Organizational Systems and Program Performance in Kenya Non-governmental Organizations

Abstract

In today's climate of scarce economic resources, the pressure for nonprofits organizations to show quantifiable results is greater than ever; as a result, an organization without a strong sense of strategic direction, system management and the internal data to leverage their performance may not be at competitive edge. In order for Nongovernmental organizations to perform above average, system management ought to be the integral part of their organization. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between organization systems and program performance in Kenya NGO’s. Purposive sampling was used to select thirty NGOs operating in Nairobi, one respondent from finance or human resource or procurement/supplies and project management units were selected through simple random sampling and questionnaire administered physically. The questionnaire response rate was 91%. Most respondents of respondents agree that organization systems affect overall program performance of Kenya NGOs. Organization’s performance is significant with fairly strong negative correlation with continuous improvement, factual approaches to decision making, process approach to management, use of standard operating procedures. On contrary only 14.6% of respondent agree that management system is well documented and performance gaps are regularly identified in their organization. The study findings infer that use of system management approaches in defining the activities necessary to achieve desired results, evaluating risks, measuring of the capabilities of key activities have a major impact on organization program performance. Regression analysis concludes that 24% of the corresponding change in the organizations performance is explained by organization systems. The study recommends that NGOs should integrate, measure, monitor their organization system management for improved performance to accrue the benefits associated with: increased processing delivery speed, improved quality, enhanced employee satisfaction, improved communication, and increased profitability. Keywords: Organization system management; business performance; continuous improvement; factual approach to decision making; process approach to management; standard operating procedures; business performance.