Challenges of strategy implementation faced by the District Headquarters under the economic stumulus programmes in the Kenyan Ministry of Public works

Abstract

Implementing strategy has always been a challenge for organizations across the industry. Ability to implement strategy is the deciding factor between success and failure of a company‟s strategy. The main objective of the study was to determine the challenges of strategy implementation of the Economic Stimulus Programmes (ESP‟s) in the Ministry of Public Works (MoPW).For this study, the population consisted of the infrastructural components of the Economic Stimulus Program under the Ministry of Public Works that were 77 in total. The study sample was divided into eight stratums comprising of the former provinces in the Country namely: Nairobi; Coast; North Eastern; Eastern; Central; Rift Valley; Western; and Nyanza. Selection of the projects within the strata was done through the use of simple random sampling. Quantitative analysis was used for data analysis. The study revealed that the capital expenditure in the Ministry comes in the form of projects and during economic booms; the Ministry has a lot of resources to invest in projects. The study revealed that delays in projects arose from task assignments that were pushed to various people and that lack of implementation plans affected the Ministry projects. The study showed that the Ministry had an overhang of poor policy management and it had a weak institutional capacity. The research recommends that during planning, more emphasis should be placed on the implementation. Most of these barriers can be overcome if they are accounted for during the formulation stage. It is obvious that many strategic plans fail to realize the anticipated benefits due to problems and difficulties faced during implementation. A research into the implementation challenges faced by ESPs in Kenya shows the implications it has on the ESPs as well as the overall economic implications. Policy makers may use the results of the study to understand the major challenges that ESPs face in the country and can thus come up with strategies to avert the challenges as well as use the recommendations to improve on the future ESPs. This study focused on the challenges of strategic implementation of the Economic Stimulus Programmes (ESP‟s) in the Ministry of Public Works in Kenya. The results of this research have added to the scarcely available information in Kenya on Economic Stimulus Program/ Practice. Future researchers now have a strong foundation they can rely on in carrying out their studies. The gap left has also been shown and thus future researchers have been given a guide on what to pursue. This research has provided useful information for MoPW management. It has offered them with improvement areas to focus on to enhance the implementation of ESPs. Identification of these improvement areas may lead to complete optimization of the ESP programs. The Ministry may have to change its practice during the implementation phase of the ESP projects by following the given recommendations in the study.