Flight Safety Change Management Strategies and Performance of Selected Airlines in Kenya
| dc.contributor.author | Otwane, Rasmus Amoni | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-08-05T06:13:17Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2025-08-05T06:13:17Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2025-06 | |
| dc.description | A Research Project Submitted to the School of Business, Economics and Tourism as a Partial Fulfillment of the Degree of Masters in Business Adminstration (Strategic Management) of Kenyatta University, June, 2025 Supervisor; 1.Paul Waithaka | |
| dc.description.abstract | The airline industry contributes immensely to the Kenyan economy but performed dismally from 2016 to 2022 as compared to the Ethiopian airline industry. In 2022, Kenya Airways handled 2.7 million passenger traffic as compared to Ethiopia Airlines handling 11.3 million passengers. It is therefore imperative to determine the specific factors affecting airline performance amidst emerging safety situations. The study sought to examine flight safety change management strategies’ effect on performance of selected airlines in Kenya. Specifically, safety management system, safety culture, and industry partnerships effect on performance of airlines. Resource Based View, Balanced Score Card and Contingency theories anchored the study while descriptive research design was applied. Target population was 33 airlines and proportionate stratified purposive sampling technique was used with a sample size of 7 airlines. Fifty-seven respondents filled the semi-structured questionnaires for primary data collection while a document review tool assisted to collect secondary data. Pilot study involved 8 respondents from Safari Link Airlines ascertaining the questionnaires appropriateness via content and construct validity while its reliability proven by 0.779 Cronbach’s Alpha test. Descriptive and inferential statistics were employed to analyze data. The results indicated that safety management system significantly affected airline performance with strong contribution from safety policies, safety risk management and safety awareness. Industry partnerships significantly affected airline performance with strong contribution from joint safety training, resource sharing and code-share agreements. Safety culture’s effect was insignificant though contributions of safety reporting, standard operating procedures compliance and management’s commitment to safety had positive contributions. The study concluded that safety management system was the most significant predictor of performance hence, airlines need to strengthen frameworks for hazard identification and risk management to reduce prevalence of accidents. The study concluded that industry partnerships were moderately significant to improving performance through the sharing of best practices and resources for efficient flight operations and improved job satisfaction. The study also concluded that though safety culture had no direct significance to airline performance, safety culture has to be combined with other safety strategies than applied alone for positive effect on airline performance. This study recommends airlines to develop and continuously update their safety management system to ensure consistency and full compliance with both local and international aviation safety standards and regulatory requirements in proactively managing emerging safety concerns. It also recommends airlines to actively pursue and expand industry partnerships with both domestic and international partners in improving operational efficiency without incurring the full costs of independent expansion. Finally, the study recommends airlines and industry regulatory bodies to freely provide more secondary data to compliment the primary data for eliminating bias and comprehensive analysis of findings | |
| dc.description.sponsorship | Kenyatta University | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://ir-library.ku.ac.ke/handle/123456789/31091 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.publisher | Kenyatta University | |
| dc.title | Flight Safety Change Management Strategies and Performance of Selected Airlines in Kenya | |
| dc.type | Thesis |