Browsing by Author "Otieno, Kenneth"

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    Competitive Strategies and Performance of Selected Commercial Banks in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya
    (Kenyatta University, 2019) Otieno, Kenneth
    The current business environment is relatively dynamic and competitive. This has necessitated financial institutions to design strategies that ensure they maintain their competitive position in a sustainable manner. These demands mainly come from their customers, who in a rapidly advancing technological age have access to information that has changed the dynamics and transactions in the banking industry. The response to these demands determines the strategies used in achieving the desired optimal strategic advantage and business performance. The study therefore sought to examine the association between competitive strategies and performance of commercial banks in Uasin Gishu County. Specific objectives included; to find out the influence of differentiation strategy on performance of commercial banks in Uasin Gishu County. To determine the effect of cost leadership strategy on performance of commercial banks in Uasin Gishu County, to establish result of focus strategy on performance of commercial banks in Uasin Gishu County and to investigate the influence of product innovation strategy on performance of commercial banks in Uasin Gishu County. The findings from this study are useful for the banking sector players especially banking executives in understanding their market and devising strategies to remain resilient and competitive in the face of growing industry challenges, both internal and external. This research was based on theories of resource based view, open systems, strategic balancing, Porter's five forces model and theory of performance. These theories and variables of the study were related with the help of a conceptual framework. The study adopted descriptive research design. Population for the study comprised of 37 commercial banks and their management staff. The sample size was 34 commercial banks from which 102 respondents who were selected through purposive, stratified and simple random sampling. Data collection was done using structured questionnaires. The collected data was coded, cleaned and tabulated through the use of SPSS version 21 software. Descriptive and inferential data analysis including regression analysis were used to analyse the data. Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was also used to determine whether there is significant relationship between differentiation strategy, cost leadership strategy, focus strategy and product innovation strategy and performance of commercial banks in Uasin Gishu County. The results of the correlation analysis indicated no evidence of multicollinearity among the variables. Regression results indicated that the use of differentiation, cost leadership, focus and product innovation strategies had a positive and statistically significant influence on the performance of commercial banks with coefficients of (B=0.560, p<0.001), (B=0.314 p<0.001), (B=0.254 p<0.001) and (B=0.516 p<0.001) respectively. These results indicate that for each unit adoption of these strategies, there was a corresponding increase in commercial bank performance by the values of the coefficients. Based on the results of this study, therefore, it was concluded that competitive strategies positively impacted the financial results of banking institutions in Uasin Gishu County. The study recommended that commercial bank’s leadership teams should be keen on the use of competitive strategies as the success of a business or strategy primarily depends on the innovativeness, uniqueness, energy and expertise of its management staff. The study recommended that commercial banks should embrace the use of differentiation strategy so as to remain resilient to changes and competition in the banking industry. The study further recommended that management of commercial banks should implement cost-cutting measures aimed at lowering the cost of credit to enhance performance of commercial banks.
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    The relationship of role overload, locus of control, years of teaching experience and gender to perceived burnout among secondary school teachers in Nairobi
    (2012-04-23) Otieno, Kenneth
    The study was designed to investigate the relationship of role overload, locus of control, years of teaching experience and gender to perceived burnout among secondary school teachers. The study also investigated the extent to which each of the four variables above correlated with the amount of perceived burnout. Teachers are basically prime movers in the educational establishment. For this reason, to obtain quality education, the general well being of teachers is an issue that must be addressed. It is in the light of this grassroot dimension that factors contributing to teacher burnout are considered important for investigation. The study was carried out in Nairobi. Ten public secondary schools - single sex and co-educational, Boarding and Day schools - were selected using the stratified random sampling technique. Two hundred and eighty one teachers completed the questionnaires. Four questionnaires were administered to the teachers. These were the Teacher Background Questionnaire, Role Overload Questionnaire, Locus of Control (i-E) Scale and Burnout Inventory. The one way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test was used to test the hypotheses in this study. A statistically significant relationship was found between Role Overload scores and Burnout Inventory scores at P0.05. This implied that those teachers who were overloaded with schoolwork perceived more burnout than those who were not overloaded. The results also showed that a statistically significant relationship existed between Locus of Control (I-E) Scale scores and Burnout Inventory scores at P0.05. This implied that teachers who were external in orientation perceived more burnout than those who were internal in orientation. There was no statistically significant relationship found between years of teaching experience and Burnout Inventory scores at P0.05. Likewise, no statistically significant relationship was found between gender and Burnout Inventory scores at P0.05. However, both male and female teachers reported high levels of burnout. Most of the teachers reported heavy role overload and scored highly in the Locus of Control (I-E) Scale. Overall, majority of the teachers perceived higher levels of burnout. Locus of control was the variable found to be highly correlated with perceived burnout. From these results, it became clear that teacher burnout is a critical problem that must be addressed seriously. It must be tackled from as many fronts as possible. Recommendations are made hoping that, with the findings of the study, they may be of value to individual teachers, head teachers, teacher trainers and education planners. The problem can only be tackled effectively through co-operation at every level. Through recognition of the problem at all levels, steps may be taken to reduce if not eliminate the devastating experiences of burnout. Addition research is needed to determine the extent to which other factors such as role conflict, role ambiguity, extroversion; introversion and learned helplessness contribute to teacher burnout. Further research is also needed to investigate teacher burnout rates in different geographical regions other than the urban research on staff burnout should be done among other professionals such as doctors, nurses, lawyers, counselors and police officers.