Challenges of Implementation of Strategic Plans in Public Secondary Schools in Limuru District, Kiambu County
Abstract
Strategic planning has been used as a management to
ol to help improve performance
by ensuring that members are working towards the sa
me goals and continuously
adjusting the direction of the organization to the
changing environment on the basis of
obtained results. Implementation of strategic plann
ing covers the entire managerial
activities including such matters as motivation, co
mpensation, management appraisal
and control processes. However lack of fully implem
entation of strategic plans is due
to the fact that there are several challenges that
have to be addressed the concerned
parties. The objective of the study was to determin
e the challenges of implementation
of strategic plans in Public Secondary Schools in L
imuru District, Kiambu County.
The study adopted a descriptive research design. Th
e study used census survey in
which all the 18 public secondary schools were sele
cted. Simple random sampling
was then used to select 72 respondents. The study u
sed questionnaires to collect data.
Before analysis, data was edited first to identify
and eliminate any errors made by the
respondents. The data was then taken through the st
atistical package for social
sciences after being coded then analyzed and result
s presented using frequency tables,
pie charts and bar graphs. The study established th
at despite the embraced strategic
planning there the plans under implementation in mo
st schools encountered various
challenges as Public Secondary Schools in Limuru Di
strict, Kiambu County had low
strategic plan implementation. The study found that
political changes and economic
changes physical environmental changes, social cult
ural factors, management policies
and competitor’s actions cause the alteration of th
e school strategic plan. Based on the
research findings, it is concluded that strategic p
lanning is a management tool that
helps an organization to focus its energy, to ensur
e that members of the organization
are working towards the same goals, to assess and a
djust the organization's direction
in response to a changing environment. The study re
commends that Principals /
Deputies should be equipment with the necessary man
agerial skills to help them
successfully implement strategic plans in their res
pective schools. There is need for
public secondary schools to form strategic alliance
s with development partners so as
to enhance their performance and there is also need
to form strategic collaborations
which will enhance strategic plan implementation. F
uture research should also focus
on both public and private secondary schools in Ken
ya in order to find out the
relationship between strategic planning and their p
erformance. Schools should
embrace institutional policies which they should en
force strictly to ensure they help in
the successful implementation of the school’s strat
egic plans.