Challenges of Strategic Change Management at the Kenyatta National Hospital in Kenya

Abstract

The world around us is constantly moving forward and getting new dimensions. Introducing change is necessary, although not solely enough, for ensuring success in the future. Change is necessary for an organization to focus on repositioning, renewal, reorganizing and a systematic development. The study identified the challenges of managing strategic change for a level five health facility like Kenyatta National Hospital and ways in which it attempts to deal with the challenges. The research design was case study. Five departmental heads agreed to an interview with the help of interview guide targeting information on demographics, objective one and objective two. The qualitative data was analyzed using content analysis. The findings revealed challenges of strategic change management at KNH as systemic and behavioral resistance, poor communication of strategies, poor training on the new system, and inconsistent support from the senior management. The study underlined the value of preparation and planning before implementation of any strategic change including budgets and role and task assignments. Lewin`s three step model was employed and involved unfreezing previous behavior, changing and refreezing the new patterns but there was need to support this using Kotter`s eight steps model would have been the best approach used to management the change process since it captures the finer details of Lewin`s (1946) three steps on managing change successfully.