Organizational Factors and Implementation of Strategies in Public Water Service Providers in Kitui County, Kenya

Abstract

Successful strategy implementation is key to the survival of organizations. Literature suggests that strategy implementation is usually curtailed by inefficiencies. The study looked into organizational factors influencing implementation of strategies in public water service providers in Kitui County, Kenya. The study objectives were: establish organizational leadership effect on implementation of strategies, determine organizational structure effect on implementation of strategies and examine the organizational culture effect on implementation of strategies public water service providers in Kitui County. The research was founded on resource based view, institutional and contingency theories. The two public water service providers in Kitui County, Kitui Water & Sanitation Company and Kiambere-Mwingi & Sanitation Company were the target population for this study. The study adopted descriptive research design, used content validity and Cronbach Alpha Test for reliability. Since the target population was so limited, a census review was done. Questionnaires were employed to collect data. Quantitative data was analyzed using a computer program called Statistical Package for Social Science, version 21. Frequency distribution tables, means, percentages, standard deviation and other descriptive data techniques were used. Analysis of variances test, multiple regression and correlation analysis was done to ascertain variable relationships. The study established that organizational leadership has a significant influence on strategy implementation. The study also established that organizational structure significantly influences strategy implementation in public water service providers in Kitui County. Further, the study established that organizational culture has a substantial impact on the implementation of strategies in public water service providers in Kitui County. The study concludes that organizational leadership enables employee toward fulfilling an organization’s mission through creating awareness and holding teams accountable for achieving those objectives within a set timeframe and in accordance with the strategic plan. Organizational structure determines how power is shared and aligned in the organization and organizational culture enables an organization to have aligned goals by focusing on productivity and getting the organization’s primary mission accomplished. The study recommends that the leadership in public water service providers in Kitui County should ensure that they understand their employees better so as to be able to help them improve their personal and professional effectiveness, accountability, and effectively implement strategies formulated by the organization. The public water service providers in Kitui County should have a good organizational structure that provides the right blend of command and control plus employee independence which aid organization in pursuit of its mission and that public water service providers in Kitui County should make strategic vision and goals which are clear and inspirational, translate strategy into a living execution plan that matters to people. The study suggests that further studies should be carried out that focuses other organizational factors. In addition, other studies can be done that focus on different study context apart from public water service providers in Kitui County, Kenya.