Factors Influencing Implementation of Strategic Plans in Tanzania’s Executive Agencies

Abstract

This study investigated factors influencing implementation of strategic plans in Tanzania’s executive agencies. Specifically, the study was guided by the following specific objectives; to determine the influence of top management support, organizational resources, organizational culture and role of stakeholders on implementation of strategic plans. The audit reports from controller and auditor general revealed ineffective implementation strategic plans in Tanzania’s public sector; and studies done on execution of strategic plans in different countries and few in Tanzania did not show index of factors directly influencing implementation of strategic plan’s in Tanzania’s executive agencies, and hence established the gap of this study. Four theories supported specific objectives of the study, that is the upper echelon theory, resource-based view theory, organisational culture theory and stakeholder theory. The study adopted descriptive research design using both qualitative and quantitative approach. The target population was 632 employees in the headquarters of selected seven (7) out of 27 executive agencies in Tanzania, while a sample size of one hundred eighty-eight (188) respondents (30% of the target populations) was drawn using stratified random sampling. Primary data were collected using questionnaires and interviews; where desk studies was used to obtain secondary data. The collected data were edited and analysed using both SPSS version 20 and content analysis. Only 146 respondents returned questionnaires translating to 77.7% of the valid response rate. Descriptive statistics were used to describe both dependent and independent variables while multiple regression analysis tested whether individually and collectively independent variables have any influence on implementation of strategic plans in Tanzania’s executive agencies. The result indicated that, collectively (R-square = 0.720) and individually all predictors that is top management (R-square = 0.473); organizational resource (R-square = 0.315); organizational culture (R-square = 0.085); and Role of stakeholders (R-square = 0.056) influences implementation of strategic plans, but only top management support (R = 0.690) and organizational resources (R = 0.562) had significant strong positive relationship while organizational culture (R = 0.292) and the role of stakeholders (R = 0.236) had significant weak positive correlation with implementation of strategic plans. The findings suggested that, management in executive agencies should pay more attention on stakeholders and organizational culture if they have to benefit from those factors. The study concluded that, predictors individually and collectively influence execution of strategies. The findings are expected to be of value to the management and decision makers to form a basis for improving implementation of strategies. Furthermore, studies can be done to other variables which influence implementation of strategic plans but were not considered in this study or the same variables to different populations, locations and other sectors of economy in Tanzania or other countries.