THE MODERATING EFFECT OF ORGANIZATIONAL SIZE IN THE RELATIONSHIP OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AND EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE IN PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES IN KENYA
Charles Opeyio Ngema - Faculty of Business and Management Science, University of Nairobi, Kenya
Prof. Peter KâObonyo (PhD) - Faculty of Business and Management Science, University of Nairobi, Kenya
Prof. Hariet Kidombo (PhD) - Faculty of Business and Management Science, University of Nairobi, Kenya
Prof. Stephen Odock (PhD) - Faculty of Business and Management Science, University of Nairobi, Kenya
ABSTRACT
Organizational size may impact performance either positively or negatively. It is perceived that the size of the organization influences human resource management practices. Most institutions are equipping the human resource management function to fulfill its mandate of effectively managing and developing human capital and aligning with corporate strategy. Private universities in Kenya complement public universities in the provision of university education to fill the gap in demand for university education. Private universities face various challenges in providing quality education, some of which are of a human resources management nature. The objective of the study is to establish the moderating effect of organizational size on the relationship between human resource management practices and employee performance in private universities in Kenya. The study targeted 399 full-time faculty members from the 15 sampled private universities in Kenya. Only 221 responded through structured questionnaires. The study adopted a positivist research philosophy and a cross-sectional descriptive survey design. The study utilized SPSS Version 20 to analyze the data and simple regression analysis to test the hypothesis. The research findings established that organizational size did not have a statistically significant moderating effect on the relationship between human resource management practices and employee performance, specifically full-time faculty.