Internal Stakeholders’ Satisfaction Levels on WhatsApp Usage for Corporate Communication in Public Universities of Kenya

  ABSTRACT : WhatsApp is a popular App that allows users to send text messages, voice messages, make voice and video calls, share images, videos, documents, user location, and other media. It has been widely used by university administrations for their corporate communication. The study aimed at assessing the level of satisfaction of WhatsApp usage for corporate communication among internal stakeholders of public universities in Kenya. The study is anchored on Katz’s uses and gratification theory and Palmgreens expectancy evaluation theory. This was a quantitative research study. The study targeted a population of 9,341 comprising of the 108 teaching staff, 276 non-teaching staff and 8,957 students at Multimedia University of Kenya. The study had 384 respondents comprising 12 teaching staff, 26 non-teaching staff and 344 students of Multimedia University of Kenya. Data was collected using close-ended questionnaire. Data was analysed using Special Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 27. Data was presented in both descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. The study determined that WhatsApp usage had positive significant effect on internal corporate communication, accounting for 58.4% among students and 68.9% among staff of Multimedia University (R2=0.584) and (R2=0.63.2). The study therefore recommends that WhatsApp developers should take into account users’ needs while customizing and developing WhatsApp features.

KEY WORDS: WhatsApp, Corporate communication, Internal stakeholders, Level of satisfaction