Perception of academic staff in Kenyan public universities towards application of performance appraisal results in training and promotion decisions

Abstract

Kenyan public universities have experienced a decline in performance exemplified by enrolment of less than 35% of qualifying students, near collapse of physical facilities, lack of relevance of curricular and low quality of teaching and research (Chacha- Nyaigoti, 2004; Gudo et al., 2011). Stakeholder demands for accountability have escalated inevitably cascading to academic staff, the principal actors in university operations. Despite the reputed usefulness of performance appraisal systems in ameliorating such challenges (Boswell and Boudreau, 2002; Fletcher, 2002), universities worldwide have hitherto adopted a laissez- faire attitude towards these systems, claiming that they are managerialist and, therefore, inappropriate to a collegial context which value collaborative and developmental tasks. Using survey data from 276 multi-disciplinary academic staff and interviews with 3 human resource managers from 7 Kenyan universities, this study examined the perceptions of academic staff on application of performance appraisal results in training and promotion decisions. Descriptive statistics, correlation and content analyses were used to analyze data. The study revealed that respondents were ambivalent as to whether performance assessment systems were used for developmental or managerialist purposes. Nevertheless, univerisity funding support for academic staff training and performance appraisal purpose of providing feedback yielded significant results (β = 0.30, p < 0.05). Moreover, the study found a relationship between managerialist performance appraisal purposes and promotion decisions (β = 0.325, p < 0.01). Consistent with the literature, the study concluded that performance appraisal systems are not entrenched in public universities in Kenya. It was recommended that top management investigate the barriers to implementation of performance appraisal systems. The findings of the study may contribute to the theory and practice by facilitating better design of performance appraisal systems. Future research could focus on contextual variables and adopt qualitative design for establishing causal relationships.