FACTORS INFLUENCING IMPLEMENTATION OF STRATEGIC PLAN BY SACCOs IN MURANG’A COUNTY

Abstract

The ability to implement strategies successfully is important to any organization. Numerous studies acknowledge that strategies frequently fail not because of inadequate formulation but because of insufficient implementation. Strategy implementation has been a major problem to managers of big organizations. In order to create a strategic plan organizations spend a lot of money, personal and other resources. Studies and researchers have shown that big organizations have had problems in implementing their strategic plans and in some occasions they have completely failed. The objective of this research was to identify the various factors that influence strategic plan implementation, asses the extent to which each of the identified factors contribute to successful implementation of strategic plans and determine the level of strategic plan implementation in SACCOs. A population of 72 respondents was targeted consisting of board of directors, the supervisory board, the senior managers and middle level managers drawn from all the fifteen (15) branches of Murata SACCO. A response rate of 89% was achieved. The opinions of the targeted respondents were sought by the use of a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was designed in such a was as to capture the respondents perception and opinion on various factors influencing strategic plan implementation in savings and credit cooperatives. Both descriptive and inferential analysis techniques were used to analyze and interpret the data. The main findings of the study revealed that each of the identified factors i.e. strategic leadership, human capital, organizational structure, information technology and organizational culture have some significant influence on implementation of strategic plans, however strategic leadership had the greatest influence on strategic plan implementation in SACCOs. The researcher recommends that for effective implementation of strategic plans adequate training of SACCO leadership should be performed since problems of implementation are really issues about how leaders influence behaviors, change the course of events, and overcome resistance. All SACCO staff should be actively involved in every step of the strategic plan implementation.