Strategic Responses to Changes in the External Environment by Private Tvet Institutions in Nairobi County

Abstract

Organizations that are open systems are primarily dependent on the external environment for their survival and success. This environment is typically characterized by constant changes that make it very unpredictable. In most cases these constant changes in the external environment do not coincide with the objectives of the organization. This implies that business managers have to continually keep on changing their strategies in response to these environmental uncertainties. Strategic responses are a set of decisions and actions that result into the formulation and implementation of plans designed to achieve the organization’s objective (Ansoff and McDonnell, 1990). They are guided by the theories of strategy which have been developed over a period of time for use in management. The study used three theories that guide strategy and strategic responses. The study objectives were to establish the environmental challenges that affect private TVET institutions in Nairobi County and secondly to establish the strategic responses by the private TVET institutions in Nairobi County to effectively deal with the challenges from the external environment. The study adopted a cross sectional survey design and the unit of analysis was each of the private TVET colleges in Nairobi County. The researcher used primary data. A questionnaire with closed and open ended questions was used as the data collection tool. Descriptive statistics and factor analysis were used to analyze data. The findings of the study were established and compared to the theories that anchored the study as well as other empirical studies discussed in the literature review were done. The study findings indicated that Private TVET Colleges faced challenges such as political factors, competition from other TVET institutions, unfriendly government regulations and increased operational costs as the major challenges affecting the colleges from the environment. Due to these challenges, the study found out that the colleges experienced low student enrolments, increased operational costs and some of them closed some non performing departments or stopped offering some courses. In response to these challenges, the institutions deployed various strategies which were intended to counter the challenges in a positive way. The study found out those institutions added new programmes to their lists to deal with competition. These programmes were added either to compete with a rival institution or to create a niche where other institutions have not ventured. Colleges invested in quality training facilities as a strategic response in a bid to retain the students already enrolled and also to attract others to join. This helped keep competition at bay. To beat competition, institutions opened campuses in high demand areas where the effects of politics were also low. Colleges also introduced evening and weekend classes so as to tap more students and this helped reduce the effects of competition. The study findings concluded that private TVET institutions are affected by the external environment just like any other organisation and they respond strategically to these changes for their survival ad success. The researcher recommends that the players in this sector use the findings of the study to improve their responses to the environment as well as lobbying the government to amend laws in this sector to be friendly to their businesses. One of the limitations of the study was that it was conducted on private TVET institutions and therefore the findings may not be applicable to other firms in other sectors within the same county. The researcher therefore suggests that this study can be replicated to other sectors and comparisons to the findings can be made to determine how other sectors respond to environmental challenges.