Challenges of Strategy implementation at National Social Security Fund In Kenya

Abstract

Social security is an important sector in the economy of a country in terms of economic growth. Indeed the year 2009/2010 budget speech the minister for finance Hon Uhuru Kenyatta underscored the contribution made by NSSF in the stock exchange and directed that .in future the institution will be required to invest in Government treasury bills and bonds in order to boost economic growth. Strategic management stresses the importance of all functional departments being integrated to achieve the organizational goals and objectives. It consists of three stages formulation, implementation and evaluation. Converting strategy into action is the implementation part of it. Strategy implementation is considered the most difficult stage in strategic management it requires commitment and sacrifice among others. Strategy formulated and not formulated serves no purpose at all. The study sought to determine the challenges facing NSSF in strategy implementation because implementing strategy is a change process which break or make the best strategy, as some writers put it "the devil is in the detail". Strategy implementation is tough, time consuming and faces resistance because people fear the implications. Being a case study the researcher utilized an interview guide for more comparability and the interviewer's neutrality. Data collected was analyzed using content analysis because of its qualitative nature. Four key departments (Research & Development, Human resource and administration, finance and Information Technology which coordinate formulation and implementation of strategy were chosen to participate in the study to avoid duplication of data had more interviews been undertaken. Primary data was collected using an interview guide."Content analysis was used to analyse the data which confirmed challenges faced by NSSF in strategy implementation as organization structure, culture, communication, reward system, power & politics, leadership and change management process.