Strategic Decision Making and Performance at Kenya Power

Abstract

The issue of strategic decision-making process has attracted the attention of researchers and enterprise managers. This has been largely attributed to globalization and technological advancements in the business environment which has intensified competition and resulted to a more dynamic environment which has compelled enterprises to fast track their decision making and operating processes for survival and growth. The study's objective was to examine strategic decision making and performance at Kenya Power. The study was informed by the institutional theory, the resource dependency theory and the porter’s generic model. The study targeted the top management officials including the CEO, head of sales and marketing, head of strategy, head of research and development, head of human resource and head of finance who are key decision makers in the organization. Out of the six respondents targeted, five participated in the interview administered by the researcher translating to 85.7% response rate. The collected data was transcribed and analyzed using content analysis to make inferences. The results revealed that strategic decisions were mainly made by the top management, decision making process was faced with resource constraints, that the decision-making function was rigid, that decision making was evidence based though fairly slow and that decision making was influenced by various factors. The study recommends that the decision-making process be made participative across all members of the organization to foster ownership of decisions and realize success in the implementation. Adequate resources should also be allocated to decision-making function as this is critical in ensuring that decisions are made timely to prevent losses or loss of clientele. Further, the organization should distance itself from political interference by ensuring that recruitment decision is informed and accurate decisions and devoid of bias in order to serve the interest of the company and the public at large.