A Research project submitted in partial fulfillment of requirement for the conferment of the degree of masters in Business Administration in Meru University of Science and Technology

Includes references and appendices

The implementation of performance appraisal systems (PAS) has not been very successful in most public universities. Despite the implementation of PAS since 2005 in the public universities, their performance is still not comparable with the
private sector to enable it meet the ever changing, competitive global world as well as meeting the demands of a well-informed citizen. For example, employees of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) and Kenyatta
University (KU) have complained of poor PAS. Most employees have no full understanding of the PAS. The general goal of this study was to determine the effect of performance contracting’s strategic elements on the implementation of performance appraisal systems in public Universities within Mount Kenya Region. The study was guided by the following objectives: to determine how organization structure influences implementation of performance appraisal systems in the public Universities in Mount Kenya Region, to determine how monitoring and
evaluation influences implementation of performance appraisals in public Universities in Mount Kenya Region, to determine how employee attitudes influences implementation of performance appraisals in public Universities in Mount Kenya Region and to examine the extent to which training influences implementation of performance appraisal in public Universities in Mount Kenya
Region. The study was informed by agency theory, the expectancy theory, the goal-setting theory and theory of planned behavior. This study adopted descriptive
survey research design. The target population of this study was the staff, human resource officers, administrators and finance officers in the seven (7) chartered public universities as they are considered as the ones directly involved in the implementation of performance appraisal systems. The target population for this study consisted of 2423 respondents from which a sample size was drawn. The sample size was 136 respondents from the 7 chartered public universities in Mount Kenya Region. Stratified random sampling was used in this study. A questionnaire
was used as the research instrument for this study. Quantitative data was analyzed by the use of descriptive statistics using SPSS (Version 20) and figures and tables were used to present the results. The study found that organizational structure,
monitoring and evaluation, employee attitude and training had a positive and significant effect on the implementation of performance appraisals in public Universities in Mount Kenya Region. The study also concluded that monitoring
and evaluation of projects helped various project stakeholders including the clients and project financiers which helped to improve the implementation of performance appraisal systems. In addition, use of monitoring and evaluation framework put in place contributes directly to the quality of PAS. Universities must increase the awareness of the employees about its goals, targets and strategies. This will make it easier and smoother the introduction of PAS and afterwards the system itself will help to increase this awareness