Change Implementation Practices and Performance of County Government of Nakuru, Kenya

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Date
2021
Authors
Muli, Justus Musingi
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Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
County Governments have only been in existence since March 2013. However, a lot of changes of various forms have taken place within the County government. Numerous challenges are faced by the devolved governments currently, mostly because of the resulting governance structure change, and little is known about the implications of decentralizing dogma-making power from a higher to a lower government level. Some of the challenges that have been attributed are financial misappropriation as indicated by the auditor report 2016 where the auditor general indicated that more than 70% of the counties had misappropriated funds. The study specifically sought to establish how leadership, stakeholder’s engagement and resources influence Nakuru County Government’s performance. The study was anchored on Kotters Change Model, Resource Based Theory and Balanced Scorecard Theory. Descriptive research design was deployed. The study’s target populations were 27 administrators and 93 employees from 10 Ministries in Nakuru County headquarters. Nassiuma’s formula was employed to get a sample of 58 respondents. Primary data was gathered using a questionnaire by the drop and pick method which was collected after two weeks. A pilot-test was done in Olkalou Town, Nyandarua County where 4 questionnaires were given to 10% of the study sample size. Qualitative data analysis was done using SPSS version 24. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used in data analysis. The study found out that there is a positively and significantly relationship between leadership and performance of Nakuru County Government (r = 0.547). Further, it was established that there is a moderate positive and significant relationship between stakeholder’s engagements and performance of Nakuru county Government (r=0.369). The findings also indicated that there is a positive, and significant correlation between resources and performance of Nakuru County Government (r=0.497, P=0.018). The study concluded that the study concluded that interference from the political leadership has been an impediment to successful implementation of change in county government. The study also concluded that duplication of leadership roles has negatively affected successful implementation of change. Lack of a clear command structure is also a significant challenge in the county government. The study further concluded that devolve funds are in adequate which has greatly affected successful operationalization of devolved function. From the findings and conclusion, it was recommended that the county Government should engage all the stakeholders in the change implementation practices. This implied that involvement in the decision-making process and sharing a common understanding of the project. Stakeholders’ participation leads to joint ownership and empowerment of the strategy practices. To increase participation the county officials should start with a consultation process that moves to negotiations and ends with joint decisions.
Description
A Research Project Submitted To the School Of Business in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master in Business Administration (Strategic Management Option) of Kenyatta University, October, 2021
Keywords
Change, Implementation, Practices, Performance, County Government of Nakuru, Kenya
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