FACTORS AFFECTING IMPLEMENTATION OF ISO 9001:2008 STANDARD IN FOUR SELECTED GOVERNMENT MINISTRIES IN KENYA

Abstract

Organizational performance has become an essential concept in all institutions. Ideally, customers expect reliance and availability of services from organizations whether public or private. Despite the introduction of performance appraisal system in 2006, the strategies of Vision 2030 and the ISO policies, implementation of the ISO 9001:2008 in public sectors has been problematic due to certain salient factors. Therefore, the main aim of the study was to address the factors affecting implementation of ISO 9001:2008 standard in four selected government ministries in Kenya. The study was anchored on the theory of planned behavior. The results would also benefit the certification bodies on appropriate certification process approach. Questionnaires were used to gather the requisite data. Survey research design was employed to explain the general methodology of the study. The target population included all the 834 employees working at the selected ministries at the headquarter offices from whom 250 respondents were sampled using simple and stratified random sampling. Stratified was used to isolate the different cadres of staff based on their levels, whether management or middle level. Questionnaires were employed to get data from the respondents and the data generated was processed using SPSS, statistically analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics and presented it using pie charts and Tables. The results indicated that there was a significant positive effect of skills and availability of resources on implementation of ISO 9000 standards in selected ministries. It is recommended that government ministries should ensure that there are adequate resources for the implementation of ISO 9001:2008 standard and should hire qualified employees and train them on ISO 9000 standards to enhance smooth implementation.