Stakeholder Management and Performance of County Government Funded Projects in Nyeri County, Kenya

Abstract

Various stakeholders evaluate Project performance differently as per their expectations regarding the cost, time and actual quality. County Government funded projects perform a major role of strengthening the livelihood of the population by contributing immensely towards the development of the residents’ economy. Project performance is vital as it has a direct association with the potential attainment of the project. Thus performance of County Government funded projects is important as it indicates the extent to which these projects will contribute towards residents’ economic activities, wealth creation and consequently improving the living standards of households. However despite the importance of these projects, public projects in Nyeri County are characterized by poor performance and stakeholder dissatisfaction. This situation can be redressed if the project management involves stakeholders in negotiations and decision making, enhances communication through sharing information and resolves conflict through means such as committees and boards. This study aimed at determining what effect stakeholder management has on project performance. The focus was to specifically assess the effect of contract management, communication management and conflict management on performance of projects funded by County Government in Nyeri County. The theory of performance, expectancy theory and stakeholder theory anchored the study. Related literature was reviewed. The study targeted population comprising all the projects funded by County Government of Nyeri County for the years 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 which are 53 according to data from County Government of Nyeri. A sample size of 212 respondents comprising 53 members of general public, 53 project officers, 53 project staffs and 53 contractors were drawn using cluster sampling technique. Descriptive research design was used. Data collection was done by way of a questionnaire and Cronbach’s Coefficient Alpha computation done to test for reliability with validity test done through seeking the opinion of the supervisor. For data analysis, SPSS software was used and both inferential and descriptive analysis conducted. Presentation of findings was through graphs and also tables.The findings revealed that all the three independent variables namely contract management, communication management and conflict management positively and significantly influenced performance of projects funded by County Government in Nyeri County.Communication management had the greatest influence on projects funded by County Government in Nyeri County, followed by Conflict management and finally Contract management. It was recommended that stakeholder management is critical and hence the government must ensure the aspect of stakeholder involvement is adequately covered during the feasibility study of the intervention. To boost transparency and accountability of the project management the study recommends that the channels, format, frequency and responsibility of sharing of the progress report to the stakeholders be well defined during the conception stages of the intervention. The study further recommends that project management must change their reactive approach on occurrence of conflict but rather adopt a proactive approach in determining the highly susceptible issues and identify possible solution.