By: Mohamed Omar Abdullahi, Godfrey Kinyua
Abstract
County governments in Kenya are working on achieving maximum quality possible both on the services and products offered. As a result all the Counties have opted for the adoption of Total Quality Management. Despite the widespread use of Total Quality Management still most of the Counties have not achieved the expected performance. However it is not clear why this undesirable situation persists. Therefore, this study investigated the influence of total quality management practices on the performance of Garissa County Government, Kenya. The specific objectives were to examine the influence of process management, strategic quality planning, customer focus and employee relation on the performance of Garissa County Government, Kenya. This study was anchored by four theories namely quality management theory, structural contingency theory, systems theory and customer relationship management theory. This study applied a descriptive survey research design. The target population was 166 respondents comprising of County Executive, County Chief Officers, Directors, Administrators and County Officers. Stratified sampling and simple random sampling was used. The sample size was 66 respondents. A semi-structure questionnaire was used as a data collection instrument. Content analysis technique was used to analyse qualitative data and quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. Inferential statistics will involve the use of multiple regression analysis to test the relationship between variables. The study established that process management, strategic quality planning, customer focus and employee relations had a positive and significant influence on the performance of Garissa County government. Process management enables the County government of Garissa to take control of their myriad processes and constantly strive to optimize them to create a more efficient organization better capable of delivering its end products and/or services and assists the management of the County government realizing their overarching goals for the County as a whole. Strategic quality plan is the key to determining the right quality initiatives for the County government of Garissa. Having a customer focus is usually a strong contributor to the overall success of a County government and involves ensuring that all aspects of the County put its customers’ satisfaction first. The County government of Garissa places more emphasis on positive employee relations in order to enhance a healthy relationship between its employees. The study recommends that the County government of Garissa should implement their process management by first defining the steps involved in a work process so that they can determine what can be improved, what can be automated, and how it can be tracked. For the County government of Garissa to achieve its vision it should align the annual goals to its major change initiatives or quality programs and integrate them into the strategic plan. The County government of Garissa should focus on customer wants and expectations, provide personalized and quality customer experience, deliver right services at the right time and focus on building constructive relationship with customers. The County government of Garissa should identify factors influencing their employee relations, drive the integration of employee relations processes with other people management/human capital functions and monitor and review the effectiveness of employee relations strategies and policies in line with County strategic goals.
Key Words: Total Quality Management, Organization Performance, organization, Performance of Garissa county government, Kenya
URL: https://www.ijcab.org/201800565-2/ View Full Article
This is an open-access article published and distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, United States unless otherwise stated.
About the Authors:
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Mohamed Omar Abdullahi- MBA Student, School of Business, Kenyatta University, Kenya
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Dr. Godfrey Kinyua, PhD– School of Business, Kenyatta University, Kenya, email: jefkinyua@gmail.com