Strategic Leadership, Competitive Advantage, Organization Structure and Performance of International Non-governmental Organizations in Kenya

Abstract

In the wake of myriad challenges facing organizations, the concept of strategic leadership has generally been embraced by several organizations owing to its immense contribution to organizational performance. Strategic leaders are required by organizations to shape the formation of strategic intent and to influence successful strategic actions. Whereas organizational performance differences are attributed to multiple factors, extant literature suggests that strategic leadership is crucial in driving organizational outcomes. The general objective of the study was to establish the influence of competitive advantage and organization structure on the relationship between strategic leadership and performance of international non-governmental organizations in Kenya. Consequently, four specific objectives were formulated with corresponding hypotheses which were statistically tested. The study was anchored on strategic leadership theory, upper echelons theory, the resource-based theory and industrial organization economics theory. A descriptive cross-sectional design was adopted in the study where the population comprised all the international non-governmental organizations registered in Kenya as of 1st April 2019. Data was collected through self-administered structured questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The study established that strategic leadership has significant positive influence on performance. It was established that competitive advantage partially mediates the relationship between strategic leadership and performance. In addition, the findings revealed that organization structure significantly moderates the relationship between strategic leadership and performance. It was also found that there exists a significant joint effect of strategic leadership, competitive advantage, and organization structure on performance. Based on the results of the study, the key conclusions was that strategic leadership plays indispensable role in organizational performance. Based on the mediation test results, it was concluded that competitive advantage midwifes organizational performance outcome but does not preclude strategic leadership acting beyond the ordinary course of business to improve performance. Further, it was concluded that organization structure is a tool at the disposal of management used for matching organizational internal resources to challenges and realities in the competitive environment. The study expands the frontiers of knowledge, adding to the existing literature by confirming empirically, that indeed, strategic leadership influences performance of organizations in Kenya. On policy implications, the findings demonstrate that policy makers have the inescapable responsibility for organizational performance through their decisions and actions. The study recommends that managers should periodically evaluate organization structure to establish whether it is responsive to the changes in the environment and whether it serves the needs of the organization. Regarding future research, the study recommends investigating the role of leadership style on competitive advantage and performance.