Challenges of strategy implementation in the world scout bureau-Africa regional office in Nairobi Kenya

Abstract

The concept of strategy has continued to gain popularity and interest in the management of organizations. There is no single organization private or public, profit or non-profit that can ignore or do without strategic management. With the current turbulent economic times, NonGovernmental Organizations in Kenya have not been spared either and are trying to remain competitive and relevant. The economic crises, globalisation, competition from other organizations, and the zeal to remain unique and make a difference in the community have pushed the organizations to develop strategic plans to guide their activities and to continually review their strategies or formulate new ones to suit existing trends. Currently, World Scout Bureau-Africa Regional Office in Nairobi is operating on its three-year strategic plan entitled, ‘towards an efficient, effective and sustainable scouting in Africa’ with the challenges facing its implementation remaining unknown. Despite the numerous studies in the area of strategic implementation, no known study has looked at challenges of strategy implementation at World Scout Bureau-African Regional Office in Nairobi. The study sought to respond to the question; what are the challenges faced during strategy implementation at the World Scout Bureau-African Regional office in Nairobi Kenya? A case study research design was used to investigate these challenges as this method gave an in-depth and comprehensive inquiry to determine strategic responses that World Scout Bureau –Africa Regional Office has applied. Both primary and secondary data were used in this research. The primary data was collected from eight employees in the four departments of the World Scout Bureau in Nairobi namely; Finance and Administration, Strategy and Education Services, Development Support and Communications. An interview guide was used to enable the interviewer to probe further for more information. Secondary data collection methods were also utilized including the website, and other publications on the organizations strategic plan. The data collected was qualitatively analyzed by use of content analysis technique. The study found that there were numerous challenges limiting implementation of strategy at the World Scout Bureau-Africa Regional Office which included lack of appreciation of the in-house capacity, differences in levels of conceptualization of the strategy by the key actors creating a situation of conflict on how to implement strategies of the organization and hence reducing the effect strategy on organization overall objectives. Additionally, the study found out that resource allocation both financial and human moderately influenced strategy implementation and its management plans. For effective strategy implementation, the study concluded that organization strategy must be supported by decisions regarding the appropriate organization structure, communication, organizational culture, resources and management. World Scout BureauAfrica Regional Office culture was found not supportive of strategy implementation and hence a main hindrance to strategy implementation. The study recommended that World Scout Bureau-Africa Regional Office management to ensure that the organization has supportive structure that promotes free flow of information and that provide staff with the needed training and instructions during implementation phase. Further, the study recommends that company management should link employee performance during implementation phase with the overall reward and compensation system in the organization. On implication of the study on theory and practice, the study findings confirm the argument of resource-based theory that resources are important in strategy implementation. The findings also support theoretical argument that human capacity is important on strategy implementation. On policy formulation, the study implies that managers when formulating strategies should place more emphasis on implementation process and foresee the specific challenges of implementation and develop ways of overcoming the same. This will ensure successful implementation of the strategy and achievement of highest results. Most of these obstacles are avoidable if they have been accounted for during the formulation stage.