Role of Strategic Leadership for Sustainable Competitive Advantage in Kenyan Public and Private Universities

Abstract

The general objective of this study was to assess the role of strategic leadership for sustainable competitive advantage in Kenyan public and private universities. Specifically, the study sought to assess the roles of shaping organizational culture, fostering organizational learning, implementing knowledge management and fostering organizational innovation for sustainable competitive advantage in Kenyan public and private universities. Strategic leadership is about promoting the sustainable competitive advantage. The strategic leadership practices focus on shaping organizational culture, fostering organizational learning, implementing knowledge management, and fostering organizational innovation. As universities in Kenya today are operating in a highly turbulent and dynamic environment as a result of liberalization of the higher education industry, resulting in an influx of many players, to deal with the changes and high levels of competition, it requires Kenyan public and private universities to have effective strategic leaders to build sustainable competitive advantage for their universities, especially when Kenya integrates into the regional and global markets. This research adopted quantitative research design and cross-sectional survey research design to address the formulated hypotheses. Stratified random sampling technique was used to select a sample of 57 universities in Kenya out of the target population of 67 universities accredited to undertake university education in Kenya. Primary data was collected by use of self-administered questionnaires which were distributed through drop and pick method to a total sample size of 285 academic leaders. A total of 215 complete responses were used for analyses. Data analysis was by descriptive statistics and inferential statistics using the Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24. The Pearson’s product moment correlation analysis and standard multiple regression analysis were used for hypotheses testing. The data was presented by the use of tables, and figures for the purpose of giving a pictorial view of the results. The findings indicated that there was a significant role of shaping organizational culture for sustainable competitive advantage in Kenyan public and private universities. There was a significant role of implementing knowledge management for sustainable competitive advantage in Kenyan public and private universities. The results indicated that there was a significant role of fostering organizational innovation for sustainable competitive advantage in Kenyan public and private universities. Overall, the study found that there was a significant role of strategic leadership for sustainable competitive advantage in Kenyan public and private universities. The study recommended that the practicing university leaders should understand and develop a holistic approach of sustaining effective organizational culture in order to build sustainable competitive advantage. The implications of the study on policy, theory and practice is that to deal with the changes and high levels of competition, it requires Kenyan public and private universities to have effective strategic leaders to build sustainable competitive advantage for their universities, especially when Kenya integrates into the regional and global markets.