Hannah BulaDavid KiiruOdengo, Ruth Anyango2023-08-082023-08-082023http://ir-library.ku.ac.ke/handle/123456789/26624A Thesis Submitted to the School of Business, Economics and Tourism in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Award of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Business Administration (Human Resource Management) of Kenyatta University February, 2023Globally, performance of academic staff in higher education institutions is seen as a very important driver of economic development through dissemination of knowledge. Concerns have been raised about the complexity of academic staff performance in Kenyan universities. Employee attitudes and performance have been seen to be influenced by psychological contracts. However, there have been few attempts to determine the extent to which psychological contract fulfillment affects academic staff performance in Kenyan public universities. The main objective of this study envisaged examining the influence psychological contract have on the expected performance of academic staff in selected public universities in Kenya. Specifically, the study established the extent to which relational contract, transactional contract and balanced contract affect performance of academic staff at selected public universities in Kenya; secondly, determine the moderating effect of human resource policies and the mediating effect of organizational capabilities on the relationship between psychological contract and performance of academic staff at selected public universities in Kenya. This research was anchored on four theories namely the equity theory, social exchange theory, organizational support theory and the Harvard framework for human resource management. This study was conducted using descriptive and explanatory research design. This study targeted six public universities whose student population are above 15,000 and a minimum of 4 similar schools across the universities. The target population was 6 selected public universities with a population size of 6,271 academic staff. The sample size was 362 academic staff of the selected schools, in the selected public universities. Primary data was collected using a questionnaire, bearing both structured and semi-structured questions. The questionnaire was evaluated for content and construct validity, while a pilot study was carried out to determine the reliability of the questionnaire. To analyze quantitative data, descriptive statistics was used in describing the variables whereas inferential statistics established the association in the independent and dependent variable, outcomes are displayed through tables, charts, diagrams and numerical values. The study hypotheses were tested at 95% confidence level. The study findings showed that relational contract, transactional contract and balanced contract have positive and significant effect on performance of academic staff at selected public universities in Kenya. The findings further established that organisational capabilities partially mediated the relationship between psychological contract and performance of academic staff in selected public universities in Kenya. The study finally showed that human resource policies provided the necessary environment for staff to form effective psychological contract that improve performance. The study concluded that psychological contract plays a significant role in determining the performance of academic staff in the public universities, hence, fulfillment or breach of the psychological contract further determine whether the universities realize positive academic staff performance or not. The study recommends that management of the universities regularly review and discuss challenges faced by the academic staff in performance of their duties and formulate HR policies that would ensure trust and fairness in the employment relationship hence promoting formation of the right psychological contract that would yield intrinsic motivation, job satisfaction, engagement and ultimately overall performance of the academic staff.enPsychological ContractPerformanceAcademic StaffSelected Public UniversitiesKenyaThesis