EFFECTS OF STRATEGIC RESPONSES TO ADVANCES IN TECHNOLOGY ON ORGANISATION’S PERFORMANCE: EVIDENCE FROM TEXTBOOK PUBLISHERS IN KENYA

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of strategic responses to advances in technology on organization‟s performance: looking at the evidence from textbook publishers in Kenya. More specifically, the study sought to evaluate how Change in Recruitment processes, Human Resource Development, Customer Relations Management and organizational policy change affect organization‟s performance. To achieve the objectives of the study, a descriptive research design was adopted where all 40 Publishing firms registered under the Kenya Publishers Association were targeted. The study relied solely on primary data which was collected using structured questionnaires containing mainly closed ended questions for ease of analysis. Data analysis was done using descriptive and inferential statistics with an aid of a computer software SPSS. Multiple regression and correlation analyses were applied in the analysis of the data to determine the relationship between the variablesThe correlation results, found that there was a strong positive correlation relationship, 0.572 with significance of p = 0.00< 0.05 between human resource management and performance of publishing firms. The study further indicated a weak positive relationship, 0.349 with significance of p = 0.037<0.05 between change in recruitment policies process and performance of publishing firms. In terms of customer relations management and organization performance, the study found a weak positive relation, 0.475 with significance of p= 0.000<0.05,whereas the findings portrayed a significant strong positive relationship between change in organization policies and performance of publishing firms , 0.634 with significance of p= 0.000<0.05 .The study findings indicated that Customer Relations Management, Human Resource Development and change in recruitment processes have insignificant effect on organization‟s performance while change in organizational policy was found to have a significant effect on organization‟s performance. This study recommends further research to be done on firms in other related industries, to find out whether similar results can be achieved. In addition, a similar research can be carried out incorporating other variables and see if they would have a significant influence on organizational performance.