Strategic Planning Practices Adopted by Migori County Government in Kenya

Abstract

Strategic planning practices involve formulation of vision and mission statement, performance of situation analysis and finally strategy formulation and choice. Strategic decision determines the organizational relations to its external environment, encompass the entire organization, depends on input from all of the functional areas in the organization, has a direct influence on the administrative and operational activities, and is vitally important to the long-term health of an organization. This study was guided by the Resources Based Theory (RBV) and the Resource Dependence Theory (RDT) to planning which is designed to encourage clearly defined outcomes at every step of the change process. The purpose of this study was to determine the Strategic Planning Practices by Migori County Government in the Republic of Kenya. The study adopted the case study research design in addressing the objectives of the study. Basically a case study is an in-depth study of a particular situation rather than a sweeping statistical survey. It is the method preferred in narrowing down a very broad field of research. The study used an interview guide for data collection. The researcher interviewed senior staff of Migori County Government involved in strategic planning in the headquarters at Migori town. The study found that the strategic planning practices in Migori County include stakeholder engagements such as Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and industry (KCCI), all government ministries, Private sector representatives and staff. The study found that Strategic Planning facilitates better decision making policies through consensus on key issues and strategies to address them, commitment to, and capacity for, implementing the strategies, clearer communication of priorities, improved cooperation among those pursuing strategic objectives, and more effective management control of strategic initiatives. The study revealed that Migori County faces challenges in the implementation of strategic plans and that the departmental culture of Migori County ministries affected strategy implementation. The study recommend that there should be development of a strategic plan process to ensure appropriate focus on both the pre- and post-implementation challenges and should build employee trust and gain their commitment to the core values and objectives of the organization.