Strategy Implementation at United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) Kenya

Abstract

Strategy implementation is the process that turns implementation strategies and plans into actions to accomplish objectives. It is always more difficult to do something (strategy implementation) than to say you are going to do it (strategy formulation). For successful strategy implementation, an organization should understand the impact of strategy on external environment, internal resources and competences, and the expectations and influence of stakeholders. The objective of the study was to determine the strategy implementation and establish the challenges encountered in implementation of strategy in UNICEF Kenya. The research design was a case study of the UNICEF Kenya. The data collection tool was an interview guide where content analysis was used to analyze the qualitative primary data which had been collected by conducting interviews from the respondents. The study found out that the strategies which are being implemented by UNICEF (K) were formulated in their headquarters and the local office has to localize the strategies to the local set ups, top-down approach was being used to formulate the strategies, upper level management are normally the ones implementing the strategies in the organization although in some cases random sampling is employed on employees to spearhead the implementation of strategies. The challenges which the organization faced were bureaucracy in the organization, leadership, rewards and resources and organizational structure. The challenges were brought by lack of adequate leadership, transfers of staff mid-implementation of the project and also the management constantly hiring consultants, lack of ownership of projects by staff

members and slowness which in some cases leads to the loss of opportunities to achieve target results. From this, the organization should be able to come up with appropriate measures to overcome the challenges early enough before they affect much, the realization of its objectives.