LEAN THINKING AND PERFORMANCE OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE CHARTERED UNIVERSITIES IN KENYA

Abstract

The changing operating environment of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) worldwidecharacterized by stiff competition, ever increasing student numbers and steadily decreasinggovernment funding has led universities to constantly deal with operations management issuesuch as capacity planning, productivity, quality, efficiency and resource utilization. These trendshave created the need for universities to adopt new business world management practices thatfocus on improving the processes that deliver the services. One approach that has successfully beenused in manufacturing and is increasingly being adopted in the service sector, including HEIs, is
lean thinking. The objectives of this study were: to assess the state of lean thinking in public andprivate chartered universities in Kenya and, to determine the relationship between lean thinkingand performance of these institutions. A cross-sectional survey research design was employed andboth primary and secondary data collected. The study population comprised 49 chartereduniversities which included 31 public and 18 private universities. From a purposive sample of 34universities (20 public and 14 private), a questionnaire was administered to the academicregistrars and 18 public and 10 private universities responded, giving response rates of 90 percenfor public and 71.4 percent for private universities. Secondary data used to measure universityperformance were obtained from relevant websites and respective universities’ records. Resultsindicated firstly, that although no university in Kenya had explicitly declared that it hadimplemented lean thinking, the concept was well known to the institutions. However, institutionalwide application of the concepts was moderate in public but was to a large extent in privateuniversities. Secondly, lean thinking had a significant effect on performance of both public andprivate chartered universities in Kenya but with private universities showing stronger predictivepower. The study affirms that lean thinking can improve performance of public and privatechartered universities in Kenya. Policy makers can use these findings to formulate policies focusedon efficiency, waste elimination and customer value. The findings are further expected to stimulateimplementation of lean thinking in institutions of higher learning in general and universities inparticular across Kenya and other developing countries. A holistic approach to lean thinkingimplementation is recommended for chartered universities in Kenya to improve theirperformance and remain competitive. Future research may concentrate on waste identificationand elimination in Kenyan university processes in order to improve overall performance.

Key Words: Lean thinking, university performance, chartered universities, Kenya