Influence of Strategic Human Resource Management Practices on Performance of Public Universities in Kenya

Purpose: The objective of the study was to determine the effect of Strategic Human Resource Management Practices (SHRMPs) on performance of public universities. Methodology: This study was essentially guided by the Resource Based Theory, as exemplified by the philosophical inclination of the study was positivist ontology. The research used a descriptive research design, in a census approach. The target population of the study were all public universities in Kenya. Data was collected from 31 public universities in Kenya with the aid of a self-administered questionnaire. Out of the 117 questionnaires that were distributed, 110 were returned and were found to be usable providing a 71% response rate. Descriptive statistics and linear regression analyses were used to analyze the data. Findings: The main finding of the study indicated that there was a statistically significant relationship between the bundle of SHRMPs (rigorous recruitment, staff training, reward management and performance management), and performance of public universities in Kenya. The hypothesis of the study was that SHRMPs do not have an effect on the performance of public universities in Kenya. This finding was determined to be in tandem with the Resource Based Theory (Barney, 2001), which, among other points of emphasis, stresses the centrality of leveraging on people as key resources of an enterprise.  The finding also resonated with empirical literature, including Al-Khaled & Chung (2020), who found that that entities which adopted strategic human resource management practices were able to sustainably improve their performance, and Mathushan & Kengatharan  (2022), who found that the bundle of strategic human resource management practices, consisting of training, rewarding and performance management practices did positively impact on organizational performance. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: The finding of this study, that SHRM practices positively and significantly influence the performance of public universities, are arguably expansionary to the Resource Based Theory (RBT), as proponed by Barney (2001). Although the Resource Based Theory does not directly address strategic human resource management practices as elements of performance, it postulated that business entities needed to focus internally to activate resources, the most important one of which is the people resource.  It is the people resource which enables such entities to achieve competitive advantage in their operations, given that it is the human resource which mobilizes, and creates value from the other resources within the enterprise. In this respect, therefore, it follows that every intervention made towards creating and enhancing the human resource capacity, including, as conceptualized in this study; rigorous recruitment, staff training, rewarding them and strategically managing their performance, does count, towards enhancing the contribution of the human resources, as exemplified by the Resource Based Theory, and consequently, activating the essential asset, towards competitive organizational performance.  More directly, this empirical finding, regarding the positive influence of strategic human resource management practices on performance of public universities in Kenya has implications with respect to the public universities in Kenya. The main one is that, the public universities ought to take deliberate measures in determining and selecting appropriate SHRMPs. Such practices, according to the Resource Based Theory (Barney, 2001), are expected to be valuable, inimitable, and rare and may not be substitutable, in ensuring that public universities, like any other organizations, are able to sustainably achieve competitive advantage in their markets.  This is further corroborated by the findings of Sagwa, K’Obonyo and Ogutu (2014), who averred that investing in human resources was crucial in promoting organizational performance.   It is also the considered opinion of this study that, the finding that SHRMPs positively influenced the performance of public universities in Kenya, constituted new knowledge, at least, in extending the Resource Based Theory, as well as adding to the empirical literature with regard to strategic human resource management practices. Furthermore, the implications of the finding made, are more than likely to be relevant beyond the public universities sub-sector, and probably to include the entire public sector and, indeed, all organizations in general.  To this end, therefore;  human resource managers, HR departments, and units within public universities and other public and private entities, other human resource management practitioners, policy makers in HR-oriented  public and private sector, as well as the community of researchers in human resource management and the related other disciplines, are likely to find the finding of this study useful. This is particularly considering the study’s recommendation that organizations have to identify and adopt appropriate bundles of SHRMPs that would reliably enable them to attain and sustain their competitive levels of performance.