RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BUSINESS CONTINUITY MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AND ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE; A CASE OF SECURITY FIRMS NAIROBI KENYA

Abstract

Security companies have resulted to Business Continuity Management (BCM) practices in an effort to ensure continuity of business operations. Organizational performance is crucial and BCM is one of the key driving forces to strengthen a firm’s ability to withstand risks and survive under extreme organizational and environmental pressures. Security companies in Kenya are operating in a rapidly changing environment that presents a risk to operations of companies. The prevailing economic environment in Kenya, increased competition, advanced technology and increase regulations governing security, has threated the operations of private security company’s continuity. Despite security companies in Kenya adopting Business continuity Management practices, the extent to which BCM practices contribute to company performance has not sufficiently been empirically studied. The general objective of the study was to determine the influence of Business Continuity Management practices on organizational performance in security firms in Nairobi City County Kenya. The research adopted descriptive survey research design. The study adopted the cognitive and resource mobilization theories. The target population of this study were 124 security firms within Nairobi County. The study adopted a stratified random sampling to select a sample size of 75 respondents. The primary data for this study was collected using a questionnaire. Descriptive statistics such as means, standard deviation and frequency distribution and regression was used to analyze the data to establish the extent to which Business Continuity Management practices influence organizational performance in security firms in Nairobi County in Kenya. The study adopted correlation and regression analysis to establish relationship between variables. The study findings showed that the performance of security companies in Nairobi is influence by the level of support of top management, planning for the business continuity and allocation of sufficient resources. The study recommends need for a clearly outlined BCM strategy within the strategic plan to form the basis of business performance and long health of the firms.