Relationship between Socialisation and Externalisation on Performance of Public Universities in Kenya

Abstract

The use of organisational learning (OL) to attain organisational performance (OP) has become a major area of concern for organisations. In the past, Kenya's Public Universities had an upper hand in student enrolment through Joint Admission Board Students and full reliance on funding by Government. In the current economic conditions, however, the Kenyan Government has been compelled to gradually reduce funding to Public Universities (Ogolla, Bolo & Muchemi, 2011; Nthiiri, Gachambi & Kathuni, 2014). While past OL studies examine continuous improvement (Pedler et al., 1991); knowledge management (Lyles, 1992); individual learning (Argyris & Schön, 1996); creativity and innovation (Drew & Smith, 1995); organisational memory (Hastie et al., 1984); technologies, beliefs, procedures and cultures (Hung et al. 2011), the effect of socialisation and externalisation on the performance of Kenya's Public Universities remains a relatively new perspective. Hence, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between two OL measures: socialisation and externalisation on performance of Kenyan Public Universities. The study used cross-sectional descriptive survey research design to ascertain the relationship between OL and OP in Kenya's Public Universities. A census survey was used since all the 22 Kenyan Public Universities authorised to offer higher education in Kenya were studied.