Top management team and strategic planning practices at Jhpiego Kenya

Abstract

Strategic planning practices involve the formulation and implementation of the major goals and initiatives taken by a company's top management on behalf of owners, based on consideration of resources and an assessment of the internal and external environments in which the organization competes. Executive management accomplishes the day-to-day details, including: instructions for preparation of department budgets, procedures, schedules; appointment of middle level executives such as department managers; coordination of departments; media and governmental relations; and shareholder communication. Helpful skills of top management vary by the type of organization but typically include a broad understanding, competition, world economies, and politics. Strategic planning is viewed as zeroing in on decision-making, information, and the future. Jhpiego, an affiliate of Johns Hopkins University, is an international NGO supporting health programs to improve the health of women and their families. The research objective of this study is to determine the impact of Top Management Team on Strategic Planning Practices. The foundation of this study will be based on three theoretical frameworks namely; Resource Based View, Upper Echelons Theory and Dynamic Capabilities Theory. The study is qualitative and it involves an indepth investigation of top management team and how they influence planning and implementation of strategy in an organization. The study made use of both secondary and primary data. Primary data was obtained from Jhpiego Kenya Executive Management Team (EMT) through interviews. Secondary data was obtained from literature from different search engines and Jhpiego library. For this study Content analysis was used in data analysis and presentation since the data collected is qualitative in nature. A data entry was prepared using SPSS for the closed ended questions. Since they were pre-coded, the closed ended questions were captured in the data entry template and simple statistical analyses done. The findings were therefore transferred to Microsoft Excel sheets for further analysis into graphical representations which informed the background characteristics of the study respondents. The TMT is very key in the strategic planning process of any organization. When the processes are not well thought and planned then the organization is bound to hit a dead end and therefore end up missing on the realization of the organizations goals and objectives. Despite the many challenges to strategy implementation the respondents stated a number of remedial measures to counter these challenges. There were indications that the leader must provide effective leadership through his team of implementation; clear roles and responsibilities should be assigned to individuals and; the organization should ensure that it focuses on core areas either for implementation or for New Business Development. It is hoped this study will trigger the policy makers to start analysis on what the role of TMT is on strategic planning process for smooth strategy formulation and implementation. The study will be useful in filling the knowledge gaps of the theoretical foundations used in this study which include the Resource Based View, Upper Echelons Theory and Dynamic Capability Theory. Further the findings of this study will help other Jhpiego country offices to understand the importance of having TMT at the forefront in the strategic planning process and more so their role during the implementation stage.