Electronic- recruitment practice (E-Rp) and service quality delivery in public universities in Kenya: the interaction role of organizational factors

Abstract

Automating recruitment tasks and practices is transforming the traditional paper-and-pencil, labor-intensive HR tasks, into efficient, fast-response activities that enable organizations to anticipate and break even from environmental shifts to create a much needed competitive advantage. Even though the e-recruitment concept is widely used today, there is a missing link between the e-recruitment practices and service quality delivery in public universities in Western Region of Kenya. It is on this basis that the study undertook to: assess the influence of electronic recruitment on service quality delivery and to investigate the moderating role of organizational factors on the relationship between e-recruitment practices and service quality delivery. The study used mixed methods research design which included exploratory, correlational and survey research designs. The target population of this study comprised of 5,467 staff and student leaders drawn from the six (6) public universities in the Western Region of Kenya. Accessible population comprised of 360 respondents drawn from teaching and administrative staffs. Purposive sampling method was used for sampling Human Resource Officers and student leaders while stratified random sampling was used for sampling teaching and administrative staff. The study used structured questionnaire for data collection from the teaching and administrative staff; interview schedules for collecting data from HROs, while nominal group discussions were used on student leaders. Descriptive and inferential techniques were used to analyze quatitative data while themes were identified from qualitative data. The results indicated that electronic recruitment had a significant positive influence on service quality delivery (ß = 0.0467; p < 0.05). On moderation, the results indicated that organizational factors had a negative significant effect on the relationship between electronic recruitment and service quality delivery (ß = -0.077; p < 0.05). The study recommends that management of public universities in Kenya upgrade their commitment towards supporting implementation of e-recruitment practices; review policies so as to align them with the changing technological environment to realize better quality service delivery and also create supportive organizational environment to enhance use of e-recruitment. The study also recommends that further studies be carried out on e-HRM practices in production industry and other institutions in Kenya.