| dc.description.abstract | Strategic planning is an organizational management activity that is used to set goals, focus
energy and resources, strengthen operation and ensures that employees and other
stakeholders are working towards the common goals, assess and adjust the organization's
direction in response to a changing environment. For of an organization to achieve effective
performance, there has to be well defined strategic plans that are consciously communicated
to all stakeholders to be effectively implemented. The relationship between strategic
planning and organizational performance needs analysis to get a better understanding on
how strategic planning is applied in practice to improve performance thus survival of the
organisation. Primary data sources were used in this study where data was obtained through
interactive interviews. The main instrument of data collection in this study was an interview
guide. The nature of data collected was qualitative and was therefore analysed using content
analysis technique. The study found that Enablis East Africa has a Vision which is
“Empowering ideas. Empowering people”; while its Mission is “To create employment
opportunities by supporting and financing the expansion of entrepreneurial ventures in East
Africa. Monitoring and evaluations outcomes and reports are shared with staff and
stakeholders to generate continuous programme adjustments necessary to keep the strategy
implementation on track. The study also found that strategic planning is a team effort which
involves all levels and functional units of the Organisation top executives, middle managers
and supervisors, and employees. EEA’s strategy development steps involve intensive
participatory driven processes. EEA sees planning as means to support accountability and
performance, to contribute to impact at regional and global level goals, and most importantly
as a fundamental process to its vision and mission; logical frameworks are used to cascade
and track the extent to which the milestones as stipulated in the Contribution Agreement and
strategy are achieved and Enablis East Africa monitors inputs, outputs and outcomes.
Enablis addresses products, markets, resources, and technologies over an extended period of
time. The study concludes that strategic planning is an essential instrument for planning and
forecasting which positions the organization to meet demands and changes which might
come up in the course of discharging its services. Enablis’s strategy reaffirms is ultimate
mandate to provide small and medium sized enterprises with access to business support
products and services to increase economic development in the region thus solve the
unemployment challenge in East Africa. Strategic planning can directly contribute to
organizational performance. The study recommends that Enablis should ensure that strategic
planning is effectively put in place to reap the full benefits of effective implementation.
Enablis East Africa should optimize on its huge investment in reviews and reflection, and
use outcomes and results for operational improvement or changing strategic priorities. The
management of Enablis should offer continuous training to the employees on strategic
planning adopt clear communication of strategy so as to equip them with skills that will help
them in their mandates. With regard to practice, it is apparent that non-governmental
organizations operating in Kenya depend on their operating environment for their survival
and with changes in the operating environment, the business unit need to adapt to the same.
With regard to policy, the non-governmental organizations in Kenya as well as the private
firms would use the findings of this study to lobby for amendment of regulations that inhibit
the strategic planning process and performance such firms in their operations. In theory, the
academia and business researchers in strategic management may borrow from the findings
of this study to support literary citations as well as develop themes for further research | en_US |
