KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AND IMPLEMENTATION OF PROJECTS AT THE TEA RESEARCH FOUNDATION IN KENYA
Millicent Cherotich Langat - Master in Business Administration (Project Management) Kenyatta University, Kenya
Gladys Kimutai - Lecturer, Management Science Department, Kenyatta University, Kenya
ABSTRACT
The tea industry has encountered challenge in implementation of major research done in Tea Research Institute leading to poor prices for tea produced in Kenya and poor quality of tea products. These are associated with limited ability of Tea Research Institute to improve tea productions. Therefore, the salient purpose of the research is to establish the influence of knowledge management practice on implementation of Tea Research Institute Projects in Kericho County, Kenya. Theory of project management guided the study. An explanatory and descriptive research design was used in the research. The study targeted 86 employees in Tea Research Institute. Census of all employees was used. Whereas 54 projects done by Tea Research Institute formed the unit of analysis. Questionnaires were adopted in collection of data. Data was prepared screening, coding and entering for analysis. Descriptive statistics analysis utilized mean and standard deviation. Correlation analysis were utilized as inferential analysis. The findings indicated that Tea Research Institution was found to have knowledge capturing, sharing and storage that was important in organization learning and training of farmers. Knowledge management had positive relationship with implementation of projects (P<0.05). The research concluded that knowledge management practices had positive significant influence on implementation of Tea Research Institute projects in Kericho County. The study suggests more study to be done on knowledge management resource and implementation of projects.