Total Quality Management Practices And Service

Delivery In County Governments In Kenya

Edwin Wanjala Masika

A Research Proposal Submitted in Partial Fulfillment for

the award of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in
Business Administration of Jomo Kenyatta University of
Agriculture and Technology

2019
 DECLARATION

This research proposal is my original work and has not been presented for a degree in other
university.

Signature……………………….. Date:………/……./2018

Edwin Wanjala Masika

HD433-C014-0555/2016

The research proposal has been submitted for examination with our approval as Uinversity
Supervisor.

Signature:……………………… Date:…......./……./2019

Signature:……………………… Date:…......./……./2019

ii
 DEDICATION

I dedicate this to my beloved wife Ruth Muhonja and our daughters Valencia, Talia, Gift

Shantel and Baby Liz.

iii
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to my supervisor Dr. Ambrose

Kemboi for your guidance and encouragement throughout the research process.Your

invaluable advice, support, constructive criticism and commitment was encouraging. Also,

to all the lecturers who taught me during my course work. The knowledge gained helped me

immensely in undertaking this research. I am indebted to my fellow colleagues and friends

for their direct and indirect support. Special thanks to the University for giving me the

opportunity to undertake this noble cause. My deepest gratitude goes to my family members

for their financial and moral support.

iv
 ABSTRACT

Total quality management concept was previously introduced for the private sector
especially in business organizations. However, there is a new shift as many organizations in
the public sector are now embracing total quality management practices in order to improve
service delivery. County governments in Kenya are working on achieving maximum quality
possible both on products and services offered. As a result counties have adopted Total
Quality Management. Despite its use many counties have not achieved the expected service
delivery. The aim of the study is to examine the effects of the adoption of total quality
management practices and service delivery in the county governments in Kenya. The total
quality management practices that will be explored are leadership and management
commitment, strategic planning, customer focus and benchmarking. The study will adopt a a
survey research design. The target population will be the forty seven counties as contained
in the Kenya Constitution of 2010 and the CRA report of 2011.Twenty-five counties will be
selected from the forty-seven counties, from which respondents will be selected
proportionate to the county population sizes. The unit of analysis will be 350 employees
who are in charge of strategic management at the county governments. Stratified sampling
will be used to first group the 47 counties into eight geographical regions. The study will use
primary data collected using structured questionnaires that will be pretested using the
Cronbach’s Alpha method before being administered while secondary data will be collected
from reports, journals and official documents at the county governments.. These employees
will be purposively selected due to their level of involvement in quality management
matters. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21 will be used for data
analysis and processing. Spreadsheets were used in presenting the results using. Specifically,
bar graphs, pie charts, frequency tables were among the presentation tools used in presenting
results.In addition, the data collected will be sorted, coded and entered into SPSS for the
production of graphs and tables. A pilot study of 10% will be done to check on reliability
and validity. The study will use regression analysis to test the effect among the study
variables.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION ..................................................................................................................... II

DEDICATION ....................................................................................................................... III

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ..................................................................................................... IV

ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................... V

TABLE OF CONTENTS ...................................................................................................... VI

ACRONYMS ........................................................................................................................ VII

CHAPTER ONE ...................................................................................................................... 1

1.0 Background of the Study ................................................................................................... 1

1.1. The Sugar Industry in Kenya ............................................................................................ 4

1.2 Statement of the Problem................................................................................................... 6

1.2.0 Research Objective ......................................................................................................... 8

1.2.1 General Objective ........................................................................................................... 8

1.2.2 Specific Objectives ......................................................................................................... 8

1.3 Research hypotheses .......................................................................................................... 9

1.4 Justification of the Study ................................................................................................... 9

1.5 Scope of the Study ........................................................................................................... 10

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 ACRONYMS

CAMA Canadian Association of Municipal Administrators

CAS County Assemblies

CG County Government

CRA Commission on Revenue Collection

CS Cabinet Secretary

GDP Gross Domestic Product

GOK Government of Kenya

NPR National Performance Review

IEA Institute of Economic Affairs

ISO International Standards Organization

RBV Resource Based View

ROK Republic of Kenya

QMS Quality Management Systems

SPC Statistical Process Control

SPSS Statistical Package fot Social Sciences

SQM Strategic Quality Management

TQM Total Quality Management

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US United States

viii
 DEFINITION OF TERMS

Decentralization: The transfer of resources from higher to lower levels of

government usually accompanied by an enhancement
in responsibility and functions (Dasqupta &
Victoria,2007)

Devolution: A system of government whereby the state allows the

establishment of local units of governments with
powers and authority to make local decisions on
matters that affect the local communities and to
mobilize local resources for implementation or
execution of the decisions made (Mcluskey &
Fransen,2005)

Total Quality Management: A management approach that encourages everyone in the

organization to focus exclusively on serving the
customer (Feigenbaum, 2014)

Quality Management: A collection of philosophies, theories, practices, tools and

techniques associated with achieving and improving
quality in all its manifestations (Greenwald, 2012)

Service Delivery: The delivery of public activities, benefits or satisfaction to

citizens.It is the provision of a service or a product by
government through its agencies to the citizens as
expected by the citizens and mandated by Acts of
Parliament (Mfene,2009)

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 CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.0 Background of the Study

While Total Quality Management has been used successfully in the private sector, its

successful application in government is still debatable. There are world-wide cases where

TQM has been used in the public sector, but its application in the Kenyan government sector

is relatively new. Scholars and researchers have debated the applicability of TQM in

government. These scholars argue that what is needed in the public sector especially at a

time when citizens are demanding more and better services despite decreased revenues is

and Littman,1993)Total Quality Management (Cohen and Eimeke, 1994; Scharitzer and

Korinka,2010).TQM advocates note that there are benefits of adopting a TQM approach in

the public sector. These benefits include, but are not limited to: producing better and more

goods and services with the same or few resources; meeting and exceeding customer

expectations( Carr and Littman,1993); motivating and empowering employees( Rago,1996);

and developing strong leadership among senior management( Rago,1996).Scharitzer and

Korinka(2000) maintain that the adoption of TQM approach in government is consistent

with the move of making the provision of public services more efficient and citizen-

oriented.

Over last decade, all levels of government around the world have embraced TQM principles

and approaches. In the United States (US), the National Performance Review(NPR)

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spearheaded by former US Vice-President Al Gore , was grounded on TQM principles.In

Canada, the Canadian Association of Municipal Administrators (CAMA) conducted a

survey of municipal managers to assess the level of understanding, degree of use and key

elements of TQM at the local government level ( Robertson and Ball,2012).The survey

revealed that 24 percent of local governments in Canada used a formal documented TQM

programme.The TQM movement is now being aggressively promoted in the Asia-Pacific

region(Pasha,2011).In Philippines, recent strides have been made to institutionalize

performance based measurement systems for local governments. In Indonesia performance

budgeting is being considered as well (Khoza,2015).The preamble of the Municipal Systems

Act of 2000 captures the essence of TQM principles. The act compels local governments to

care for their customers. In the process of assessing quality services, quality plays a major

role and (Ennis and Harrington, 1999) assert that Quality in provision of services by the

County government’s quality is an imperative in providing public satisfaction because

delivery of quality services directly impacts on loyalty and customer satisfaction.

The implementation of TQM practices by organizations enables them to achieve internal

efficiencies, which is a pre-requisite fr becoming competitive in the global arena. According

to Sila and Ebrahimpour (2015) strategic quality planning includes vision, mission, and

values of the firms. They are formed by taking into account the quality concept. With

effective strategic quality planning efforts employees are taken as an input in developing the

vision, mission, strategies, and objectives. This facilitates acceptance and support of

3
strategic quality plans by the employees. Successful strategic quality planning efforts also

take into account the possible side effects of the plan to the environment prior to the

production. This will manifest and improve social responsibility of the firm. Greenley

(2011) noted that strategic planning has potential advantages and intrinsic values that

eventually translate into improved firm performance. It is, therefore, a vehicle that facilitates

improved firm performance. Benchmarking helps answer the question: Are we competitive?

A study by Davey (2012) asserts that benchmarking helps improve performance and gives

quality programmes more impetus and motivates organizations to be externally focused and

working on identifying gaps in performance and developing strategies on closing them. The

rise in benchmarking parallels the widespread adoption of strategic management( Leach and

Collinge,2009) and Total Quality Management(TQM) (Redman et al 2001) One of the most

important benefits of benchmarking is the discovery of innovative approaches.

Benchmarking highlights problem areas and the potential for improvement, providing an

incentive to change, and assists in setting targets and formulating plans and strategies

(Meade, 1998). Akuma (2007) conducted a study on the use of benchmarking as a

continuous improvement tool by the ministry of agriculture in Kenya found out that most

parastatals had systems that facilitate the systematic comparison and evaluation of practice,

process and performance with any best practices or smarter institutions in improvement and

self-regulation.

4
1.1.1 Service delivery-Global Trends

Many countries since 1980s, developed or developing, have been embarking on public sector

management reforms. Public service delivery has been enacted in many countries, for instance,

the USA’s Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA), UK’s Citizens’ Charter,

Australia’s Public Service Act, Japan’s Public Service Reform Act, etc. The former active,

direct, and leading role of public governance has increasingly been replaced with a more

passive, indirect, catalytic, and facilitating role, as observed not only in high-income countries

such as Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, New Zealand, the UK, the USA, Singapore, and

South Korea, but also in middle- and low-income countries such as Malaysia, Thailand,

Argentina, and India (Frost & Sullivan, 2012).

However, despite the tremendous efforts and resources allocated to reforms, many countries

have not achieved their initial goal of developing and transforming their societies to the desired

standards. Quality health services, education and housing still remain out of reach for many

communities, with a few exceptions of successful cases (Malaysia, for example). These reform

efforts are driven by the transformation of public administration by the changing dynamics of

demand and supply of public services. The new public administration puts into account the

needs of the citizens’ rather than the governments’.

5
More recently, reform trends are concerned with finding alternative approaches to organizing

and managing the public services (Frost & Sullivan, 2012). This study considered the Malaysian

and South African examples of successful public service delivery reforms. Malaysia is a middle

and low income country which has had many strategies put in place to turn around its public

service by putting in place institutional as well as behavioral aspects of service providers. South

Africa on the other hand had been under apartheid rule for many years and has transformed its

public service after independence to accommodate the Africans who had been left out as

managers in the public service.

1.1.2 Service Delivery in Kenya

Upon Kenya attaining her independence in 1963, the Government took upon itself the task of

providing basic needs and services in response to the needs and aspirations of its citizens. The

Public Service had other responsibilities among them; coordination of national development,

promotion of economic growth and managing industrial and commercial concerns where

Government had interest. This ultimately led to a larger Public Service at the grass root levels

and also supervisory and management which resulted in overstretching the capacity of the

Service leading to poor performance, low productivity and ultimately poor service delivery

(Office of the President PSRDS, 2005). This necessitated public sector reform and

transformation efforts towards improving public sector performance and overall public service

delivery, which was to be achieved by overhauling administrative systems to better serve the

needs of the government and the citizenry with improved public services to reduce poverty,

improve livelihoods and sustain good governance.

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The first attempts at the reform and transformation of the public sector in Kenya began in 1965

but started to be implemented in the early 1990s (OPM/PSTD, 2010). Like other African

Countries, these efforts in Kenya have been driven primarily by the fact that the state

bureaucracy in the Country has been underperforming and public service delivery has not been

serving the public interest within its most optimal capability. The reforms in Kenya evolved and

culminated in the notion of re-engineering of the public sector in the context of public sector

transformation, drawing on elements of what came to be known in the literature and practice as

the “New Public Management” (NPM). This concept aimed at fostering a performance-oriented

culture that seeks to revamp the process through which public organizations operate in order to

increase efficiency, effectiveness, and encompassing client-oriented, mission-driven, and

quality-enhanced management, which in turn improves service delivery (Hope, 2013).

Between 1993 and 1998, the government launched the Civil Service Reform Program (CSRP -

1) to enhance public service efficiency and productivity. This focussed on cost containment

(OPM/PSTD, 2010) and was geared towards reduction of the mainstream civil service (World

bank, 2001) by restructuring the organisational structure, downsizing of the service,

compensation geared towards attracting and retaining staff, rationalization of personnel

management policies and introduction of financial and performance management through

transparency and accountability (Nzioka, 1998). This initiative however did not produce the

desired results and several loopholes were identified among them; need for adequate planning

before implementation of any reform, need for training and capacity development, need to adopt

new technologies, especially information technologies and the importance to build acceptance of

7
reform initiatives especially among top managers in the service (Nzioka, 1998). This led to

CSRP II which focussed on rationalisation of ministerial functions and structures, staff

rationalization and management of the wage bill, pay and benefit reforms, performance

improvement initiatives and training and capacity building (World Bank,2001)

In 2008 the government introduced the Mediun-Tern Plan (2008-2012) which was to support the

realization of Kenya Vision 2030. With the introduction of the Office of the Prime Minister, a

strategic plan was launched covering 2009 – 2012. Its objective was to provide quality and

timely services at all times to the citizenry, improved government performance, accelerating

existing initiatives and extending them across all public services, steer Public Service Reform to

enable good policy and delivery. In response to the complaints and challenges that were faced

by the public, the government introduced Huduma Centres in November 2013, where citizens

could obtain their passports, land title deeds, identity cards, Kenya Revenue Authority personal

identification numbers and driving licences without having to travel to Nairobi. Among other

changes that were introduced in the public service included; introduction of one stop Huduma

Service Centres to provide customer services to citizens from a single location, online e-

Huduma web portal to provide integrated services offered by various government ministries,

departments and agencies and a unified and integrated channel Huduma payment gateway to

facilitate ease of payment for government services (Abdalla et al, 2015).

8
Many factors affected the implementation and outcome of CSRP II. These factors were for

example; lack of government commitment to consistent and steady reforms, the implementing

agency lacked political goodwill, lack of proper planning and lack of ownership of the process.

In 2002 the Economic Recovery Strategy was introduced which was aimed at improving good

governance by accelerating on-going ministerial rationalisation and development of strategic

plans, introduction of performance based management practices in the public sector, undertaking

of job evaluations, undertaking of service delivery surveys in all ministries, developing and

installing service charters, development of clear recruitment and training policies and putting all

permanent secretaries and chief executives of parastatals on performance contracts (Republic of

Kenya, 2003). In order to fast track these initiatives the government launched Results-based

management in September, 2004 (OPM/PSTD, 2010).

With the enactment of the New Constitution in 2010, devolved government units were created

with a main view of bringing services closer to the people. Performance of decentralized

services by County Governments may be measured by indicators of allocative efficiency,

accountability and reduction of corruption, and equity in service delivery (Muriu, 2012). It is

against this background that this study seeks to find out how the influence of total quality

management practices in enhancing service delivery in the public service with a bias to the

devolved government units in Kenya.

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1.1.3 County Governments in Kenya

Not to be confused with the defunct County Councils of Kenya, the Counties of Kenya are

geographical units envisioned by the 2010 Constitution of Kenya as the units of devolved

government. The powers are provided in Articles 191 and 192, and in the Fourth Schedule of the

Constitution of Kenya and the County Governments Act of 2012. There are 47 Counties whose

size and boundaries are based on the 47 legally recognised Districts of Kenya. Following the re-

organisation of Kenya's National administration, Counties were integrated into a new national

administration with The National Government posting County Commissioners to represent it at

the Counties.

County Governments are responsible for: County legislation outlined in article 185 of the

Constitution of Kenya, executive functions outlined in article 183, functions outlined in the

fourth schedule of the constitution of Kenya, functions transferred from the national government

through article 187 of the constitution of Kenya, functions agreed upon with other Counties

under article 189 (2) of the Constitution of Kenya, and establishment and staffing of a public

service under article 235 of the Constitution of Kenya. Decentralisation, in particular devolution

shifts points of service delivery from central government to local Governments resulting in

significant changes in budget allocations as well as service delivery (Task force on Devolved

Government of Kenya, 2011).

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County Governments’ major aim was improving service delivery to its citizenry by ensuring that

the policies created by National Government are implemented as required, so that services are

delivered to the benefit of its citizens (Muriu, et al 2013).This study will seek to establish

whether total quality management practices are enhancing service delivery in the public sector

with specific reference to county governments in Kenya.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

At independence in 1963, Kenya inherited a highly centralised bureaucracy from the

colonial administration. This bureaucracy was chiefly sustained through the institution of

provincial administration to facilitate direct rule and governance alongside civil service

(Nyambane, 2014). One of the key challenges in respect of public service delivery under the

past constitutional dispensation was the lack of clarity in assigning responsibility as well as

lack of awareness on the part of citizens as to exactly which level of government was

responsible for a service (Task force on Devolved Government of Kenya, 2011). One of the

key flagship programmes and projects for 2013 – 2017 is public service transformation

strategy that seeks to create a highly motivated human resource capacity for efficient public

service delivery, in addition use of ICT and the Huduma integrated service delivery model

(SMTP, 2013).

Implementation of devolution and the transition process toward this has been problematic

and has faced a number of challenges which have been the sole reason for under

11
optimisation of its performance.Some of these challenges are; intergovernmental,

administrative, legislative, policy, institutional conflicts among others (Nyambane, 2014).

At the inaugural Council of Governors’ Devolution Conference held in Kwale in early April

2014, Governors and their counterparts in local leadership met to discuss the challenges and

milestones after accepting their positions. The conference made several recommendations on

making devolution successful among them being; enhancing accountability by building robust

audit frameworks, elevating civic education by providing citizens with the necessary data and

information in an easy to understand format, supporting and developing programmes that

stimulate community development and increase citizen participation and inspiring good

governance by building the capacity of civil society organizations working in the Counties to

understand open governance practices and facilitate knowledge sharing among them. These are

issues similar to those reported by Makanyenza (2014).

The concept of good governance thus is key in successful implementation of the devolved

government functions. The study is motivated by the need to establish whether total quality

management practices specifically customer focus, benchmarking, strategic planning and

leadership have had an iimpact on service delivery iin the county governments in Kenya.

There are many challenges facing service delivery by the devolved units such as the never-

ending strikes, lack of coordination, embezzlement of public resources as well as lack of

accountability (EACC, 2015).

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1.3 Research Objectives

1.3.1 General Objective

The main objective of the study was to establish the influence of total quality

management practices on service delivery in the county governments in Kenya

1.3.2 Specific Objectives

i) To establish the influence of customer focus on serv ice delivery in the

county governments in Kenya.

ii) To determine the influence of benchmarking on service delivery in the county

governments in Kenya

iii) To explore the influence of leadership on service deliver in county

governments in Kenya.

iv) To analyze the influence of strategic planning on service delivery in county

governments in Kenya.

1.4 Research Hypotheses

The study sought to test the following null hypotheses:

i) H01: Customer focus has an influence on service delivery in county governments in

Kenya.

ii) H02: Benchmarking has an influence of benchmarking on service delivery in county

governments in Kenya.
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 iii) H03: Leadership has an influence on service delivery in county governments in

Kenya.

iv) H04: Strategic planning has an influence on service delivery in county governments

in Kenya.

1.5 Justification of the study

The study is expected to give insight into the influence of total quality management

practices on service delivery in the county governments in Kenya. The findings are expected

to be useful to a number of groups and interested parties. The county governments are in the

process of enhancing service delivery. The findings from this study will provide useful

information It is envisaged that the findings of the study will add value to the existing body

of knowledge on total quality management and service delivery.They are also expected to be

relevant to academicians, scholars and future researchers as they shall use the findings as a

point of reference.

1.6 Scope of study

The study will seek to establish the influence of total quality management practices and

service delivery in County Governments in Kenya. For maintenance of a practical scope, the

study concentrated on County Governments in Western Kenya(Trans-

Nzoia,Kakamega,Vihiga,Bungoma and Kisii). The study examined the influence of

customer focus, benchmarking, leadership and strategic planning on service delivery in the

14
County Governments in Kenya.The unit of analysis will be the Chief

Officers,Directors,Deputy Directors, Heads of Departments and Heads of County Assembly

iin each county. These are senior officers in the County Governments who have vast

experience.

1.7 Conceptual Framework

A conceptual framework is an interconnected set of ideas about how a how a phenomenon

functions or is related to its parts(Burns & Burns,2012).It is a diagrammatic, flow chart or

figurative explanation about the relationship between factors or variables identified relevant

to the study(Oso & Conen,2011). Figure 1.1 presents the conceptual framework for this

study.

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 Customer Focus

 Customer satisfaction
 Customer loyalty

Leadership
Service Delivery
 Leadership styles
 Charisma  Employee
satisfaction
Benchmarking  Optimal resource
allocation
 Internal benchmarking  Increased efficiency
 External benchmarking  Surplus income

Strategic planning

 Strategic quality planning

 Mission,vision and objectives

Independent variables Dependent variable

Figure 1.1 Conceptual Framework

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