Perception of Employees on Strategic Leadership and Implementation of Strategic Plans at Equity Bank in Kenya

Abstract

Strategic leadership is growing concept in the field of management. However, its role in banking institutions in Kenya has not been comprehensively investigated. This study sought to fill this gap by investigating the perception of employees regarding the influence of strategic leadership on strategic plan implementation at Equity Bank. The was guided by the Davis Strategic Leadership Model and the Theory of Organizational Readiness for Change. It employed the descriptive research design and targeted the population of employees at Equity Bank Head Offices in Nairobi. The stratified random sampling method was used to select a sample of 111 employees from the target population from whom data was collected through the use of structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and the multiple linear regression method were used to analyse the resultant data. Findings revealed that element of strategic leadership are evident are Equity Bank with employees giving the bank a score of 74.6% for people wisdom, 83.4% for contextual wisdom, and 79.4% for procedural wisdom. Findings further showed that there is effective implementation of strategic plan at the bank with respondents giving the implementation process a score of 84.8%. Results of the multiple regression analysis revealed that there is a strong relationship between employee perception of strategic leadership at the bank and the implementation of strategic plan (r2= .774, F= 86.721, p<.001). Employees’ perception of contextual wisdom (β= .530, p<.001) had the strongest influence on their perception on strategic plan implementation followed by people wisdom (β= .243, p=.001) and lastly procedural wisdom (β= .158, p=.015). Based on these findings, the study recommends that other organization should embrace the concept of strategic leadership and place specific emphasis on the development of contextual wisdom in order to improve the implementation of their strategic plans