Stakeholders’ perceptions on the influence of integration of information and communication technology on academic and human resource management in Kenyan public universities

Abstract

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has become an important tool in modern management of universities because of its ability to facilitate acquisition, use and management of information that is crucial for decision-making. In Kenya, despite the many efforts and initiatives that have been put into place by the government, the private sector and the institutions themselves to leverage the use of ICT in public universities, little is known on how this integration has enhanced institutional management process. This study thus sought to investigate the stakeholders‟ perceptions on the influence of integration of ICT on academic and human resource management (HRM) in public universities in Kenya. It adopted a descriptive survey research design with the target population comprising of all the 240,551 students, their 5,189 lecturers, 22 registrars administration and 22 registrars academics. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the three oldest public universities in the country namely: University of Nairobi, Moi and Kenyatta Universities from a list of seven initial ones that were started before the year 2012. The same method was used to select three registrars‟ academics and three registrars‟ administration from the sampled institutions. Determination of sample sizes for the lecturers and students was done using the Cochran‟s formula and then proportional sampling employed to obtain samples as follows: 132 students from the University of Nairobi; 123 from Moi and 119 from Kenyatta. The same was applied to obtain 167; 77 and 100 lecturers from the three universities respectively. The study population was thus 724 respondents. Questionnaires were used to collect data and their content validity was determined through expert judgment. Based on data from a pilot study, a Cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.79 was obtained for students‟ questionnaire; 0.73 for lecturers‟; 0.82 for registrars‟ academics and 0.80 for registrars‟ administration. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze data. The study found that the universities had invested in requisite ICT based programs for supporting academic and HRM processes. Students also had necessary ICT skills for using the automated academic management services. Both processes (academics and HRM) however had inadequate number of computers while lecturers lacked the necessary skills for effective interaction with the automated services. The study also established that ICT integration had a positive influence on academic management processes. However, the integration was only perceived to have positive influence on HR administrative functions such as employee‟s record management and payroll administration and not on the more strategic applications such as staff recruitment and selection, training and development as well as performance management. The key impediments to effective integration of ICT were noted to be lack of users‟ awareness on its capabilities; insufficient funding; inadequate ICT staff and their low work motivation. The study recommended that public universities need to review their ICT strategic plans so as to add more impetus to increased budgetary allocation for ICT integration; investment in requisite hardware and software programmes; improved numbers, competencies and motivation of the ICT staff; as well as capacity building among the service providers and users within the universities.