AN EVALUATION OF INFLUENCE OF LEADERSHIP ON MANAGEMENT OF STRATEGIC ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE: A CASE STUDY OF NAKURU COUNTY GOVERNMENT, KENYA

Abstract

Leadership has the ability to bring a vision into reality by making swift decisions and inspiring others. Leadership is guiding people and the company in the right direction through empowerment and inspiration, objectively enabling people to achieve organizational goals, whereas management is a set of processes that help the company to be reliable and efficient. This study seeks to investigate the influence of leadership on strategic change in Nakuru county government. Four specific objectives guided this study. This included: to establish the influence of leaderships’ communication; to assess the influence of leaderships’ strategic direction; to evaluate the influence of Leaderships’ organization culture and to determine the influence of leaderships’ group dynamics’ management on strategic change in Nakuru county government. The study was anchored on three theories, the systems theory, upper echelons theory and the strategic leadership theory. A descriptive research design was used for this study. The study targeted employees from several cadres in the county totalling to 1266. To come up with a sample of 304 respondents the study made use of proportionate stratified random sampling technique. Primary data was collected using a questionnaire as the main data collection instrument. The study generated both qualitative and quantitative data. Quantitative data was coded and entered into Statistical Packages for Social Scientists (SPSS) and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Qualitative data was analyzed based on the content of the responses. Karl Pearson’s coefficient of correlation and multiple regressions was used to establish the relationship between the independent variables and the dependent variables. The study achieved a correlation coefficient of 0.847 for the study. The correlation coefficient presents the correlation between the independent variables in a cumulative manner against the dependent variable. The regression coefficients are used to show the effect of the unit increase on the independent variable on the dependent variable. In this context, the beta coefficients of communication, strategic direction, organizational culture and dynamics management are 0.236, 0.217, 0.259, and 0.191 respectively. The achieved results for the communication variable were t=10.475, sig=0.000 leading to the conclusion to reject the null hypothesis at 5% level of independence since p value is less than 0.05. The achieved results for the strategic direction variable were t=8.219, sig=0.000 leading to the conclusion that the null hypothesis should be rejected at 5% level of significance since p value is less than 0.05.The achieved results for the organizational culture variable were t=10.526, sig=0.000 leading to the conclusion that the null hypothesis should be rejected at 5% level of significance since p value is less than 0.05.The achieved results for the group dynamics variable were t= 7.858, sig=0.000 leading to the conclusion that the null hypothesis should be rejected at 5% level of significance since p value is less than 0.05.The study recommended that the leadership had an influence on the strategic organizational change of the county government at Nakuru with communication, strategic direction, organizational culture and dynamics management had positive and significant influence on the strategic change individually. The study thus recommended that the county government of Nakuru should put emphasis on the leadership aspects at the country to influence the strategic change. The study recommended that other factors that influence on the strategic change at the county government be examined.