Employee perception of strategy in a Public organisation: the case of Kengen

Abstract

Employees form a major stakeholder group in any enterprise. However, their productivity and performance is dependent on their degree of motivation. This can be influenced by how they perceive and interpret various initiatives that may be introduced by the company; a critical one in this regard being introduction of a new or revised business strategy. Strategy defines the direction an organisation will take to maintain or expand its product range or market scope. Strategy formulation needs to take account of factors and circumstances that would constrain its implementation. Such factors can be systemic or behavioural in nature. This research work sought to investigate the disconnect that may arise between employee perception of strategy in a public organisation, based on their initial expectations from such a plan. It also sought to investigate whether there is a relationship between perception and contextual factors such as geographical location. KenGen was used to exemplify what obtains in the public sector in Kenya on this account, albeit with some qualifications. KenGen's activities cover the whole country. Due to constraints of time and budget, a sample was randomly selected from the employee database to represent the population of study. The sample size took account of the dispersion of the population, the desired level of accuracy and interval range. A structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data. Secondary data was obtained from the company's management information system

and printed records. Analysis of the data was done by commercial SPSS software and Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Findings from the Study indicate that perceived performance of the strategy did not match employee expectations. There 'vas a statistically significant perceptual gap that could not be explained by the difference in random sampling fluctuation alone. A correlation was established between expectations and perceptions with the level of education, seniority in the organisation and length of service. Expectations from strategy were found to decrease with increase in period of service, but are marginally affected by the position in the organisation, geographical location or level of education. The perceived performance of the Plan increases as one moves down the ladder and with increase in length of service. The level of education was found to be the principal item influencing perception of strategy. The proportion of employees who were aware of the strategy was higher than those who were not, but this needs to be increased even further to facilitate more ownership during