Influence of change management strategies on growth and development in the banking industry: a case of Kenya commercial bank

Abstract

Organizational change management is a systematic diagnosis of the current situation in order to determine both the need for change and the capability to change, and also the desired future state. Strategic change is concerned with organizational transformation. The purpose of the study was to determine how Change Management Strategies influences growth and development in the banking industry, Kenya Commercial Bank was the case of study. The strategies identified were Human Resource Strategy, Technology Strategy, Marketing Strategy and the Cost Containment Strategy. The objectives of the study were to establish the influence of human resource strategy on growth and development at KCB, to examine the extent to which technology strategy has contributed to the growth and development in KCB, to assess how the marketing strategy has influenced growth and development at KCB and to analyze the extent to which the cost containment strategy has contributed to growth and development at KCB. The study employed a descriptive survey research design based on a cross sectional descriptive research and data was collected using questionnaires administered to 160 employees of the bank at the Head Office, Nairobi. Data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences. From the findings, a total of 78.0% of the respondents said that they can attribute their performance to the human resource strategy employed by the bank but 22.0% had a contrary opinion. A total of 96.5% of the respondents admitted that technology strategy had improved their work efficiency but 3.5% felt otherwise. A total of 44.7% of the respondents agreed that marketing strategy had influenced growth and development in the bank, 39.0% strongly agreed with the same but 9.9% of the respondents were undecided and a further 5.0% disagreed with that position. A total of 17.0% of the respondent rated the influence of cost reduction and cost efficiency as very high, 34.8% rated it as fairly high, 37.6% rated it as moderate. A total of 65.2% were of the opinion that the bank was doing much in cost containment, 34.8% were of the contrary opinion. The study will benefit the management and policy makers in the bank and other investors in the banking industry as they strive to implement change management strategies. The study recommends that players in the banking industry should invest heavily in human capital and technology in order to remain competitive in the dynamic market. Also they should strive to minimize on cost and maximizing on profits without compromising on service and product quality. This can be done through effective change management strategies.