Factors Affecting Strategy Implementation in Public Universities in Kenya

Abstract

The guiding principles in any strategic management process, whether in the public or private sector, is about understanding what changes are needed, how to implement and manage these changes, and how to create a roadmap for sustaining improvements that lead to better performance. This statement can be construed to mean that many institutions know their business needs and the struggles required for success. When an organizations’ strategic plan is not implemented successfully, a gap is created that makes it difficult to achieve success. For decision makers, the inability to steer the organization to the attainment of the plans causes a lot of anxiety focused around the difficulty in ensuring that the strategic plan becomes a living plan rather than a document that gathers dust on the shelf. The organization’s strategic plan is expected to be a guiding document for the organization; however, poor implementation of the plan can result in it becoming an ineffective document. It therefore becomes important that an organization gives the implementation phase of its strategic process due importance and allocate adequate resources that will enable it achieve the desired objectives. The objective of the study was to determine the factors that affect strategy implementation in public universities in Kenya. The research design adopted was cross sectional survey design. The population of the study comprised of all the 21 public universities operating in Kenya. The study used primary data which was collected through self-administered questionnaires. Data was analyzed using statistical package for social sciences based on the questionnaires. The study found out that implementation of strategies in the universities was affected by organizational culture, structure, resources, top management commitment and communication. This was due to university context which is inappropriate for effective implementation and control of the strategy, lack of understanding of the role of organizational structure, design in the execution process and structural design not being tailored to meet its goals, key formulators of the strategic decision did not play an active role in its implementation, people are not measured or rewarded for executing the plan, university having redundant resources, leadership and direction provided by departmental managers were inadequate and university management is not committed to strategy implementation.