Strategic Leadership, Organizational Structure, Knowledge Sharing and Strategy Implementation in Commercial Banks in South Sudan

Abstract

Researchers and practitioners in strategic management are figuring out why some organizations implement their strategies better than others irrespective of their leadership capabilities in place. A thriving financial sector is central to the economic development, the banks therefore need to develop a competitive edge like putting in place strategically aligned leadership, the structure that encourages strategy implementation and a system of sharing vital knowledge to key implementing sections for them to realize and achieve their goals and purpose. The study main objective was to establish the relationship between strategic leadership, organizational structure, knowledge sharing and strategy implementation in commercial banks in South Sudan. The research was anchored on the Upper Echelon theory, Knowledge-Based Theory, Institutional Theory and Dynamic Capabilities Theory. The study applied positivism philosophy and descriptive research design. The population of the study was all the thirty commercial banks in South Sudan. Primary data was collected using semi-structured questionnaires. Data was analyzed using descriptive (and inferential) statistics - specifically regression analysis. The findings of the study show that strategic leadership significantly influences strategy implementation (R2=.717, p<0.05). The study also found that organizational structure moderates the relationship between strategic leadership and strategy implementation (R2=.739, p<0.05). The study further found that knowledge sharing has significant intervening influence on the relationship between strategic leadership and strategy implementation (R2=.742, p<0.05). Finally, the joint effect of strategic leadership, organizational structure and knowledge sharing on strategy implementation was found to be positive and significant (R2=.751, p<0.05). These findings reinforce the Knowledge-Based theory prediction that leaders have the ability to integrate and shape knowledge sharing and build a functional structure in order for strategy implementation to be successful. By enhancing managerial implications, the study recommends that strategic leaders should undertake critical functions of setting vision, defining objectives, choosing appropriate structure and coordinating knowledge sharing in order to realize the set organizational goals during strategy implementation. The study further recommends that shareholders of the commercial banks need to unlock the value of their investment through effective strategic leadership by improving the management and development of strategic areas of capacity building and managerial policies that would be geared towards enhancing strategy implementation in commercial banks and to develop a framework for adoption by commercial banks, designed to address strategy implementation challenges that continue to hinder realization of key objectives like stellar customer experience, business growth and profitability in line with the shareholders’ expectations.