Managing Strategic Change at Pact Kenya

Abstract

Managing strategic change differs from one organization to another because of differences in context and the people involved in the change. While the process of developing a competitive strategy is an analytical one requiring carefully appraisal of the environment vis-à-vis the internal capabilities of the organization, the process of managing the expected strategic change is somewhat different. Managing strategic change is a socio-political process that is more concerned with managing people’s expectations and understanding of how anticipated strategic changes will affect them. Managing strategic change is dependent largely on how the leadership of an organization communicates, motivates and gets buy in from staff to carry out the required change. Civil society organizations (CSOs) like any other entities are faced with similar challenges of managing strategic change. Rapid changes in the operating environment have led many CSOs to develop and execute strategic plans aimed at making them competitive. The CSOs have then had to contend with managing strategic change within their organizations as they sought to implement new visions. This study aimed at examining how Pact Kenya a CSO managed its strategic change process. The research employed a case study approach so as to get as much information as possible. The objective of this research was to determine how strategic change has been managed at Pact Kenya. In order to achieve the objective, the researcher held six in-depth interviews with key respondents. The study revealed that Pact Kenya as part of the Pact global family had encountered challenges in trying to manage strategic change initiated at the organization’s parent headquarters. The challenges were caused by among other things the failure of the headquarters management to fully involve staff and managers from the county offices including Kenya and lack of adequate communication on the change process. This led to suspicion and apathy among staff on the proposed changes. The study was limited by time constraints which delayed its completion. It was carried out at a time when Pact Kenya was responding to two major calls for proposals hence it was difficult to get staff and managers to avail time for discussions leading to postponements of appointments. The researcher recommends that more studies on how CSOs in Kenya manage strategic should be carried out as well as comparative studies on how this is managed in the private sector vis-à-vis the non-profit sector. Further studies are also required on the role of managers in managing strategic change in Kenya so as to add to the pool of existing knowledge.