Managerial Characteristics and Post-Merger Organizational Performance of Firms in the Insurance Industry in Kenya: Case of Icea Lion Group Limited
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Date
2016
Authors
Ombewa, Alfred Owino
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
Formation of mergers has over the years remained one of the most common and most
pursued growth strategy by business organizations. Kenya as a country has neither been
left behind by the waves of mergers that have been sweeping across different industries
globally. Recent history of the business landscape in Kenya is marked with mergers
within and across industries. The formations of mergers have been marked with mixed
results and performances. On one hand there have been accounts of incredible and
remarkable success and there have been cases of outright failures. The differences in
performance of mergers all over the world prompted various researches to be conducted
in order to establish and explain the difference in performances. Additionally, various
theories and models such as the Efficiency Theory have also been developed to try and
explain some of the factors that are critical to the performance of mergers. These
researches have established different reasons for the varied results and performances. The
reasons range from different organizational cultures to poor due diligence by companies
intending to form a merger. Persistence in formation of mergers among corporate
organizations despite the varied performances, as well as the knowledge gap created by
absence of research focusing on managerial characteristics and post-merger
organizational performance of merged firms in Kenya necessitated the author of this
paper to conduct a study on post-merger organizational performance of firms in Kenya.
Specifically, this research intended to establish; how management’s tenure, leadership,
management’s communication and management’s level of education affect post-merger
performance firms in Kenya. A combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches to
research were used to conduct this study. Specifically, the researcher adopted crosssectional
descriptive research design to describe the relationship between the variables of
the study. Additionally, correlational design was considered to further explore the
relationship between the variables of the study. The target population of the research
consisted of the top, middle, and lower management of ICEA Lion Group. Probability
sampling, specifically stratified sampling, was be used in this study. Questionnaires were
used to collect data from the field. Pearson Correlation, Chi-square, and ANOVA
methods were used to analyse the data. Management’s tenure came out as a managerial
characteristic that affects and has a great bearing on the post-merger performance of
mergers in the insurance industry in Kenya. Good and effective leadership was also
established to have effects on the post-merger organizational performance in the
insurance industry in Kenya. Effective and timely communication from management
were also established to affect post-merger organizational performance. Management’s
level of education plays a key role in post-merger performance of organizations.
Description
A Research Project Submitted to the School of Business in Partial Fulfilment for the Award of Degree in Master of Business Administration of Kenyatta University. September, 2016