Employees’ policy implementation compliance scale (epic) on quality assurance policy in institutions of higher education

Abstract

Introduction: Quality assurance policy implementation is majorly done by teaching staff in institutions of higher Education. This policy has been implemented since 2006 in East Africa and there’s no so far research done to evaluate staff participation in implementing the policy hence a need to develop the scale to test policy compliance. The knowledge of policy formulation appears to be a prerequisite for policy implementation. Methods: The three major phases of developing psychological scale were followed to develop EPIC; Phase one pool items identification, phase two rigorous testing for validity and reliability which led to reduction and maintaining 16 items out of 33 pool items identified by expert panel in phase I and Phase III test -retesting and using the scale to measure what it is purported to measure. Applying the scale in intended community for further refinery to confirm its usefulness and presenting the scale to the public as to fit the purpose was done by the researcher. Results: At factor loading; four major constructs were retained to measure policy compliance; knowledge, negotiation, empowerment and perceived service delivery. Considering accumulative percentage of principal component analysis, knowledge (cognitive value) 0.883, negotiation between policy makers and policy implementers or involved parties 0.947, empowerment of policy implementers in decision-making 0.873 and perceived service delivery or self-examination by service providers 0.835. Some of the sub-constructs scored low and still retained due to their significance basing on existing literature on quality assurance policy.