Adapting to Change and Organizational Growth in Small and Medium Size Enterprises in Microfinance Deposit Taking Institutions in Central Uganda.

Abstract This study investigated the effect of adapting to change and organizational growth in Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in selected Micro-Finance Deposit Taking Institutions (MDis) in the central region in Uganda. The parameters of change included technology, innovation, research and development and competent management. Growth was considered in terms of revenue, profitability and liquidity. The population consisted of 150 respondents with a sample size of 109. Data was collected by use of questionnaire and interview guide, according to the research objectives and questions which were encoded into the statistical research package for social sciences (SPSS). Data was processed and analyzed using descriptive statistics to show the frequencies and percentage distribution. The mean and standard deviations were applied to establish the level of adapting to change and organizational growth in the selected MDis in the central region in Uganda. The Pearson's linear correlation coefficient (PLCC) was used to correlate the independent and dependent variables to test the existence of significant relationship between the two variables. The findings also indicated a significant positive correlation between the dependent and independent variables based on 0.01 level of significant and therefore rejecting the null hypothesis, that there is no significant relationship between adapting to change and organizational growth in microfinance deposit taking institutions in the Central region in Uganda. The study according to the results from the respondents enabled the researcher to conclude that adapting to change in technology, innovation, research and development and also having competent management is imperative if the small and medium sized enterprises specifically the microfinance deposit taking institutions are to achieve organizational growth in terms of revenue, profitability and liquidity. The researcher recommended that MDis of SME nature should adapt to change as an ongoing process in order to achieve the organizational growth.