Challenges of Implementing Consortium Strategy in Development Projects at Viagro Forestry, Kenya

Abstract

Consortium strategy implementation defines the manner by which organizations develop, utilize and amalgamate organizational structures, culture, operational systems to support competitiveness in delivery of service in a dynamic environment. This study sought to investigate challenges of implementing consortium strategy at Viagroforestry, Kenya. The two objectives of this study included; to establish the challenges of implementing consortium strategy at Viagroforestry, Kenya and to determine the measures to mitigate the challenges of implementing consortium strategy at Viagroforestry, Kenya. The study adopted a case study, as the unit of analysis was one organization, Viagroforestry, Kenya. Case study emphasized the contextual analysis by limiting the research to a single organization and hence allowed for in-depth probing into answering the research question. Primary and secondary data were used whereby primary data is the data collected through one on one interview with respondents using an interview guide with open-ended questions. The secondary data was collected from journals and annual reports, publications, website and consortium agreements. Content analysis was used to analyze the interviewees’ views and feedback about the challenges of consortium strategy implementation at Viagroforestry, Kenya. The study established that, both internal and external factors affected effective consortium strategy implementation at Viagroforestry. The external factors that affected strategy implementation included: social-cultural, political, economic, technological factors, leadership and management styles and competency of employees among the partner organization. The internal factor included: lack of employee commitment to consortium operation, lack of adequate financial resources, unclear implementation guidelines and inconsistency in deployment of employees to support consortium. It was concluded that for the successful implementation of consortium strategy at Viagrofrestry, Kenya, building employee competencies and confidence, setting up and reinforcing clear guidelines for selecting, recruiting and exiting partners in the consortium, adequate financial resources, enhanced integration of Information Communication Technology (ICT) within the operating systems, and democratic style of management among partners remain key to proper operations of the consortium. It was recommended that Viagroforestry, Kenya should align organizational structure, provide adequate resources, build employee competencies and set and reinforce clear guidelines for operations while integrating ICT in its operations for effective consortium strategy implementation. The study recommends further research on evaluating performance of consortium strategy implementation at Viagroforestry, Kenya thus addressing the study limitations.