Operations Strategies Adopted by Humanitarian Organizations in Kenya

Abstract

This study sought to bring out agility issues related to operations strategies adopted by humanitarian organizations in Kenya. Key among these issues focused on how humanitarian organizations adopt critical operational strategies such as maintaining low cost, high quality, ability to operate without backorders in a humanitarian crisis situation, as well as maintenance of low inventories while achieving and maintaining maximum overhead absorption throughout a humanitarian operation process. The broader research objective that was addressed here was to establish operations strategies adopted by humanitarian organizations in Kenya; whether these organizations prioritize the operations objectives and whether there exist trade –offs in operations objectives. A descriptive study design was adopted and SPSS tool was used to analyze primary data that was collected by use of closed ended questionnaires. The study found that operations strategies adopted by humanitarian organizations in Kenya are greatly influenced by the choice of human resource and that HOs in Kenya pursue operations objectives collectively without trade-offs, although, quality is prioritized above other factors. The study also revealed that most Humanitarian Organizations in Kenya are mainly UN agencies and are majorly large in size. That majority of its employees are of the view that these organizations are performing in line with their expectation and beyond.