| dc.description.abstract | It is now a fact that change is a necessity in private as well as public sector and every
organization must change with the environment, otherwise it will become irrelevant. There is
a fundamental similarity of the change process across organizations, industries, structures in
different countries, continents and globally that makes change management a task, a process,
and an area of professional practice. The telecommunication industry in Kenya, just like the
rest of the world, is going through profound changes, resulting in new markets, new players,
and new challenges. The objective of this study was to investigate the factors influencing
change management practices in the telecommunication industry in Kenya. For purposes of
this study, a cross-sectional survey design was applied and data was collected from various
firms of different demographics, and comparisons made. The study targeted all the
telecommunication companies in Kenya. Currently there are four namely Safaricom, Airtel
Kenya, Orange and Yu Mobile. Majority of the respondents described change in relation to a
company’s growth and survival as good to business while few of the respondents termed it as
a threat and irrelevant to business. The results of the research show that generally in the
telecommunication industry, changes in management practices have been taken positively
and have positively spurred the growth of the industry. This has led to better service delivery
to the consumers and lower cost of the services. In conclusion, the study found that the
telecommunication industry provides many services to businesses and consumers, and
therefore any changes in its management practices affect not only the telecommunication
industry but a wide variety of businesses as well. This research study recommends therefore
that any changes in change management practice should be done cautiously and with utmost
care. Effective communication was found to be extremely useful in any change management
implementation efforts and this is in agreement with previous studies in this area. Also
legislation needs to be put in place to not only promote an enabling business environment for
the telecommunication firms in the country, but also to protect consumers from exploitation. | en_US |
