Abstract:
Public universities are labour intensive institutions which depend on people for effective service
delivery. This study sought to establish the relationship between strategic human resources
management practices and performance of public universities in Kenya. The study was guided
by the following specific objectives: To establish the effect of resourcing practices on
performance of public universities; to determine the effect of reward management on
performance of public universities; to assess the effect of training and development on
performance of public universities and to determine the combined effect of resourcing practices,
reward management and training and development on performance of public universities in
Kenya. The study was a census with a target population of the public universities in Kenya and
their constituent colleges. Senior HR officers and administrators were the units of analysis
where a response rate of 58% was obtained. Data was collected using semi-structured
questionnaire and was subsequently analyzed using SPSS. Research findings suggested that
strategic human resource management practices have a significant effect on the performance of
public universities in Kenya. Further, findings revealed that reward management, training and
development and resourcing practices respectively influenced the performance of public
universities. Based on the findings following key recommendations were made: Management of
public universities to develop employment policy that encourages job security; invest in HR
information systems to automate resourcing practices; government to ensure that selection in
public universities is based on equal employment opportunity principle, management to conduct
a staff competency analysis in order to address training and development needs.
