Personnel Differentiation for Competitive Advantage in the Private Tertiary Education Institutions in Botswana

Abstract

The primary objective of the study was to describe the extent to which personnel differentiation strategies may be used to gain competitive advantage among Private Tertiary Education Institutions in Botswana. The study examined how personnel differentiation may be employed by private tertiary education institutions in order to achieve competitive advantage. The study used descriptive survey research and the findings revealed that the private universities have to a certain extent employed personnel differentiation strategies. However, institutions have not done enough to clearly stand out as differentiated universities. The study recommends that the universities must appeal to prospective employers; hire, train and retain competent staff, and also get involved in activities that will enhance institutions’ credibility. Institutions need to work together with key stakeholders and continually seek ways to attain competitive advantage through personnel differentiation.

Exploring personnel differentiation at KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform to create a competitive advantage.

“…The findings of this study concerning the qualifications of KRISP's personnel and their abilities concur with the literature that better-trained personnel are equipped to provide excellent customer service (Kohler, 2010;Bokhari and Chowdhury 2014;Chiguvi et al, 2020). From six characteristics displayed by well-trained employees, as reported by Kohler (2010), [competence, courtesy, reliability, credibility, responsiveness and communication] competence, reliability and communication predominate amongst KRISP's personnel.…”

“…The reason is that the distinctive capabilities that personnel can bring into an organisation's operations are not easy to replicate as the causative factors are often not apparent or the competitor business environment is not enabling (Bokhari and Chowdhury, 2014;Ghahroudi and Sagheb, 2018). Oosthuizen and Kara (2008) contend that leaders in organisations now fully acknowledge that the strength of their businesses lies in the intellect they possess through their employees, a position widely accepted by scholars and practitioners nowadays (Micu and Necula, 2020;Ilić, Šević and Ristić, 2020;Chiguvi et al, 2020;Jankelova, Joniaková and Procházková, 2022).…”

“…These qualities resulted in customers developing trust in the personnel. As stated by Bokhari and Chowdhury (2014) and Chiguvi et al (2020), in service organisations, the attitude of personnel is just as important as their knowledge and skills; it also constitutes the strongest competitive advantage, as customers are in close contact with the provider. Three prominent factors specific to the KRISP environment were identified as playing a role in the sustainability of human capital at the platform.…”

“…Personnel differentiation and organisational performanceEmpirical evidence from work undertaken by various scholars demonstrates the effect personnel attributes on performance, customer satisfaction and loyalty. The work done in Kenyan micro-finance institutions demonstrated a robust positive relationship between personnel differentiation and organisational performance(Mbugua and Kinyua, 2019) Chiguvi et al (2020). studied how to employ personnel differentiation to achieve a competitive advantage in a private tertiary education institution in Botswana.…”

“…studied how to employ personnel differentiation to achieve a competitive advantage in a private tertiary education institution in Botswana. Their investigation identified hiring quality personnel, training and retention as vital for an organisation to achieve a competitive advantage(Chiguvi et al, 2020). The research that was done byChiguvi et al…”