QUALITY MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AND PERFORMANCE OF ENERGY SECTOR PARASTATALS IN KENYA

Abstract

In today’s highly dynamic business environment, the demand for quality is one of the most critical survival elements for most organizations. Kenyan energy sector parastatals endeavor to improve their performance through operational efficiency that has led them to adapt Quality Management Practices enshrined in ISOs Quality Management Principles that provide guidelines and rules that govern action in organizations. Parastatals are under tremendous pressure to control their costs and improve their services and products to satisfy the needs of the customers. Though parastatals in Kenya have adopted quality management practices, the relationship of the adopted quality management practices and performance of the energy sector parastatals has not been empirically tested. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between quality management practices and performance of energy sector parastatals. The objectives of the study were to: determine the extent to which top management commitment contributes to parastatals performance; establish effects of continuous improvement of products and services on parastatals performance; find out the extent of employee involvement in energy sector parastatals and its effect on performance, and; establish the extent of customer focus in the parastatals and how it is linked to overall parastatals performance. This study was a descriptive survey. The population of this study was the 1066 management level employees from nine energy sector parastatals in Kenya.  Stratified sampling was applied to select 400 respondents from the population. This study utilized questionnaire as the data collection instrument. Both primary and secondary data was used. Secondary data was sourced from parastatals annual financial statements, regarding to profitability. Analysis was through descriptive statistics, regression and correlation which were through Statistical package for Social Sciences (SPSS v 16). Presentation of results for both the descriptive and inferential statistics was through tables. Study results indicated that top management support, employee involvement and customer focus were significant factors in affecting parastatal performance. Continuous improvement did not have a significant influence on parastatal performance. The study makes the following recommendations. Firstly, parastatals should focus on increasing the direction and leadership provided by top management in enhancing quality. Secondly, empowerment of front-line staff and technicians could be fundamental to achieving and improving the level of service quality. Third, parastatals should ensure that communication in the organization is free and smooth. Lastly, the parastatals should build a strong culture that is built around the customer. A strong culture which enhances customer orientation and an understanding of service quality is identified as crucial for the successful management of quality principles.

Keywords: top management commitment, continuous improvement, products and services, customer focus and employee involvement