Effect Of Ethical Practices And Organizational Structure On The Relationship Between Strategic Leadership And Service Delivery Of County Governments In Kenya

Abstract

The county governments were primarily designed to improved service delivery and bring them closer to the people through fairness in the distribution of resources and access to quality services. Contentions over the applicability of strategic management concepts such as strategic leadership, ethics, organizational structure and service delivery given the politically driven and tribal nature of public entities in Kenya informed this research. The study’s main aim was to determine the influence of ethical practices and organizational structure on the relationship between strategic leadership and service delivery in Kenya County Governments. The study was guided by four specific objectives: 1.) determine the influence of strategic leadership on service delivery in Kenyan County Governments; 2.) establish the influence of ethical practices on the relationship between strategic leadership and service delivery in Kenyan County Governments; 3.) establish the influence of organizational structure on the relationship between strategic leadership and service delivery in Kenyan County Governments; 4.) and determine the joint effect of strategic leadership, ethical practices and organizational structure on service delivery in County Governments of Kenya. The theories reviewed for this study were: Institutional Theory; the New Public Management (NPM) theoretical perspective, the Agency Theory, and Upper Echelon Theory. This study used positivism research philosophy where quantitative approaches were utilized in a cross-sectional survey. The unit of analysis was the 47 Counties in Kenya as per the 2010 Constitution of Kenya and these were the target population thus a census was done. Six respondents were purposively selected from six key departments in the counties and thus the study had a sample size of 282. The study used primary data collected using questionnaires administered to county chief officers in the six departments namely Education, Health Services, Public Works, Economic Planning, Natural Resources and Agriculture. Data analysis was carried out in two levels –the inferential statistics level and descriptive statistics level. Simple, hierarchical, four step and multiple regression analyses were conducted to test the hypotheses and show the nature of relationship among the independent variables and the dependent variable. The results showed that strategic leadership had significant influence on service delivery. Organisational structure was found to have a significant moderating effect on the relationship between strategic leadership and service delivery. The thesis also found that ethical practices had a full intervening influence on the relationship between service delivery and strategic leadership in the counties. Further, there was a significant joint effect of strategic leadership, ethical practices and organizational structure on service delivery. Based on the results the four study hypotheses were accepted and the relationships depicted in the conceptual framework confirmed. It was; therefore, recommended that the county leadership has to be more strategic and train employees on innovations to be able to offer better services to the citizens. The study recommends that the law enforcement agencies should enforce sanction on unethical leaders and employees to ensure more effective service delivery. Senate and county assemblies also need to align the legislation to ensure appropriate county structure for better services.