Challenges to Implementation of Strategic Plan in Hospitals in Nairobi City County

Abstract

Strategy plan implementation involves putting into an action a given strategic plan in an organization to fulfill its intended purpose. Hospitals in Nairobi are required to formulate strategic plans by the Ministry of Health’s strategic plans to foster governments’ agenda to provide quality, affordable and accessible healthcare to all Kenyans. Due to the understanding of the effect of strategic plans to an organization, this study aimed to establish the challenges of strategic plans implementation in public and private hospitals in Nairobi County. The target population of this study was the Chief Executive Officers in charge of these hospitals. This study employed descriptive research design. The study relied mostly on primary data sources. The study generated both quantitative and qualitative data where quantitative data by way of coding was entered into SPSS, 21 and analyzed using descriptive statistics. Forty five (45) out of the 58 respondents targeted completed the questionnaires making a response rate of 78%. The study concluded that organization structures altered and weakened the strategies formulated and that all units of the organization were harmonized towards the success of strategy implementation process. The organization aimed at fulfilling its vision through formulating effective strategic plans process and ensuring that every team mandated role of strategic plan implementation understood all the aspects required. The study concluded that any changes in the strategy were communicated in advance to ensure clarity on its implementation process. Funds allocated in the strategies implementation are inadequate for strategies implementation while the majority of organizations relied on donations from other partners to support their strategies implementation. Most organizations have developed a culture which is connected to the strategy implementation process. Lack of support from top management inhibits the success of the strategy and that manager’s failure to support lower ranks staff through encouraging them to be innovative when implementing the strategies in their areas of work. The study further concluded that understaffing inhibits the speed and quality of strategy implementation as a result of fatigue. The study recommended that earlier measures be established to ensure that the various challenges faced in strategic plan implementation are mitigated to avoid the negative impact they may have on the performance of the organization. For further research, the study suggested that similar studies be carried out by use of a larger sample, more time should be allocated to the same and a combination of more than one data collecting instrument should be used for instance focus group discussions and interviews, to ensure that the information provided is counter checked.