Intrapreneurial Prerequisites As Determinants Of Organisational Outcomes Among Kenyan State Corporations

ABSTRACT

The performance of state corporations in Kenya has not been as expected, as demonstrated by reports of unrelenting financial and managerial woes. In an attempt to reign on the poor performance, the government has developed policies on how to manage the state corporations, with emphasis on self-sustainability. The requirement to be self-sustaining demands that state corporations continuously innovate, improve themselves and competitively market their products and services, which in essence is intrapreneurship. This study analysed the prerequisites and outcomes of intrapreneurship in state corporations in Kenya. Using the theory of intrapreneurship, the study conceptualised the constructs of the prerequisites as encouragement by the management; rewards and communality; training and development; enabling work environment; organisational intrapreneurial orientation; individual motivation; individual competence; and individual intrapreneurial orientation. The outcomes of intrapreneurship that were studied were employee perceptions of job satisfaction, customer satisfaction and financial performance. To accomplish this, the study adopted an explanatory survey design and selected a disproportionate stratified sample from the population of state corporations in Kenya. The respondents were 182 employees in the state corporations. Data were collected using questionnaires and interviews and were analysed using descriptive statistics, correlations, analysis of variance and stepwise multiple regression. The information is presented in charts, tables and narratives. This study found that though the prerequisites of intrapreneurship were evident to varying degrees in all state corporations, the scores differed significantly among the organisations. Further, there was a significant relation between the prerequisites and the outcomes of intrapreneurship. The results of this research indicated that the key prerequisites of intrapreneurship, which have significant deterministic influence over the outcomes, were individual motivation; enabling work environment; organisational intrapreneurial orientation; rewards and communality; and individual intrapreneurial orientation. The study concluded that some prerequisites had an antecedent effect on other prerequisites. Thus, for intrapreneurship to take place and the outcomes envisaged to be accomplished, the staff should be motivated to act intrapreneurialy, and there should be an enabling work environment in the organisation. The variability in the outcomes that was accounted for by the prerequisites suggested that there are other factors, beyond the scope of this study that have an effect on the outcomes. These findings contribute to intrapreneurial theory by showing that various prerequisites of intrapreneurship do not have a direct impact on the outcomes but rather have an antecedent effect on the prerequisites. The study recommends that there is need to establish reward systems for innovative undertakings. Training programs to build and strengthen intrapreneurship should be implemented in state corporations since they will contribute towards an enabling work environment for intrapreneurship. The study also provides guidance to managers interested in motivating their employees to undertake intrapreneurial activities. The results also give direction to employees by offering them different scenarios that lead to job satisfaction, customer satisfaction and financial performance. For future research, it was recommended that objective measures on financial performance be utilized in similar studies. An assessment of the efficacy of intrapreneurial programs in state corporations could also be investigated in order to give clear links to improved performance.