DETERMINANTS OF STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION IN COUNTY MINISTRIES IN THE NORTH RIFT REGION OF KENYA

Abstract

The general objective of the project was to examine the determinants of strategy implementation in county ministries in the North Rift region of Kenya. The specific objectives are: examine the effect of County (structural designs) on strategy implementation in county ministries in the North Rift region of Kenya; determine the effect of managerial skills on strategy implementation in county ministries in the North Rift region of Kenya; assess the effect of financial constraints on strategy implementation in county ministries in the North Rift region of the North Rift region of Kenya, and examine the influence of stakeholder involvement on strategy implementation in county ministries in the North Rift region of Kenya. Among the theories that the study has been based on include resource-based view theory, Katz’s theory, stakeholder management theory and systems theory. The research adopted a mixed research design involving both quantitative and qualitative research designs and case study research method where three county governments were selected for data collection in particular, Turkana, West Pokot, and Uasin Gishu. Therefore, the target population from three counties (Turkana, West Pokot, and Uasin Gishu) used as the case studies was middle and top management employees from 30 County Ministries. Simple random technique was used as the sampling procedure. 277 county employees were targeted in the three counties. SPSS analysis statistical software was used to analyse the collected data.  The researcher was able to collect 199 questionnaires giving a response rate of 71.8%. The findings of the study indicate that each of the independent variable has a significant and positive relationship with the dependent variable (strategy implementation). Using the results of the study it has been concluded that structural designs, managerial skills, financial constraints, and stakeholder involvement were found to satisfactorily explain the implementation of strategy at the County Ministries supported by a coefficient of determination referred to as the R Square of 78.7%. Financials constraints is the highly determining factor in relation to strategy implementation with a regression coefficient of 0.414. Following this conclusion, some of the recommendations made for consideration include; county governments to streamline their organizational structure to ensure it complements implementation of strategy, have the National government via the treasury release funds in a timely manner, increase budgetary allocations for implementation of strategy and strive to hire competent strategic management staff and ensure they undergo regular training, among others. 

Key Words: Structural designs, strategy implementation, managerial skills, financial constraints