Strategy implementation at national social security fund-Kenya

Abstract

Strategy implementation has never been an easy engagement all over the world at large; it has been a thorny issue to many organizations. The process needs to be handled with a lot of care and objectiveness This due to dangers and challenges involved in managing for development. Managing Results is an emerging and increasingly important concept, which focuses on monitoring of results and outcomes in the development process, rather than inputs. In this direction, many developing countries have introduced Result-Based managements (RBM) in several key sectors and sub-sectors. The strategies devised and problem identified for implementation in public organizations and parastatals have mainly focused on output/result and not an input or process has it‟s been the case .It‟s because of this that National Social security fund has embarked on strategy implementation as serious processes. Prior research in strategy implementation at National social security Fund was on the old NSSF Act. However, with the assent of new NSSF Act 45, 2013, in January 2014, there has been a strategy implementation plan with of course various challenges faced by the new policy to eradicate poverty amongst all Kenyans. This study therefore sought to find out how strategy is implemented at NSSF and identify challenges faced in the implementation under the new Act. The study employed an interview guide to collect data from five Managers but only four were available. Content analysis was to analyze the data collected. Economic challenges, government regulation, lack of adequate resources and lack of management commitment were found to have posed a challenge in strategy implementation at NSSF. Strategy implementation process itself at NSSF was also described by the aforesaid characteristics;. According to this study, NSSF has previously has had several strategy implementation plans which have managed to improved compliance, investments, coverage, member registration and contribution collected by a small percentage. The organization was faced by more challenges like technical support and poor planning. This however responded to more serious challenges like lack of staff training and improvised selfish resource creation. The Research has also established that strategies like RRI, ISO and Performance contracting are being used by the Organization to meet its objectives. Recommendations are that NSSF should implement their strategies in light of internal and external changes; effective resource utilization by rolling out initiatives that are responsive to the current market demands, commitment to strategy implementation by managers should be key in strategy implementation. This will benefit the organization as well as the contributors. This research did find a number of limitations in its development process which included difficulty to access the respondents due to their busy schedules. The conclusion drawn by this study may only apply to the organization alone and not any other. Areas of further research include a replica study on a different company in a different industry so as to bring out more dynamics in the pension industry. The relationships between strategy implementation and Pension collection/contribution which in common markets will be profits and sales.