Organizational Culture and Strategy Implementation Among Commercial State Corporations in Kenya

Abstract

Many organizations continue to record high failure rates in the implementation of their strategies. This is caused by the failure of paying attention to both the internal and external environmental forces affecting the organization. The question of successful implementation of strategies remains an unaddressed challenge in many organizations. Lack of enough knowledge remains a great hindrance to the successful implementation of strategies in the organizational context. Alignment of organizational culture and strategy is hence crucial in getting things done faster, with less effort and in building better results. The aim of this research was to determine the influence of organizational culture on strategy implementation among commercial state corporations in Kenya. The study was based on resource-based view theory and organizational culture theory. A descriptive survey research design was used for the research. The 54 commercial state corporations in Kenya made the population of the study. The study was a census of all the corporations as the population was relatively small. Primary data was obtained using a questionnaire. The questionnaires were issued to the key managers who were mostly the heads of the corporations. The data analysis involved both descriptive, correlation and regression analysis. Findings from the study showed a positive organizational culture effect on strategy implementation. The study also revealed that organizational culture was among the key factors that could be used to explain strategy implementation as they explained 61.5% of the variation in strategy implementation. The study concludes that organizational culture are significant determinants of strategy implementation among the CSCs. The recommendation of the study is that there is need for policymakers to develop guidelines and policies that will help the firms in adopting effective organizational culture. Leadership of the CSCs should create a culture of accountability where employees hold themselves and each other accountable for meeting strategic objectives. Future studies should investigate the effect of organizational culture on strategy implementation of firms in other contexts.