Influence of Strategic Leadership on Organizational Performance of County Government of Kitui, Kenya
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.70619/vol5iss4pp41-53Keywords:
Strategic Leadership, Organizational Performance, Kitui County Government, Kenya.Abstract
The purpose of the study was to examine the influence of strategic leadership on the organizational performance of the County Government of Kitui, Kenya. A descriptive research design was used to determine the characteristics of the population under consideration. The respondents comprised 21 directors, 34 departmental managers, and 308 administrators. The study used a simple random method to sample the directors, departmental managers, and administrators. In the determination of the sample size, the study used Kothari's (2004) formula to select the 17 directors, 25 departmental managers, and 73 administrators. The study had questionnaires and interview guides to collect data from the participants. The directors were interviewed, whereas the departmental managers and administrators answered questionnaires. A pre-test study was undertaken in Machakos County Government. The study considered three types of validity, which were content, construct, and criterion. Cronbach's alpha was one of the methods of internal consistency that examined reliability. Notably, complete questionnaires were coded into SPSS version 26. Various descriptive statistics, like frequencies, percentages, means, and standard deviations, were derived. Inferential statistics such as Pearson correlation were analyzed to test the hypothesis, whereas the linear regression analysis including was provided. The regression coefficient for strategic leadership is 0.261. Further, the results indicate that all the variables had a significance value of less than 0.05 and a T-statistic of more than 2, meaning that strategic plan implementation variables were statistically significant. The study concluded that, the county leadership of Kitui had provided a suitable environment that supported learning and development among its staff. This was to improve their knowledge on the vision, mission, public policy, and get acquainted with various changing county operations. To improve the effectiveness of strategic leadership, the departmental directors should consider empowering communication policies that define horizontal and vertical communication structure.
References
Drago, H.F., de Moura, G.L., da Silva, L.S.C.V., da Veiga, C.P., Kaczam, F., Rita, L.P.S., & da Silva, W.V. (2023). Reviewing the relationship between organizational performance, dynamic capabilities, and strategic behavior. SN Business & Economics, 3(5), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43546-022-00392-2
Farhiya, I. M., & Maurice, P. (2022). Monitoring and evaluation practice and performance of health projects in Isiolo County, Kenya. International Journal of Sciences Management and Entrepreneurship, 6(1), 278-287. https://www.sagepublishers.com/index.php/ijssme/article/download/194/219
Forest Management Task Force (2021). California’s wildfire and forest resilience action plan: A comprehensive strategy of the governor’s forest management task force. https://wildfiretaskforce.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/californiawildfireandforestresilienceactionplan.pdf
Gutterman, A.S. (2023). Organizational performance and effectiveness.https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Alan-Gutterman/publication/372935897
Huang, Z., Sindakis, S., Aggarwal, S., & Thomas, L. (2022). The role of leadership in collective creativity and innovation: Examining academic research and development environments. Front Psychology, 13(1060412), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1060412
Irene, N., Haluna, M., & Bolatito, A.-O. S. (2024). Leadership styles and organizational performance: The impact on Namisindwa district local government in Uganda. TWIST, 19(2), 229-237. https://twistjournal.net/twist/article/view/317
Johanson, J. E., & Vakkuri, J. (2020). Strategy and performance in public policy: Strategic management in government. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jan-Erik-Johanson/publication/344656370_Strategy_and_performance_in_public_policy/links/5f87217c458515b7cf808f1e/Strategy-and-performance-in-public-policy.pdf
Karani, K.N. (2022). Effect of strategic leadership practices on the performance of Tharaka Nithi County Government [Master’s Thesis, University of Nairobi]. Kenya. https://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke/bitstream/handle/11295/163587/Kithama_Effect%20of%20Strategic%20Leadership%20Practices%20on%20the%20Performance%20of%20Tharaka%20Nithi%20County%20Government.pdf?sequence=1
Kibai, N. E., & Awuor, E. (2024). Leadership styles and performance of public institutions in Kenya: A case study of the county government in Kenya. International Journal of Management and Leadership Studies, 5(9), 43-59. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/386033857
Kimanzi, A., & Ngugi, L. (2022). Stakeholder involvement and implementation of projects by the County Government of Kitui, Kenya. Journal of Entrepreneurship and Project Management, 2(5), 1-9. http://dx.doi.org/10.70619/vol2iss5pp1-9
Kothari, C. R. (2004). Sample size determination. Research methodology (2nd Ed.). New Age International Publication. http://dl.saintgits.org/jspui/bitstream/123456789/1133/1/Research%20Methodology%20C%20R%20Kothari%20%28Eng%29%201.81%20MB.pdf
Logan, J. (2024). Impact of strategic leadership styles on organizational performance in Canada. International Journal of Strategic Management, 3(2), 26-37. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/383382520_Impact_of_Strategic_Leadership_Styles_on_Organizational_Performance_in_Canada
Mintzberg, H. (1979). The structuring of organizations. Prentice Hall.
Mutembei, M. M., & Kithae, P. P. (2023). Organizational culture and financial resource allocation as enablers for performance contracting in public organizations in Kenya: A case study of Tharaka Nithi executive county government. Journal of Human Resource and Leadership, 7(6), 42-54. https://doi.org/10.53819/81018102t2263
Ndevu, Z. (2022). Rethinking performance management: Realities in South African municipalities: People management. https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.107960
Ng, Q. X., Liau, M. Y. Q., Tan, Y. Y., Tang, A. S. P., Ong, C., Thumboo, J., & Lee, C. E. (2024). A systematic review of the reliability and validity of the patient activation measure tool. Healthcare, 12(11), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare12111
Ntoiti, K. M., & Makau, S. M. (2022). Understanding strategy implementation: Progress along the performance of Meru County Government in Kenya. ESI Preprints, 1(1), 589-611. https://doi.org/10.19044/esipreprint.9.2022.p589
Office of the Controller of Budget (2024). County governments budget implementation review report: First quarter of FY 2024/25. https://cob.go.ke/reports/consolidated-county-budget-implementation-review-reports/#
Paul, L.Y., Jemaiyo, B., & Eng’airo, P. (2025). The role of strategic leadership on the performance of the County Governments in Kenya. International Journal of Business and Management Review, 13(1), 85-98. https://doi.org/10.37745/ijbmr.2013/vol13n18598
Regan, S. (2025). The L.A. wildfires should be a wake-up call: Decades of fire suppression policies have left forests dangerously dense and overgrown. https://www.city-journal.org/article/la-wildfires-forest-management-regulatory-reform
Riany, K.G. (2021). Organizational structure and the performance of state corporations in Kenya. European Business & Management, 7(6), 206-215. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ebm.20210706.17
Thuo, N. W., Kahuthia, J., & Gachuru, G. (2024). Influence of leadership style on organizational performance of the Kajiado county government, Kenya. The Strategic Journal of Business & Change Management, 11(4), 454-465. http://dx.doi.Org/10.61426/Sjbcm.v11i4.3098
Twum, F.O., Badu, Y.A., & Boateng, P.A. (2024). The nine ‘s’ model for strategy implementation: A review. Pan-African Journal of Education and Social Sciences (PAJES), 5(1), 18-27. https://doi.org/10.56893/pajes2024v05i01.02
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Damaris Mutheu Mumo, Dr. Paul Kirigia, PhD, Dr. Nancy Rintari, PhD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
