:2008 QMS conformities in teaching, management of examination, provision of quality teaching /learning facilities and curriculum review improved academic staff’s service delivery by .738 units, .689 units, .617 units and .479 units respectively. This means that when non conformities decline there is improvement in academic staff’s service delivery in public universities. ISO 9001:2008 QMS was a significant predictor of academic staff’s service delivery in the four areas; teaching, (F (1,252) = 32.328, P