Strategic Change Management Practices and Competitive Advantage Among Deposit Taking Saccos in Nairobi City County, Kenya

Abstract

Change is an inevitable continuous process which establishes long-term direction as well as competitive advantage of organizations for ensuring cautious formulation, effective implementation as well as incessant evaluation of strategy in progress. Saccos have embarked on a number of strategic changes in the recent past which have made the Saccos to come up with organization structure that makes it to be competitive. The general purpose of this research was to explore the influence of strategic change management practices on competitive advantage of by Deposit Taking Saccos in Nairobi County. This study was based on two theories, Kotter's 8 Step Model of Change and Resource Based Theory. The target population for this study comprised of 142 deposit taking Saccos in Nairobi. The data was collected from one senior business and innovation manager per Sacco. Analysis was done using descriptive analysis, linear regression and correlation analysis. It was established that resistance to change and training influence change management to a great extent while many Saccos embraced communication change, coaching and feedback practices at moderate extent. The study established a positive association between strategic change management practices and competitive advantage. It was concluded that communication change, coaching and feedback and training were positively related to competitive advantage. The study recommends that leadership of Saccos should be committed to change management process and all employees and stakeholders should be part and parcel of the strategic change process so as reduce resistance to change.