A Survey of the extent of intrapreneurship practice in public sector commercial organizations in Kenya

Abstract

It is generally agreed that for organizations to survive and thrive, they need to innovate. Innovation is both the creating and bringing into profitable use of new technologies, new products, new services, new marketing ideas, new systems, and new ways of operating. Implementation is generally the bottleneck that limits the rate of innovation. "Intrapreneurship" on the other hand means entrepreneurship within the corporation, a system of speeding up innovation inside an organization. Intrapreneurs introduce and produce new products, processes, and services, which in turn enable the company as a whole to grow and profit (Gifford and Pinchot, 1985). This study set out to determine the extent to which public sector commercial organizations in Kenya have embraced Intrapreneurship as a competitive business strategy, and whether the innovation climate factors necessary for intrapreneurial orientation to thrive are allowed space in these organizations. It was inspired by the continued dismal performance of the public sector commercial organizations notwithstanding the Kenya government's efforts to reverse the fortunes in the sector and improve economic performance since the early 1990' s through liberalization, deregulation, restructuring, retrenchments, privatization and now performance contracting. In the context of this study, corporate intrapreneurship as expounded by Gifford Pinchott (1985) in his book "Intrapreneuring: Why you don't have to leave the corporation to become an entrepreneur", respondents have demonstrated that the concept can find a home in Kenyan public enterprises, but more needs to be done to popularize the idea. The survey demonstrated that the public sector commercial organizations were to a moderate extent supportive of intrapreneurs, who are employees who behave like entrepreneurs on behalf of the company. They are persistent visionaries who act courageously to turn ideas into profitable realities. They become the hands-on leaders of specific innovations within an organization. Intrapreneurs are an essential ingredient in every successful innovation process. Employees are more effectively empowered if they are given a clear vision of the future and where the company is trying to go. The need for innovation is then apparent to them, and they know how to direct their efforts. Intrapreneurial orientation should be well aligned with the vision and strategic intent of the organization. With regard to innovation climate factors, the public sector commercial organizations that responded indicate that some of the empirically tested innovation climate factors necessary for innovation and entrepreneurial orientation to thrive in organizations were evident to some moderate extent It is time therefore, for the public sector commercial organizations III Kenya to embrace the concept of intrapreneurship, one of the most liberating concepts to emerge in business in recent years (www.Biblio.Com).