DSpace Repository :: Browsing by Author "Kilika, James M."

Browsing by Author "Kilika, James M."

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Effect of Knowledge Conversion and Knowledge Application on Performance of Commercial Banks in Kenya
(Contemporary Research Center, 2015) Kinyua, Godfrey M.; Muathe, Stephen M. A.; Kilika, James M.
This study examines the effect of knowledge conversion and knowledge application on performance of Commercial Banks in Kenya. The four modes of knowledge conversion process comprising of socialization, externalization, combination and internalization are utilized in this study. knowledge application was measured using indicators comprising of problem solving, elaboration, efficient processes, IT support, and infusion In addition, performance was measured using non-financial indicators comprising new products, speed of response to market crises, product improvement, customer retention, and new processes. The study adopted explanatory and cross-sectional survey design. The target population of this study comprised of all the 43 Commercial Banks in Kenya. The unit of observation was the functional area in each bank. Five areas were identified in each bank comprising human resource, finance, marketing, information communication technology, and operations in each bank. This study used primary and secondary data. Primary data was collected using a semistructured questionnaire. The questionnaire was administered using the drop-and-pick later method. Secondary data was collected using document review and was used to validate information collected from the questionnaire. The response rate in this study was approximately seventy three percent which was considered sufficient for making inferences and drawing conclusions. Quantitative data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics included percentages, frequencies, means, and standard deviations while inferential statistics involved regression analysis. Results from quantitative data analysis were presented using figures and tables. Qualitative data was analysed on the basis of common themes and presented in narrative form. The findings of the study established that knowledge conversion and knowledge application positively influence performance. Management of Commercial Banks should encourage interaction between employees and customers. Moreover, bank’s processes should be used to enhance understanding and translation of knowledge (explicit) into application (tacit knowledge).
Employee Engagement in Personal Health Programmes and Retirement Preparedness among Public Secondary School Teachers’ in Kirinyaga and Murang’a Counties, Kenya
(International Organization of Scientific Research (IOSR), 2019) Gathiira, Titus G.; Muathe, Stephen M. A.; Kilika, James M.
Employee Separation Planning and Retirement Preparedness of Secondary School Teachers in Kenya: What is the effect of HRM Practices?
(International Organization Of Scientific Research (IOSR), 2019) Gathiira, Titus G.; Muathe, Stephen M. A.; Kilika, James M.
Retirement preparedness is realized from a deliberate planning process for the perceived time when an individual exit employer organization. Although the process should start long before the actual separation, some employees take retirement preparedness seriously while many others prepare inadequately or not at all. There is therefore need for prudent management of retirement transition by organizations in achieving their key result areas through promotion of sound human resource practices. Such practices should influence individual employee‟s retirement behaviours in order to empower planning for the separation eventuality and hence retirement preparedness. The purpose of the study was to assess the moderating effect of human resource practices on the relationship between employee separation planning and retirement preparedness among public secondary school teachers‟ in Kirinyaga and Murang‟a Counties, Kenya. The target population was 1,238 teachers aged 50 years and above and employed in public secondary schools by the Teachers Service Commission in Kirinyaga and Murang‟a Counties by 2017. A representative sample of 334 respondents was selected using multistage sampling technique. Data was collected using semi structured questionnaire and interview guide. Logit regression was used to establish the relationships between variables in the study and to test the null hypotheses at P ≤ 0.05 and 95% confidence level. The study found that the relationship between employee separation planning and retirement preparedness was not moderated by human resource practices. The study concluded that human resource practices were an explanatory variable to retirement preparedness and are should be put in place by employer organizations to offer a conducive environment that make employee separation planning and retirement preparedness possible. The study recommended the government to enact frameworks that enforce, monitor and evaluate diversified human resource practices for employer organizations to establish policies and guidelines to facilitate employees‟ engagement in programmes that ensure a continuous process of separation planning for successful retirement preparedness.
Firm Resources, Core Competencies and Sustainable Competitive Advantage: An Integrative Theoretical Framework
(Sciedu Press, 2016) Kabue, Lydiah Wanjiru; Kilika, James M.
A number of studies based on the Resource Based View (RBV) consider resources as the only sources of gaining a source of a firm’s sustainable competitive advantage. According to the RBV approach, there are qualities that resources must possess in order for them to realize sustainable competitive advantage for a firm. The resources must be valuable, rare, inimitable and immobile across firms. Since resources are more often common than rare, more homogenous than heterogeneous and more mobile than immobile, then firms have to combine the resources in order to develop rare and difficult to imitate processes that will act as a source of sustainable competitive advantage. In an industry where resources are common and mobile, a firm therefore needs to build competencies in order to convert these common and mobile resources into processes that are rare and immobile to create a source of sustainable competitive advantage for the firm. A problem therefore exists for firms in a homogenous industry where resources are shared and are neither rare nor heterogeneous across firms in the industry to develop sources of sustainable competitive advantage. In order for these firms to develop sources of competitive advantage with the resources available to them, they would need to develop core competencies to turn the non rare homogenous resources into rare and heterogeneous processes that competitors cannot imitate. The development of these competencies is the product of organizational cultures and values formed over time which can be explained by institutional theory. Further, a firm may not own the resources they need to form a source of sustainable competitive advantage. These resources may be owned by other firms not controlled by the firm in need of these resources which is a premise of the institutional theory. While this is acknowledged from the existing literature, there is also lack of an integrated theoretical model to demonstrate how diverse theories explaining firm strategic behaviour may be utilized to enable firms build sustainable competitive advantage. This paper proposes an integrated theoretical model for linking firm resources with core competencies and sustainable competitive advantage while providing for the role of the firm’s external environment. The proposed model integrates the postulates of the RBV, RDT, Institutional Theory and Porter’s five forces Model. The emerging theoretical propositions and implications for future research are discussed.
Generation Y Talent Management Strategy and Competitive Advantage: Case of Commercial Banks in Kenya
(Science Publishing Group, 2016) Gitonga, Angelica Gatiiria; Kilika, James M.; Obere, Eliud
Almost every organizational activity brings about a competitive world thus, making a paradigm shift inevitable. It therefore calls for the function of human resource in the organization to understand the category of that shift in order to implement meaningful change. Organizations need to identify the impact of values and work preferences of the young generation of workers in order to employ, develop, retain and prepare staff for future leadership. This study examined the relationship between talent management strategies for Generation Y which included Human Resource Planning, Human Resource Procurement, Human Resource Retention and Human Resource Development and the competitive advantage of commercial banks in Kenya. The study tested four hypotheses that related to independent and dependent variables and a cross sectional descriptive survey design was employed. The target population was a census of all the 43 Commercial Banks in Kenya as indicated in Central Bank’s Annual Report of December 2014 and the unit of observation was six (6) departments in each bank. A sample of 258 respondents was drawn and data was obtained through a semi-structured questionnaire that was self-administered through a drop-and-pick later method. The data collected was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics with multiple linear regression analysis to test the hypotheses. With the analysis of the data collected on all the variables and the testing of hypotheses, the study revealed that Talent Management Strategies of HR Planning, HR Procurement, HR Development and HR Retention contributed to a fairly good extent (Mean = 3.8) so as to contribute to competitive advantage of Commercial Banks in Kenya with a percentage level of 56.3% (R2 =. 563). The results of the hypotheses found that there exists a statistically significant, but negative relationship between HR planning strategies and competitive advantage (β=-0.323, p<0.05) while that of HR Development strategies had a weak relationship that was not statistically significant (β=.162, p>0.05). However, there was a strong positive and statistically significant relationship between HR retention strategies and competitive advantage (β=.599, p<0.05). There was also a positive statistically significant relationship between HR procurement strategies (β=.322, p<0.05).The study suggested that Commercial Banks in Kenya should consider Talent Management Strategies for Generation Y when making organizational policies. They should also embrace best HR practices that contribute to the management of human capital in order for them to realize a competitive advantage.
Innovation Strategies, First Mover Advantage and Performance in the Context of the Microfinance Sector: A Review of Literature
(Canadian Center of Science and Education, 2018) Ouma, Paul; Kilika, James M.
The prevailing business environment is erratic and unreliable. The accomplishment of trade in such environment is determined by an organization’s capability to adjust and respond to environmental variation. Innovation strategies offer a strategic option that can be used to align organization’s assets and competencies with prospects in the external environment in order to heighten survival and long term success of an enterprise. Execution of such a strategic option is likely to result in strategic moves that will register impacts in the market which requires decision makers to consider the timing of their moves that operationalize the strategy in the market. The extant literature has pursued discussions on the construct of innovation strategy separately from that of first mover in spite of the implied indications that the two can be integrated into a strategic management phenomenon that will influence the firm’s performance. This study provides a review of existing theoretical and empirical literature on the perspectives connected to innovation strategies as a strategic option, first mover advantage in the phenomenon leading to performance in the context of microfinance setting. The applicable theories are reviewed, concepts and their operational indicators identified and matched against existing empirical work and nascent knowledge gaps identified. The study finally, suggests a theoretical framework appropriate for progressing knowledge in the field of study together with the associated inferences for future research.
Job Characteristics and Employee Performance in Private Equity Firms in Kenya
(International Organization Of Scientific Research (IOSR), 2018) Ngari, Evelyne; Kilika, James M.; Muathe, Stephen M. A.
Organizations are always in pursuit of finding ways to enhance their performance. One of the ways is to enhance employee performance by incorporating job characteristics that contribute to employee motivation, satisfaction and commitment of the employees. The job characteristics necessary for better performance of employees are skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of job characteristics on the performance of employees among Private Equity Firms in Nairobi City County in Kenya. The specific objectives of the study were to determine the effect of skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback on the employee performance among private equity firms in Nairobi City County in Kenya. The theories used in the study were the Job Characteristics model, Herzberg’s two-factor theory and the Demand control model. The study adopted a descriptive research design and involved a census of all 210 employees in 25 different private equity firms in Nairobi City County in Kenya. Questionnaires were used for primary data collection. The data collection process took place between July and September, 2016. To ascertain the validity and reliability of the questionnaire, a pre-test and pilot survey was conducted on one of the private equity firms where the cut-off for Cronbach alpha was taken as a value of 0.7 and the aggregate alpha value in this study was 0.817. The quantitative data in the study was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive analysis comprising the means, frequencies, percentages and standard deviations while inferential statistics which included test of hypotheses using stepwise multiple regression. The statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) was used to conduct the analysis. Tables were used for ease presentation of the analysis. 116 questionnaires out of the 210 distributed were used for analysis, which is 55% of the total expected and was adequate for the study. From the findings, variety of skills, task identity, autonomy and feedback were found to affect the performance of employees. The study unveiled the significance of the relationship that exists between skill variety and employee performance with a P value of 0.005. Task identity was also found to be significant at a P value of 0.006 while was found to be significant at 0.028. Feedback was also found to be significant at a P value of 0.001. However, task significance did not significantly affect employee performance as it had a P value of 0.468. The study recommends job rotation in the Private Equity firms as this can increase the variety of skills that every employee possesses as a form of employee motivation. Recommendations were made for further research on the Organizational performance and the influence of demographic factors on employee performance.
Linking Operations Strategies with Customer Based Competence and Firm Performance in the Context of Knowledge Based Intensive Sector: A Theoretical Review
(Canadian Center of Science and Education, 2017) Wandiga, Eunice N.; Kilika, James M.; James, Rosemary
The operations function of an organization plays a strategic role in the success of organizations as it addresses key decisions that determine the utilization of economic resources in the value creation process to deliver goods and services. While the function has been sufficiently studied and documented in the manufacturing sector, little has been done reflecting the services sector. This paper presents a review of the extant theoretical and empirical literature on two constructs linked to operations strategy in the context of a knowledge intensive sector in the phenomenon leading to firm performance. The relevant theories are reviewed, constructs and their operational indicators identified and compared against extant empirical work and emergent knowledge gaps identified. The paper finally proposes a multidisciplinary based theoretical model suitable for advancing knowledge in this area together with the accompanying implications for future research. Keywords: Customer based competences; Firms Operations strategy; Knowledge based intensive sector
The mediating role of organizational competences on the relationship between resource isolating mechanism and sustainable competitive advantage
(Strategic Journals, 2018) Ndegwa, P. W.; Kilika, James M.; Muathe, Stephen M. A.
Creation and sustaining of competitive advantage can be realized if the firm is capable of converting resources into processes. This enables the firm to build capabilities and competences that enable it to gain competitive edge against rivals. Kenya commercial banks should therefore, put more emphasis on resources which have the potential of creating value to customers. The main purpose of this study was to establish the role of organizational competences on the relationship between resource isolating mechanism and sustain competitive advantage among commercial banks in Kenya. Descriptive and explanatory research design was employed in the study. The research targeted all the commercial banks in Kenya. Purposive sampling was used to select a sample of 160 respondents from the key departments of Finance, Sales and Marketing, Strategy and Operations of all the forty (40) commercial banks’ headquarters in Kenyan capital Nairobi. The data collection instrument used was semi-structured questionnaire. The variable characteristics were summarized using descriptive statistics. Agreement to the most frequent responses to the statements on the study variables ranged between moderate and high extent. Based on results of hypotheses testing, there exists a mediating effect of organizational competences on the relationship between resource isolating mechanism and sustainable competitive advantage.
The Moderating Role of External Environment on the Relationship between Resource Isolating Mechanism and Sustainable Competitive Advantage
(IAEME Publication, 2019) Ndegwa, Purity W.; Kilika, James M.; Muathe, Stephen M. A.
Dynamic changes in the firm’s external environment influence the future direction of the firm. The operations of the firm are affected by the striking advances in globalization such as shifts in technology, stiff competition among business entities and new entrances within an industry. The firms including commercial banks in Kenya should therefore, have the ability to predict future trends in the external environment for survival. The main purpose of this study was to establish the moderating role of external environment on the relationship between resource isolating mechanism and sustain competitive advantage among commercial banks in Kenya. Descriptive and explanatory research design was employed in the study. The research targeted all the commercial banks in Kenya. Purposive sampling was used to select a sample of 160 respondents from the key departments of Finance, Sales and Marketing, Strategy and Operations of all the forty (40) commercial banks’ headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya. The data collection instrument used was semi-structured questionnaire. The variable characteristics were summarized using descriptive statistics. Agreement to the most frequent responses to the statements on the study variables ranged between moderate and high extent. Based on results of hypotheses testing, external environment have no moderating effect on the relationship between resource isolating mechanism and sustainable competitive advantage.
Organizational Resources, Industry Velocity, Attention Focus and Firm’s Performance: A Review of Literature
(Canadian Center of Science and Education, 2018) Kimiti, Paul G.; Kilika, James M.
The study addressed the diverse views on the role of organizational resources in firm performance in high velocity industry context. It adopted a multidisciplinary approach to examine the linkage among organizational resources, industry velocity, attention focus and firm performance. It found that resource based advantages are rather transient in highly dynamic environments hence need to constantly adapt the internal factors through firm capabilities. The influence of the external environment on resource application decisions is however partial as only a portion of the environment is actually perceived and interpreted by strategic decision makers through the selective cognitive process of attention focus. These findings have implications for a better understanding of the constructs and how they are related as contained in the proposed theoretical framework. The paper proposes that future studies be based on wider multidisciplinary approaches and the proposed theoretical framework be applied in guiding empirical research in high velocity industries.
Psychosocial Programmes and Employees Retirement Preparedness: Empirical Evidence From the Educational Sector in Kenya
(Sciedu Press, 2019) Gathiira, Titus G.; Muathe, Stephen M. A.; Kilika, James M.
Retirement is a process with employees planning decisions generally focusing on the subjective life expectancy, a mental model of years remaining before one dies. Indeed, the real exit of an individual from a career job is accompanied by changes that include social and psychological, resources leading to variations in an individual‟s well-being. The purpose of this study was to assess how employees‟ engagement in psychosocial programmes affects their retirement preparedness in the education sector in Kenya. The target population was 1,238 teachers aged 50 years and above and employed in public secondary schools by the Teachers Service Commission in Kirinyaga and Murang‟a Counties by 2017. A representative sample of 334 respondents was selected using multistage sampling technique. Data was collected using semi structured questionnaire and interview guide. Logit regression was used to establish the relationships between variables in the study and to test the null hypotheses at P ≤ 0.05 confidence level. The findings indicate that even though the sampled pre-retiree teachers were not adequately prepared for retirement psychosocially, yet their engagement in psychosocial programmes increases their retirement preparedness level. The reported findings extend the current understanding of employee separation programmes and raise implications for the various theories that underpin employee separation decisions in HRM.
The Relationship between Service Quality and Customer Loyalty in the Kenyan Mobile Telecommunication Service Industry
(International Knowledge Sharing Platform, 2013) Agyei, Paul Mensah; Kilika, James M.
Customer loyalty has been presented as an indicator of successful quality management practices in both the manufacturing and the service sectors. Due to the rapid growth of the services sector in most economies, there is need to understand how this concept is associated with business practices for supporting quality in the services sector. The study examined the relationship between service quality and customer loyalty in the Kenyan Mobile Telecommunication Service Sector. The SERVQUAL model was adopted in the study. Kenyatta University students drawn from five of its campuses were selected for the population of the study. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient and regression analyses were the parametric statistical tools used to test the association and effect in the study. A significant relationship was found between service quality and customer loyalty r(313) = 0.47, p<0.05. The SERVQUAL model explained a significant proportion of variance in customer loyalty scores with R2 = 0.306, F(4, 308) = 33.93, p < 0.05. The dimensions in the model predicted different values on customer loyalty: Reliability b = 0.19, t(313) = 2.89, p<0.05, Assurance b = 0.25 t(313) = 3.50, p < 0.05, Empathy b = 0.35 t(313) = 4.90, p<0.05 and Reliability b = 0.37, t(313) = 0.54, p>0.05. In sum, service quality has a positive relationship with customer loyalty. These findings hold implications for industry operators on key areas to pay attention to in order to support the quality of services offered so as to guarantee sustained customer loyalty.
TMT Diversity Outcomes Under Environmental Contexts: A Review of Literature and Research Agenda
(Sciedu Press, 2019-02) Muithya, Victor M.; Kilika, James M.
The construct of Top Management Team (TMT) has received a significant attention in the strategic management scholarship due to the espoused role that TMT members are expected to play in providing direction to their organizations. In this role, they are expected to make strategic choices that optimize the opportunities availed by the rapidly changing environments. The theoretical underpinning for TMT and the extant empirical work have demonstrated a number of issues that call for further examination of the extant literature. In this paper, the authors explore the conceptual, theoretical and empirical literatures on TMT Diversity to establish the current state that accounts for the identified issues and identify the emerging knowledge gaps that set an agenda for future research. The paper identifies the various forms of TMT Diversity, the intermediate and ultimate outcomes as well as the potential influence of these outcomes by the aspects of industry velocity in which firms operate. Several theories that complement the role of the upper echelons theory are discussed and the constructs they contribute to in explaining TMT Diversity outcomes identified. The paper proposes a theoretical model for explaining the emerging phenomenon from the deployment of TMT Diversity and makes several propositions. The paper calls on future research to consider the proposed framework for adoption in empirical work.

Browsing by Author "Kilika, James M."

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