| dc.description.abstract | Strategic planning practices involve the formulation and implementation of the
major goals and initiatives taken by a company's top management on behalf of
owners, based on consideration of resources and an assessment of the internal and
external environments in which the organization competes. Executive
management accomplishes the day-to-day details, including: instructions for
preparation of department budgets, procedures, schedules; appointment of middle
level executives such as department managers; coordination of departments;
media and governmental relations; and shareholder communication. Helpful skills
of top management vary by the type of organization but typically include a broad
understanding, competition, world economies, and politics. Strategic planning is
viewed as zeroing in on decision-making, information, and the future. Jhpiego, an
affiliate of Johns Hopkins University, is an international NGO supporting health
programs to improve the health of women and their families. The research
objective of this study is to determine the impact of Top Management Team on
Strategic Planning Practices. The foundation of this study will be based on three
theoretical frameworks namely; Resource Based View, Upper Echelons Theory
and Dynamic Capabilities Theory. The study is qualitative and it involves an indepth
investigation of top management team and how they influence planning and
implementation of strategy in an organization. The study made use of both
secondary and primary data. Primary data was obtained from Jhpiego Kenya
Executive Management Team (EMT) through interviews. Secondary data was
obtained from literature from different search engines and Jhpiego library. For this
study Content analysis was used in data analysis and presentation since the data
collected is qualitative in nature. A data entry was prepared using SPSS for the
closed ended questions. Since they were pre-coded, the closed ended questions
were captured in the data entry template and simple statistical analyses done. The
findings were therefore transferred to Microsoft Excel sheets for further analysis
into graphical representations which informed the background characteristics of
the study respondents. The TMT is very key in the strategic planning process of
any organization. When the processes are not well thought and planned then the
organization is bound to hit a dead end and therefore end up missing on the
realization of the organizations goals and objectives. Despite the many challenges
to strategy implementation the respondents stated a number of remedial measures
to counter these challenges. There were indications that the leader must provide
effective leadership through his team of implementation; clear roles and
responsibilities should be assigned to individuals and; the organization should
ensure that it focuses on core areas either for implementation or for New Business
Development. It is hoped this study will trigger the policy makers to start analysis
on what the role of TMT is on strategic planning process for smooth strategy
formulation and implementation. The study will be useful in filling the knowledge
gaps of the theoretical foundations used in this study which include the Resource
Based View, Upper Echelons Theory and Dynamic Capability Theory. Further the
findings of this study will help other Jhpiego country offices to understand the
importance of having TMT at the forefront in the strategic planning process and
more so their role during the implementation stage. | en_US |
