Change Management and Succession in Family Owned Small and Medium Enterprises in Nairobi Area
Abstract
In today’s turbulent environment of organizations,
change has become synonymous with
standard business practices as long-term organizati
onal ends have to be reformulated on
an ongoing basis. Market dynamics have created chal
lenges for public organizations,
with the emergence of the global economy, advances
in technology, increased societal
demands, and the need to provide more social servic
es with fewer resources.
As well, a
widespread desire for increased organizational scru
tiny has increased the pressure for
change, given more accessible globalized informatio
n systems and heightened media
attention critical of government inefficiencies in
service delivery. The objective of the
study was to establish the influence of change mana
gement and succession in family
owned small and medium enterprises in Nairobi area.
The study used descriptive survey
research design. The population of the study was 60
0 family owned small and medium
enterprises registered in Nairobi County. The study
used stratified sample in which 60
small and medium enterprises were selected for the
study. The study used primary data
that was collected through self-administered questi
onnaires. The data was analyzed using
the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS)
software and presented using tables
and figures. The findings of the study was that cha
nge management was adopted by the
SMEs in order to be competitive in the market as ch
anges have occurred in the business
environment occasioned by technological advances, g
lobalization, changing
demographics, economic and political factors. The c
hange management practices that
were adopted by the SMEs were found to be quality l
eadership, long term succession
planning, open planning of leadership transfer, ope
n and effective communication
between the founders and succeeding generation and
good management practices.
Smooth succession was achieved through full commitm
ent by family and non family
members, trust and respect to the successor, smooth
handover, good relationship and
formalized rational and objective criteria. The stu
dy found out that successful succession
of family owned businesses was affected by ability
of successor, criteria for selecting the
successor, conflict among family members, use of ot
her mechanisms to decide the
successor as opposed to merit and goals of family a
nd business overlap.