Determinants of Strategic Change Management in Mombasa County Government, Kenya

Abstract

With the emergence of globalization, advances in technology, increased societal demands, and the need to provide better social services with fewer resources; this has prompted the public sector to explore new sustainable models for service delivery. It has been noted that initial reforms implemented in Kenya were not very successful in attaining the desired objectives as the civil service grew progressively inefficient hence threatening to halt the growth of the economy. The Kenyan 2010 constitution attempts to entrench a culture of enhanced service delivery as it pins hopes in the Kenya’s Vision 2030. With this new era, devolved system of governances came to existence calling for creation of new governance structures while also entrenching the value of citizen participation in governance. However, three years down the line only 21% of Kenyans are satisfied with the county government’s performance and 53% of Kenyans expressing their dissatisfaction with the performances of county governments majorly due to invisible developments and service delivery as a result of devolution. Mombasa County has also been shown to face serious challenges in service delivery despite the wide ranging reforms put in place over the years. The study sought to examine the determinants that influence strategic change management in Mombasa County Government. Specifically, the study sought to determine how organizational structure, leadership, climate and culture influences strategic change management in the county. The study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional survey design using both qualitative and quantitative approaches involving purposive sampling of at least one senior level manager as key informant from each of the existing department within the county. Qualitative data which were collected from the 12 key informants were backed up with quantitative data collected using questionnaires administered to 364 junior staff sampled through simple random sampling. Quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS version 21 where relationships between the variables were assessed using correlation and regression analysis while qualitative data were analyzed via content and thematic analysis where emerging themes were presented in form of verbatim. Factor analysis was carried out among corresponding questions so as to allow formation of factors with the highest Eigenvalues. Test of hypothesis was done at 95% confidence interval. The study found out that there was a positive and significant relationship between Organizational Structure and Strategic Change Management positive and significant relationship between Organizational Leadership and Strategic Change Management. Further, the results revealed that there was a positive and significant relationship between Organizational Climate and Strategic Change Management. Lastly, there was a positive and significant relationship between Organizational Culture and Strategic Change Management. Based on the findings, the study concluded that Organizational Structure, organizational leadership, organizational climate and organization culture have a positive and significant effect on Strategic Change Management. The study recommends the County government of Mombasa to focus on organizational structure, organizational leadership, organizational climate and organizational culture since they were found to have a positive and significant effect on the strategic change management.