| dc.description.abstract | The implementation of performance appraisal systems (PAS) has not been very
successful in most public universities. Despite the implementation of PAS since
2005 in the public universities, their performance is still not comparable with the
private sector to enable it meet the ever changing, competitive global world as well
as meeting the demands of a well-informed citizen. For example, employees of
Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) and Kenyatta
University (KU) have complained of poor PAS. Most employees have no full
understanding of the PAS. The general goal of this study was to determine the
effect of performance contracting’s strategic elements on the implementation of
performance appraisal systems in public Universities within Mount Kenya Region.
The study was guided by the following objectives: to determine how organization
structure influences implementation of performance appraisal systems in the
public Universities in Mount Kenya Region, to determine how monitoring and
evaluation influences implementation of performance appraisals in public
Universities in Mount Kenya Region, to determine how employee attitudes
influences implementation of performance appraisals in public Universities in
Mount Kenya Region and to examine the extent to which training influences
implementation of performance appraisal in public Universities in Mount Kenya
Region. The study was informed by agency theory, the expectancy theory, the
goal-setting theory and theory of planned behavior. This study adopted descriptive
survey research design. The target population of this study was the staff, human
resource officers, administrators and finance officers in the seven (7) chartered
public universities as they are considered as the ones directly involved in the
implementation of performance appraisal systems. The target population for this
study consisted of 2423 respondents from which a sample size was drawn. The
sample size was 136 respondents from the 7 chartered public universities in Mount
Kenya Region. Stratified random sampling was used in this study. A questionnaire
was used as the research instrument for this study. Quantitative data was analyzed
by the use of descriptive statistics using SPSS (Version 20) and figures and tables
were used to present the results. The study found that organizational structure,
monitoring and evaluation, employee attitude and training had a positive and
significant effect on the implementation of performance appraisals in public
Universities in Mount Kenya Region. The study also concluded that monitoring
and evaluation of projects helped various project stakeholders including the clients
and project financiers which helped to improve the implementation of performance
appraisal systems. In addition, use of monitoring and evaluation framework put in
place contributes directly to the quality of PAS. Universities must increase the
awareness of the employees about its goals, targets and strategies. This will make
it easier and smoother the introduction of PAS and afterwards the system itself
will help to increase this awareness | en_US |
