Challenges of strategy implementation in Murang’a county government in Kenya

Abstract

Although formulating a consistent strategy is a difficult task for any management team, making that strategy work – implementing it throughout the organization – is even more difficult (Hrebiniak, 2006). A myriad of factors can potentially affect the process by which strategic plans are turned into organizational action. Unlike strategy formulation, strategy implementation is often seen as something of a craft, rather than a science, and its research history has previously been described as fragmented and eclectic (Noble, 1999). Strategy implementation is the execution of plans both internally and externally so that the organization moves in the desired strategic direction. The research sought to find the challenges faced by Murang’a County Government and the measures taken to address these challenges. The county governments developed their County Integrated Development plans in line with the Kenya vision 2030. The study adopted a case study research design since the research context was one county. The study used both primary and secondary data. The respondents of the study included two county directors and six chief officers in the various departments. Primary data was collected through an interview guide. The data collected was analyzed using content analysis. The study findings reveal that the main challenges that face the implementation of strategy by the Murang’a County include lack of adequate resources in physical, financial and human capital. Recommendations provided that the County government should put in place measures to monitor and evaluate progress of the implementation process in order to avoid wastage of resources. Among the limitations of the study were time constraint and difficulty in accessing the required information. Some respondents were also unwilling to participate in the study as they feared being victimized. This impacted greatly on the research since the information accessed was limited. Devolution is still a new concept in Kenya and as County governments try to navigate through the system, more studies need to be done on the implementation of county integrated development plans. Comparisons ought to be done on how well the Kenya vision 2030 goals are incorporated into these plans. This will be help in identifying the key challenges facing county governments in implementing development plans.