Strategic control practices in the power Generation, transmission and distribution industry

Abstract

This study is the product of a survey carried out on strategic control practices in Power Generation, Transmission and Distribution sector. The study focuses on trying to find out what control practices are in place in the sector as well as the challenges the sector faces in implementing strategic control. This is important given the nature of the product involved. Electricity is vital for the county’s development and the study of strategic control in the sector can provide important information on areas to manage to ensure enough capacity is available for use. Fifteen firms in the sector were chosen for data collection but only ten provided the required data and hence qualified for analysis. The data was collected from senior managers who are involved in strategic management in the organizations. The data was collected over a period of two weeks and involved answering some Likert scale type questions that indicated the degree to which the managers thought they had the strategic control in place or faced the stated challenge. Permission was first of all sought from Human Resources managers to allow the data to be collected from the relevant manager in their respective firms. Some organizations asked for a hard copy of the questionnaire to be left behind to be filled out while others asked for soft copies to be sent through email. The hard copies were later collected and the email filled copies were sent through email. The received data was then compiled and analyzed. The result of the study generally indicates that strategic control is practiced by the firms and the firms are able to deal with the given challenges. However, there is still room for improvement. There were great variations in some cases. For example, there were variations in the way the firms reviewed their strategies after analysis of their vi environment and the way follow up was carried out to ensure correction of deviations from standards was implemented. Great variations were especially noted in the challenges faced by the firms in strategic control. The benefits of strategic control are not therefore fully enjoyed in some of the organizations and by extension the industry. The fact that the received data does not indicate one hundred percentage agreement to the points raised may be extremely important to explain power deficiency that may occur from time to time and need to be addressed.