Influence of Strategic Alignment on the Performance of Kenya Revenue Authority

Abstract

Organizational performance is a key dimension that managers direct their attention to achieve due to its effect on the firms short and long term sustainability. However, the performance of an organization is affected by the dynamic nature of the business environment that firm operates in. Consequently, an organization should come up with appropriate strategies that make the firm operations to be aligned with the prevailing market conditions. The objectives of the study were to assess the influence of strategic alignment on the performance of Kenya Revenue Authority with the response variables investigated being structural, cultural, resource and business environment alignment. A descriptive research design was adopted with the targeted population of the study being the 1486 employees based in the head office in Job groups 3–4, 5–7 and 8-10. Primary data was collected using a questionnaire. The open ended questions were analyzed using content analysis while the closed ended question was analyzed using descriptive measures of mean and standard deviation. To determine the effect of strategic alignment on KRA’s performance, a regression analysis was used. The study results demonstrated that structural alignment was found to positively and significantly affect the performance of the organization with the p-values being 0.001. It was also found that additional units of shared values add value to the organisation and that an increase in resource alignment increased performance significantly. The business environment alignment was also found to have a positive effect on performance though insignificant since the p>0.05. The study concludes that Kenya Revenue Authority should direct more effort in adapting its structure, culture and resources with a view to making it more responsive to the business environment and with these alignments matched; the organizational performance will be improved. Consequently, the organization should direct more effort to its structure, culture, resources and adapting its operations to the prevailing business environment. This study adopted a descriptive research design. Studies should be undertaken using different research designs such as case study or a combination of more than one design. Studies can also be undertaken on County governments and agencies to establish strategic alignment’s effect on their performance. Studies can also be conducted on other strategic alignment factors that affect performance of these organisations.