Stakeholder Involvement in Strategic Planning Process at the Samburu County Council, Kenya

Abstract

Strategic planning involves using a systematic criteria and rigorous investigation to design competitive strategies that enable the firm to find a position in the present environment by formulation, implementation (practice) and control of formally documented organizational expectations. This process requires that relevant stakeholders are involved in it for it to be a success. For this purpose the researcher conducted a research to establish stakeholder involvement in the strategic planning process in Samburu county council. The study had two objectives namely: to establish the existence of strategic planning practices adopted at Samburu county council and to determine the extent of stakeholder involvement in the strategic planning process. The study adopted a case design to conduct the study. The study found that the main stakeholders who were involved in the strategic planning process of Samburu county council were: community members, local NGO'S, members of staff, business community and the government. The study found that the management of Samburu county council involved these stakeholders in preplanning, formulation of the mission and vision statements, formulating cultures and policies, formulating of guiding principles to undertake operations, conducting environmental surveys and identifying strategic issues. The study recommended that the management at Samburu county council sees to it that they maintain the high level of stakeholder participation in the strategic planning process. The study was limited to using questionnaires as the sole method of data collection. The study was also limited by the busy schedule of the respondents who were HODs of various departments.