A comparative study of strategic planning in the public and private sectors in Kenya

Abstract

This research project sought to compare Strategic Planning in the Public and Private Sectors in Kenya. The objectives included the determination of the types of strategic planning that exists in the two sectors and whether they were similar, the factors that influenced strategic planning in the sectors, and whether they were similar, and finally, the extent to which the strategic planning tools were utilized in the two sectors. Simple statistics were used to analyse the data. The study confirmed the existence of strategic planning and preference of formal planning in both the public and private sectors. However, the public sector only practices formal planning. The factors that influenced strategic planning in the public sector were government, economic trends and political/legal factors whereas, the private sector showed a bias towards competitors and customers. The prevalent tool used in the public sector was on-going evaluation whereas, the private sector exhibited different combinations of - tools. Linkages to performances of the organization and the individual in the public sector were low, when compared to linkages seen in the private sector.