| dc.description.abstract | Strategy directs organizational path to realization of set goals and objectives, success, and
most importantly customer satisfaction. Organizations gain competitive advantages by
not only formulating winning strategies but most importantly by successfully
implementing them. Strategy implementation while complex is indeed more important
than strategy formulation. The process involves securing, organizing and directing
human, financial, physical and technological resources within an organization.
Unfortunately in the recent years much attention by managers has been in the formulation
side of strategies with little focus given to the implementation side where things normally
go wrong. Over the years organizations have faced challenges in the implementation of
their strategies. Such scenario has created anxiety among managers, and opportunities
and interests for research among scholars. This management research was undertaken to
determine how business process outsourcing (BPO) as a strategy was being implemented
by non-governmental organizations in Kenya, related challenges and organizational
responses to such challenges overtime. The urge to conduct this research was mainly the
desire to gather recent knowledge concerning such challenges and respective responses as
could possibly inform similar organizations in the successful implementation of BPO.
Previous studies indicate that BPO dates back over four decades and is implemented by
almost all organizations. Organizations are increasingly applying it in undertaking noncore
functions and has been useful mainly in helping them cut down operational costs.
The studies further indicate that BPa is implemented by Kenyan organizations and that
this has not been without challenges. The purpose of this study was most specifically to
investigate BPO as implemented by MESPT, a non-governmental organization in Kenya,
establish implementation challenges, and organizational responses overtime. In pursuit of
the objectives, the study was modeled into a case study with data collected through
personal interviews and respondents subjected to open ended questions. Data was
collected using an interview guide and analyzed through content analysis technique and
through inferences. The research revealed that MESPT mainly implemented onshore
BPO through the use of local service providers and was done within all MESPT
departments. Consultancy was found to be the main outsourced service overall with other
services including security, cleaning, insurance, health, courier, transport, information
technology and human resource. The study found out that implementation of BPa was
beneficial to MESPT mainly in attracting the outside objective perspective, freeing her
staff to concentrate in core functions, accessing high level professional skills and cutting
down costs. The study revealed that the challenges encountered by MESPT mainly
revolved around issues on managing culture, systems, processes, relationships, staff
capacity, service providers' credibility and capacity, and changing dynamics. MESPT
main responses to such challenges included through capacity development initiatives,
upgrading of processes and systems, relationship building, monitory and evaluation,
internal checking mechanisms, prequalification of service providers', risk management
initiatives and value based contracting initiatives. A major limitation of the study is that
views of those interviewed might not be representative of all the views of the
organization. The study mainly recommends that MESPT enhances her monitory and
evaluation system, strengthens the procurement system to attract adept service providers,
and develops and implements a comprehensive risk management framework. | en_US |
