Strategic Leadership and Organizational Performance of Tea Estate Companies in Nandi County, Kenya

Abstract

Organizational performance is imperative to survival of any organization. Poor performance institutions face difficulties in carrying out its daily activities. The tea industry is faced with a lot of challenges that threaten its survival. These challenges include competition, changing customer tastes and preferences, efficiency in utilization of resources and also employee dissatisfaction. The study sought to examine the effect of strategic leadership on organisational performance of tea estate companies in Nandi County. It was guided by the following objectives; to establish the effect of visionary leadership, to examine the role of managerial leadership, to investigate the influence of inspirational leadership and to establish the effect of transformational leadership on organizational performance of tea estate companies in Nandi County, Kenya. The research used Hertzberg’s two factor theory, the Transformational leadership theory and Path goal theory of leadership. The study is beneficial to policymakers in the Kenyan tea subsector. It provides information on approaches and how to improve performance of tea estate companies in Kenya. The findings of the study enables the government appreciates the importance of visionary, managerial, inspirational and transformational leadership aspects in the tea sector in promoting production and efficiency which help the country expand its production capabilities. The management of the tea subsector benefits from the findings of the study. Descriptive research design was used with target population of nineteen (19) tea estates. The study stratified the target population into 19 top level managers, 38 middle level managers and 57 bottom level managers and simple random sampling techniques was used. The sample size of 36 respondents was therefore selected and 32 of the respondents filed and return questionnaire representing and a response rate was 89% which was adequate to continue with data analysis. The data was collected using closed and open-ended questionnaires whose reliability and validity was determined. The study concluded that strategic leadership affects organizational performance contributing to 82.2% The study found out that the most significant factor in influencing performance in Tea estate companies in. Nandi County is visionary leadership, followed by inspirational leadership, transformational leadership and managerial leadership respectively.