THE ROLE OF PROJECT QUALITY MANAGEMENT PRACTICES ON COMPANY’S COMPETITIVENESS: A CASE STUDY OF SAFARICOM LIMITED PROJECTS
Abstract
The main objective of the study was to establish the role of project quality management practices on company’s competitiveness in Safaricom product development projects. The study specific objectives were to establish the role of process management as a project quality management practice on company’s competitiveness, assess the effect of customer focus as a project quality management practice on company’s competitiveness, examine the influence of organization cultures as a project quality management practice on company’s competitiveness and determine how quality policies as a project quality management practice impacts company’s competitiveness in Safaricom product development projects. The study was informed by total quality management theory, institutional theory, the resource based theory and stakeholder theory. Target population involved 140 employees categorized as top management, programme managers, project managers, project team leaders, project end user stakeholders and project finance. Yamane simplified formula was used to calculate sample size of 103 staff as sample. The study employed questionnaire to collect primary data. Cronbach's alpha was used to measure the reliability of the questionnaire. Data was analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings showed that process management (β1 = 0.207, p<0.05) customer focus (β2= 0.195, p<0.05), organization cultures (β3 = 0.348, p<0.05) and policies (β4 = 0.230, p<0.05) have a positive and significant effect on company competitiveness. Thus, the study concluded that increasing the degree to which process management, organization cultures, customer focus, policies as a project quality management practice is implemented in the firm had an incremental effect on company’s competitiveness. Based on the findings, the study recommended further enhancement through strategic investments, inclusivity in the decision making process, enhancing the monitoring mechanisms and specific or targeted investment in the training of the members to ensure that they are well equipped to drive the objectives of the firm. The firm needs to further involve all the stakeholders within the decision making process, mutually engage with all the stakeholders especially in terms of communication and invest heavily in customer experience management.
Key Words: Process Management, Customer Focus, Organization Cultures, Quality Policies
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