Browsing by Author "Mithamo, Stephen Kananda"

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    Influence of Stakeholder Management Skills on Implementation of Speciality Tea Projects in Kericho County, Kenya
    (International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research, 2024) Mithamo, Stephen Kananda; Kyalo, Josphat
    A project is as good as the quality of leaders behind it. Project managers are very crucial in the design, development and implementation of a project. To work effectively on his day-to-day tasks, the project manager has to be well equipped with skills to enable him attain project success. Project implementation is crucial to survival of a company or organization, well-implemented projects are able to satisfy the customer and stakeholders wants and enhance the competitiveness of the organisation. This has prompted companies in the tea sector to embrace product diversification from the traditional black tea by embracing speciality teas and this require construction of new plants and installation of machinery to process it. To manage the many projects in tea industry, firms have incorporated project management skills as a means of increasing their success rate in implementation of projects, but despite this awareness, projects do fail. Therefore, this study sought to investigate the influence of stakeholder management skills on implementation of speciality tea projects in Kericho County, Kenya. A descriptive research design was embraced with target population being speciality tea projects in Kericho County where 21 projects were targeted. The unit of observation was project managers, assistant managers, engineers, general staff and supervisors working in the projects. A population of 462 individuals was targeted. The research used census to obtain a representative sample from different groups in the target population. The Statistical package SPSS was used in data analysis. Descriptive statistics which includes standard deviation, frequencies, means and percentages and inferential statistics with multiple regressions were applied in data analysis. The study established that stakeholder management skills had a positive significant influence on speciality tea projects implementation in Kericho County, Kenya. The study concludes that the Tea companies should make sure that all pertinent parties are informed about decisions pertaining to the projects that the company is working on. The study recommends that the Tea companies needs to identify and categorize the pertinent internal and external stakeholders.
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    Project Management Skills and Implementation of Speciality Tea Projects in Kericho County, Kenya
    (Kenyatta University, 2024-09) Mithamo, Stephen Kananda
    Project managers are very crucial in the design, development and implementation of a project. To work effectively on their day-to-day tasks, they have to be well equipped with skills that enable them implement projects as per the plan. Project implementation is crucial to survival of a company or organization, well-implemented projects are able to satisfy the customer and stakeholders wants and enhance competitiveness. Lack of relevant skills by the project managers has led to failed projects. Misallocation of resources, poor stakeholder managements, high costs of implementation of projects, projects running beyond their set time and poor productivity have led to many projects’ failures, and are highly attributed to how competent and skilled is the project manager. The study purposed to find out how implementation of speciality tea projects is influenced by project management skills with the reference being Kericho County, Kenya. The specific objectives were to establish how application of skills in stakeholder management, risk management, communication and monitoring and evaluation impact on implementation of speciality tea projects in Kericho County. Three theories helped guide the study and these includes; skills acquisition theory, institution theory and project management theory. A descriptive research design was embraced with target population being speciality tea projects in Kericho County where 21 projects were targeted. The unit of observation was project managers, assistant managers, engineers, general staff and supervisors working in the projects. A population of 462 individuals was targeted. The research used census to obtain a representative sample from different groups in the target population. The Statistical package SPSS was used in data analysis. Descriptive statistics which include standard deviation, frequencies, means and percentages and inferential statistics with multiple regressions were applied in data analysis. A diagnostic test was carried out which included a normality test, multicollinearity test and a heteroscedasticity test. The study established that stakeholder management skills, risk management skills, communication skills and monitoring and evaluation skills had a positive significant influence on speciality tea projects implementation in Kericho County, Kenya. The study concludes that the Tea companies should invest in frequent training of its staff on necessary skills to learn a project. Skills in risk management when well applied facilitate more informed decision-making and planning for project managers. Communication skills when utilized appropriately, makes it easy for project participants to understand what is expected of them by their superiors and the organization. Managers should frequently be trained on monitoring and evaluation and be encouraged to take short courses on the same. This will upgrade their skills in planning for; early monitoring of the project tasks and then evaluates these tasks to obtain precise and succinct information on each accomplishment made. The study found skills in stakeholder management critical in implementation of speciality tea projects. These skills assist in scanning both internal and external environment and how to communicate relevant information to different parties to ensure proper implementation of the projects.