| dc.description.abstract | The concept of strategy has continued to gain popularity and interest in the management of
organizations. There is no single organization private or public, profit or non-profit that can
ignore or do without strategic management. With the current turbulent economic times, NonGovernmental
Organizations in Kenya have not been spared either and are trying to remain
competitive and relevant. The economic crises, globalisation, competition from other
organizations, and the zeal to remain unique and make a difference in the community have
pushed the organizations to develop strategic plans to guide their activities and to continually
review their strategies or formulate new ones to suit existing trends. Currently, World Scout
Bureau-Africa Regional Office in Nairobi is operating on its three-year strategic plan entitled,
‘towards an efficient, effective and sustainable scouting in Africa’ with the challenges facing
its implementation remaining unknown. Despite the numerous studies in the area of strategic
implementation, no known study has looked at challenges of strategy implementation at
World Scout Bureau-African Regional Office in Nairobi. The study sought to respond to the
question; what are the challenges faced during strategy implementation at the World Scout
Bureau-African Regional office in Nairobi Kenya? A case study research design was used to
investigate these challenges as this method gave an in-depth and comprehensive inquiry to
determine strategic responses that World Scout Bureau –Africa Regional Office has applied.
Both primary and secondary data were used in this research. The primary data was collected
from eight employees in the four departments of the World Scout Bureau in Nairobi namely;
Finance and Administration, Strategy and Education Services, Development Support and
Communications. An interview guide was used to enable the interviewer to probe further for
more information. Secondary data collection methods were also utilized including the
website, and other publications on the organizations strategic plan. The data collected was
qualitatively analyzed by use of content analysis technique. The study found that there were
numerous challenges limiting implementation of strategy at the World Scout Bureau-Africa
Regional Office which included lack of appreciation of the in-house capacity, differences in
levels of conceptualization of the strategy by the key actors creating a situation of conflict on
how to implement strategies of the organization and hence reducing the effect strategy on
organization overall objectives. Additionally, the study found out that resource allocation
both financial and human moderately influenced strategy implementation and its management
plans. For effective strategy implementation, the study concluded that organization strategy
must be supported by decisions regarding the appropriate organization structure,
communication, organizational culture, resources and management. World Scout BureauAfrica
Regional Office culture was found not supportive of strategy implementation and
hence a main hindrance to strategy implementation. The study recommended that World
Scout Bureau-Africa Regional Office management to ensure that the organization has
supportive structure that promotes free flow of information and that provide staff with the
needed training and instructions during implementation phase. Further, the study
recommends that company management should link employee performance during
implementation phase with the overall reward and compensation system in the organization.
On implication of the study on theory and practice, the study findings confirm the argument
of resource-based theory that resources are important in strategy implementation. The
findings also support theoretical argument that human capacity is important on strategy
implementation. On policy formulation, the study implies that managers when formulating
strategies should place more emphasis on implementation process and foresee the specific
challenges of implementation and develop ways of overcoming the same. This will ensure
successful implementation of the strategy and achievement of highest results. Most of these
obstacles are avoidable if they have been accounted for during the formulation stage. | en_US |
