Competitive Strategies Adopted to Enhance Performance by the County Government of Kajiado, Kenya

Abstract

Today, organizations operate in a globally competitive environment and thus have to continually seek innovative ways in which to differentiate themselves. Public sector organizations are no different. The reason for this is that a firms chances of thriving in its operating environment is dependent upon the selection and implementation of competitive strategies that sets it apart and gives it an edge over the competition. Consequently, it is imperative that firms should continuously monitor and adapt to the environmental changes through the formulation and deployment of appropriate strategies to survive in the industry. The research objective was to establish the competitive strategies adopted to enhance performance by the County Government of Kajiado, Kenya. To meet the research objectives, a case study research design was adopted. The study employed face to face interviews as the primary data collection method. The researcher used an interview guide to aid in obtaining information from the respondents and thereafter the data obtained from the interview guide was analyzed qualitatively with the use of content analysis. The respondents were chosen purposively to include county officers who were involved in the strategic management as strategy planners, formulators and implementers. The respondents included the County Secretary, a County Executive Committee Member, a Chief Officer, Directors and an ICT official for a total of 6 respondents. Content analysis enabled the researcher to sift through large volumes of data with relative ease in a systematic fashion. The findings of the study were that the competitive strategies employed by the County Government of Kajiado were found to be delivery and distribution strategy, pricing, cost leadership, quality of services and the differentiation strategy. The findings also revealed that the utilization of internal resources by a firm, using a broad category of services was found to be an effective strategy that a firm can utilize in staying competitive. The County was able to achieve competitive advantage as a result of pursuing differentiation strategy and that the pricing strategy the County had employed was found to translate to higher performance on the revenue collection metric due to increase in customer base. In conclusion, sustainable competitiveness of a firm was found to be crucial to any organization and therefore the use of the various strategies by the firms to achieve higher performance as well as deal with environmental challenges and threats signal the organizations‟ intent to survive and thrive. The study concluded that the county is cognizant of the operating environment and challenges that stand as obstacles to the achievement of organizational goals. The study also concluded that adoption of appropriate competitive strategies will result in improved performance. Hence, it is imperative that in a globalized market, firms need to appreciate the importance of coming up with a multiple array of strategies and not depend on only one or a few competitive strategies. The study recommends that managers need to consider the application of competitive strategies in their industry because as the level of competition increases, the determinant factor on the level of firm performance is the strategies that it employs. The study also recommends that the county comes up with appropriate strategies that will further enhance its performance in light of higher targets and stakeholder expectations.