Strategies for managing complexity in Kenya power Limited

Abstract

Complexity is one of the modern challenges facing organizations and regarded as one of the leading causes of organizational collapse worldwide. It is driven mainly by technological changes and globalization but more interesting is the fact that it is made worse by organizations themselves especially from the approaches they adopt to deal with it. It is even more surprising that managers and other business leaders seem to be vaguely aware of its existence and those that know of its existence do not know how best to deal with it and usually resort to wishing it away or using models that give simplistic solutions that cannot be applied in a turbulent and complex operating environment. Complexity is therefore a unique problem since it is difficult to understand and manage. However the solution lies with strategy which is like a rudder that can guide companies in the seas of complexity that they exist in. Complexity brings forth chaos and confusion, Strategy on the other hand provides vision and direction. The study begins with a discussion on the concept of complexity with emphasis on its drivers and also looks at the setting of the study which is Kenya Power and Lighting Company. The study highlights the problem of complexity which is a blind spot in most business leaders in that they do not know it exists, and those that know do not know the right strategies to apply to manage it. This research therefore aims at identifying strategies for making organizations simpler and more effective in the wake of a complex operating environment. And to arrive at this, it starts by demystifying the concept of complexity, understanding the drivers to complexity, establishing the different kinds of complexity and finally developing strategies for managing the various kinds of complexity.