Exploring the role of inspirational motivation to institutions of higher learning: Empirical evidence from selected universities in Kenya

Organizations are experiencing increased challenges due to changed environmental circumstances that threaten their survival including institutions of higher learning. There is therefore a growing concern for universities to be strategically aligned so as to meet the growing challenges of the societies in which they operate by creating ecosystems that drive industrialization through the generation of new knowledge, technology transfer and support of new start-ups. Additionally, concerns have been raised as regards the quality and relevance of services offered by the universities in Kenya. Owing to these limitations, there is a need for the higher education sector to consider inspirational motivation practices between the leaders and their followers so as to enhance performance. This study, therefore, sought to establish the effect of inspirational motivation on the academic performance of selected universities in Kenya. The study was anchored on transformational leadership theory. Positivism research philosophy was adopted where explanatory and descriptive research designs were used for guiding the collection and analysis of data. Primary data was collected from deans of schools and chairmen of departments in the selected universities. The study established a significant positive effect of inspirational motivation on academic performance of universities at p<0.05; t=8.057 and hence concluded that inspirational motivation positively affects university academic performance of selected universities in Kenya