Strategy Institutionalisation And Performance Of State Owned Corporations In The Electricity Sub - Sector In Kenya

ABSTRACT

Strategy institutionalisation involves developing an organisational capability to a point

where it is fully supportive of a new strategy. To attain Vision 2030, the government

recognizes the importance of strategy institutionalisation on organisational

performance. The electricity sub-sector plays an important role in facilitating economic

growth of the country. Statistics, however, show that strategic objectives have not been

achieved thus affecting the performance of state-owned corporations in the electricity

sub-sector. This study investigated the influence of strategy institutionalisation on the

performance of state-owned corporations in the electricity sub-sector in Kenya. The

specific objectives of the study were; determining the influence of systems, leadership

style, and organisational structure and staff skills on the performance of state-owned

corporations in the electricity sub-sector in Kenya and to establish the moderating

influence of corporate culture on the relationship between strategy institutionalisation

and performance of these state-owned corporations. The study was anchored on the

Institutional and Organisational Assessment Model, the Stakeholder theory, the Balance

Scorecard Theory and the McKinsey Seven S's Model. The study’s philosophical

orientation was positivism. To achieve the objectives, the study used a combination of

descriptive and explanatory research designs. A census of seven state-owned

corporations in the electricity sub-sector with a total of 512 management employees was

conducted. The study used mainly Primary data collected using self-administered

questionnaire. Quantitative data was analysed using both descriptive and inferential

statistics. Descriptive statistics was used to summarize data while inferential statistics

applied multiple regression analysis to test hypothesised relationships. Content analysis

was also used for qualitative data. Adjusted R2 was used to measure the amount of

variation in the dependent variable explained by the independent variables. The results

indicated that systems, leadership style, organisational structure and staff skills had a

positive and significant influence on the performance of corporations in the electricity

sub-sector in Kenya. Corporate culture was found to have no moderating influence on

the relationship between strategy institutionalisation and performance of state-owned

corporations in electricity sub-sector in Kenya. Hence, corporate culture was an

explanatory variable. The study concludes that strategy institutionalisation dimensions

have a positive influence on the performance of the state-owned corporations in the

electricity sub-sector in Kenya. The study recommends that chief executive officers

should put in place systems that support implementation initiatives, ensuring that tasks

to be performed are related to the strategy, and recognise and reward progress in

implementation of change. The study suggests that a similar study can be conducted in

other corporations in the Energy Sector to further determine the causal links and also explore the influence of corporate culture as an explanatory variable