| dc.description.abstract | It is generally agreed that for organizations to survive and thrive, they need to
innovate. Innovation is both the creating and bringing into profitable use of new
technologies, new products, new services, new marketing ideas, new systems, and
new ways of operating. Implementation is generally the bottleneck that limits the rate
of innovation. "Intrapreneurship" on the other hand means entrepreneurship within
the corporation, a system of speeding up innovation inside an organization.
Intrapreneurs introduce and produce new products, processes, and services, which in
turn enable the company as a whole to grow and profit (Gifford and Pinchot, 1985).
This study set out to determine the extent to which public sector commercial
organizations in Kenya have embraced Intrapreneurship as a competitive business
strategy, and whether the innovation climate factors necessary for intrapreneurial
orientation to thrive are allowed space in these organizations. It was inspired by the
continued dismal performance of the public sector commercial organizations
notwithstanding the Kenya government's efforts to reverse the fortunes in the sector
and improve economic performance since the early 1990' s through liberalization,
deregulation, restructuring, retrenchments, privatization and now performance
contracting.
In the context of this study, corporate intrapreneurship as expounded by Gifford
Pinchott (1985) in his book "Intrapreneuring: Why you don't have to leave the
corporation to become an entrepreneur", respondents have demonstrated that the
concept can find a home in Kenyan public enterprises, but more needs to be done to
popularize the idea.
The survey demonstrated that the public sector commercial organizations were to a
moderate extent supportive of intrapreneurs, who are employees who behave like
entrepreneurs on behalf of the company. They are persistent visionaries who act
courageously to turn ideas into profitable realities. They become the hands-on leaders
of specific innovations within an organization. Intrapreneurs are an essential
ingredient in every successful innovation process.
Employees are more effectively empowered if they are given a clear vision of the
future and where the company is trying to go. The need for innovation is then
apparent to them, and they know how to direct their efforts. Intrapreneurial orientation
should be well aligned with the vision and strategic intent of the organization. With
regard to innovation climate factors, the public sector commercial organizations that
responded indicate that some of the empirically tested innovation climate factors
necessary for innovation and entrepreneurial orientation to thrive in organizations
were evident to some moderate extent
It is time therefore, for the public sector commercial organizations III Kenya to
embrace the concept of intrapreneurship, one of the most liberating concepts to
emerge in business in recent years (www.Biblio.Com). | en |
