Stakeholders involvement in strategy implementation at nature Kenya

Abstract

Strategy implementation is by nature complex, but it must have clear priorities in order to be manageable. The management of diverse stakeholders’ interests in this process can make or break an organization. Balancing stakeholder interests is a process of assessing, weighing and addressing the competing claims of those who have a stake in the actions of the organization. The purpose of this study was to investigate the stakeholder’s involvement in strategy implementation at Nature Kenya. The objectives of the study were to establish the extent to which stakeholders are involved in strategy implementation as well as determining the factors that influence the extent of stakeholder involvement in strategy implementation at Nature Kenya. This was a case study where the researcher collected pertinent primary and secondary data. Primary data was gathered using a research guide which was administered through personal interviews. The respondents of the study were the CEO, Conservation Programme Manager, Project Managers, Project Coordinators and Project officers in various regions where Nature Kenya runs its programmes. Secondary data were obtained from the relevant documents of the organization like the strategic plan and other programme documents which provided data on the program outputs and/or outcomes and the beneficiaries as well as other partnership arrangements. Organization of data from research transcripts and observation notes was the first step in the analysis process. This involved thorough reading, editing, cleaning up the research notes entry into the computer. Data was then analyzed by use of content analysis to arrive at analytical conclusions. From the study the researcher concludes that, the major challenges encountered by Nature Kenya while implementing strategies included some aspects of organizational culture and structure and high degree of staff turnover. Others included lack of infrastructural facilities, government decisions, inadequate resources and hostile communities. As a way of dealing with the challenges encountered, Nature Kenya involved all employees and other stakeholders in its strategy implementation process. The organization developed communication channel to all parties affected by its activities as a result of new strategies implemented. Other initiatives adopted included training of employees, encouraging employees to brainstorm, share new ideas, and own the strategy implementation process, change in leadership style, rewarding the performance of senior managers as well as lower level managers and employees. In order to address the challenges of financial constraints, Nature Kenya partnered with international organizations based in Europe and America to enhance it’s fundraising from European and American donors. The organization also recognized the importance of social cultural processes in successful strategy implementation hence its development and adoption of core guiding values. For an organization to successfully improve the overall probability that the strategy is implemented as intended the researcher recommends that, Nature Kenya should ensure that employees affected by the strategy are the core aspect in strategy implementation focusing on the outcome and also ensure that the necessary resources are available during strategy implementation. Moreover, Nature Kenya should assess other stakeholderemployees needs to ensure that it is in line with strategy implementation and make sure that strategy implementation is a team effort.