The Effect of Organizational Culture on Strategy Implementation: a Case of KCB Bank Group

Abstract

Strategy implementation occurs within the internal and external environment of an organization. The environment is composed of various factors among them the prevailing organizational culture. Failure in strategic management virtually happens during the implementation of the strategic plan. The relationship between organizational culture and strategy has become interesting not only to the academic researchers, but also to the practicing managers. The study aimed at establishing the effect of organizational culture on strategy implementation at KCB bank Group. The study is guided by the following theories; Knowledge-based theory and Resource Based theory. The study employed a case-study design. The design has been found appropriate since it focuses on specific and unique cases. This design also allows a thorough, meticulous and systematic data collection on the research problem. The target population for this study was with 10 senior managers in strategy department of KCB Group Ltd. Primary data was collected by means of interview guide with open ended questions to interview senior managers at KCB Bank Group headquarters in Nairobi. The data collected was analysed using content analysis technique. Content analysis is the best method of analyzing the open ended questions because of its flexibility and allows for objective, systematic and quantitative description of the content of communication. Based on the findings of this study, there are various challenges that face strategy implementation. One of the challenges consisted of organizational culture. Secondly, another challenge that faced strategy implementation was insufficient buy-in. From the findings, inefficient leadership was a factor that affected strategy implementation. On further analysis, inappropriate strategy can be a challenge in itself to strategy implementation. The study also concluded that mission, vision and value of an organization influenced strategy implementation. The study further established that KCB Bank Group considers market culture, bureaucratic culture, entrepreneurial culture, and organizational positioning and innovation effect to strategy implementation. The study recommends that focus should be directed at leaders in different capacities as they play the role of coaches in giving general direction, but further encourage individual decision-making to determine the operating details. The study findings were applicable to KCB Bank Group only. The findings can therefore not be generalized to all organizations. The study recommends that further research should be done on effect of organizational culture on strategy implementation at KCB bank Group.