Abstract:
The quest for International Standard Organization
(ISO) 9001 certification as an international quality tool has
been embraced for process improvement and positive
perception by customers. With ISO 9001 certification, an
institution is anticipated to offer exemplary goods or services
that meet client prerequisites, needs and expectations thus
enhance organizational performance. As evident in previous
studies, despite ISO 9001 certification, cases on wastages,
missing student marks and time wastage were indicators of
non-conformance. There was no clear evidence of past studies
on the relationship between ISO 9001 certification and
organizational performance with special interest on number of
non-conformities identified during systems audit being a
component of organizational performance. The purpose of the
study was therefore to establish the relationship between ISO
9001 certification and the number of non-conformities
identified during system audits in selected public Universities
in Kenya. Explanatory research design was used in the study.
The research targeted a population of 433 respondents from
which a sample size of 205 respondents was selected using
purposive and simple random sampling designs. A
questionnaire was used to collect data. To answer the
objectives of the study, simple linear regression analysis was
performed. From the model, (R2 = .600) shows that ISO 9001
certification account for 60% variation in number of non conformities identified during system audits. There was a
positive significant relationship between ISO 9001 certification
and number of non-conformities identified during system
audits (β=0.611 and p <0.05). Therefore, a unit increase in ISO
9001 certification led to reduced number of non-conformities
identified during system audits. The ISO 9001 certification had
a significant influence on the number of non-conformities
identified during system audits. For every adoption of the ISO
9001 certification in public universities the number of non conformities identified during system audits reduced. The
study concludes that ISO 9001 certification had a significant
positive influence on the number of non-conformities
identified during system audits. Thus, for every adoption of
the ISO 9001 certification in public universities the number of
non-conformities identified reduced. The study recommends
that there is need for management of public universities
through the department of quality management to address the
non-conformities raised during system audits, need for
university management to raise awareness on the importance
of standardization and conformity assessment and to entrench
the culture of quality in the Kenyan society by promoting
practical usage of standards and development of quality
related curricula in public universities.
