Strategic management practices adopted by the Karen hospital Nairobi

Abstract

The study was to identify the strategic management practices and challenges faced by The Karen Hospital in the strategic management process. The hospital is operating in a turbulent environment including facing stiff competition from other private hospitals. The research was in the form of a case study and involved interviewing the Chief executive officer, Deputy chief executive officer and the Director. Data analysis was by content analysis. The study established that The Karen Hospital does adopt strategic management practices to a great extent. They have a clearly stated vision and mission statement. The hospital's top management is mainly involved in strategy formulation and is also responsible for strategy implementation by providing leadership to senior managers and heads of department. The hospital faces challenges in strategy formulation, implementation and evaluation. Strategy implementation is faced with major challenges of finance, employees' resistance to change and healthcare industry forces. The study recommends to The Karen Hospital management to involve the entire staff in sharing the vision and mission statement .The environmental scanning should involve healthcare industry analysis to identify opportunities and threats posed by the external environment. Situational analysis should involve extensive customer analysis since they form significant component of the firms operating environment. Strategy analysis should involve use of strategy workshops to deliberate strategy generation process. The strategic analysis and evaluation should incorporate use of several tools such as General electric matrix and Product market model apart from the Boston Consulting group matrix .The strategy implementation should be enhanced by formulation of policies designed to control decisions while defining the scope of operational activities. To reduce resistance to change Irorn any of the stakeholders, participation and communication in the entire strategic management process should be encouraged. The strategy implementation evaluation and control system should be closely monitored to ensure they are effective to give feedback timely for necessary decisions to be made