Factors Affecting Strategy Implementation in Public Universities in Kenya
Abstract
The guiding principles in any strategic management process, whether in the public or
private sector, is about understanding what changes are needed, how to implement and
manage these changes, and how to create a roadmap for sustaining improvements that
lead to better performance. This statement can be construed to mean that many
institutions know their busine needs and the struggles required for success. When an
organizations' strat gic plan i not implemented successfully, a gap is created that makes
it difficult to achieve uccess. For decision makers, the inability to steer the organization
to the attainment of the plans causes a lot of anxiety focused around the difficulty in
ensuring that the strategic plan becomes a living plan rather than a document that gathers
dust on the shelf. The organization's strategic plan is expected to be a guiding document
for the organization; however, poor implementation of the plan can result in it becoming
an ineffective document. It therefore becomes important that an organization gives the
implementation phase of its strategic process due importance and allocate adequate
resources that will enable it achieve the desired objectives. The objective of the study was
to determine the factors that affect strategy implementation in public universities in
Kenya. The research design adopted was cross sectional survey design. The population of
the study comprised of all the 21 public universities operating in Kenya. The study used
primary data which was collected through self-administered questionnaires. Data was
analyzed using statistical package for social sciences based on the questionnaires. The
study found out that implementation of strategies in the universities was affected by
organizational culture, structure, resources, top management commitment and
communication. This was due to university context which is inappropriate for effective
implementation and control of the strategy, lack of understanding of the role of
organizational structure, design in the execution process and structural design not being
tailored to meet its goals, key formulators of the strategic decision did not play an active
role in its implementation, people are not measured or rewarded for executing the plan,
university having redundant resources, leadership and direction provided by departmental
managers were inadequate and university management is not committed to strategy
implementation.
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
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