Challenges of strategy implementation in government owned parastatals in the agricultural sector in Kenya

Abstract

The environment in which organizations operate in the current business world is dynamic and affects both the private and the public sector players. The constant changes in the business and operation environment require organizations to continuously adapt so as to address the challenges as they arise. This management research study focused on the challenges of strategy implementation in the Parastatals within the Agricultural sector in Kenya and determined the measures taken by these Parastatals to address such challenges. To achieve the study objectives a cross sectional study design was adopted where primary data was collected through a questionnaire administered to the senior managers in the Parastatals within the Agricultural sector in Kenya and secondary data from availed organizational documents and library sources. The respondents indicated that the major challenges of strategy implementation encountered by Parastatals were in compatible organizational structure, resources constraint, and commitment of top management, external factors, technological advancements, management style, and location of the Parastatals to the markets, teamwork and non adaptive organizational culture. The measures taken to address these challenges include; organizational learning, two-way communication, internal business processes, resource provision, customer focus, financial controls, setting up policies, creation of horizontal structure, focused leadership and culture- strategy alignment. The findings of the study are consistent with other earlier studies on the related topics and serve to show that strategy implementation is indeed a challenging and dynamic activity. The study recommends alignment of the organization structure to strategic plan to ensure the achievement of fmancial stability, human resource satisfaction, customer focus and overall enhanced profitability. In this regard therefore, there is need for other research studies to be done emphasizing on the Parastatals within other sectors so as to ensure comparative analysis and generalization of the findings of the Kenyan and external Parastatals and establish a benchmark for performance targets and strategic goals' realization through implementations.