Assessment of the Factors That Influence the Development and Implementation of Strategic Plans in Kenya’s Higher Education Institutions: A Case of Kenyatta University and Pan Africa Christian University, Kenya

Abstract

Review of literature in strategic leadership indicates that many strategic plans are poorly developed and with relatively little success in their implementation hence presenting a research gap that needs to be investigated. The research reported in this thesis therefore sought to assess the factors that influence development and implementation of strategic plans in Kenyan universities, a case study of Kenyatta University (KU) and Pan Africa Christian (PAC) University. The independent variables were institutional leadership factors, stakeholder involvement and availability of financial resources, while the dependent variables were both development and implementation of strategic plans in the two universities. The study is anchored on Path Goal, Transformational Leadership and Open Systems theories. Being guided by Tromp and Ruben’s (2010) Strategic Planning in Higher Education Framework, the study used a mixed method of quantitative and qualitative in data collection, analysis and interpretation. Stratified random and purposive sampling techniques to arrive at the 56 participants from each University. A questionnaire was used in data collection for primary data and content analysis of the strategic plans in the two universities captured the secondary data. The questionnaires were administered using the online application KoBo Collect. The questionnaire was pre-tested to get feedback on whether the questions captured the expected data, and whether there was any ambiguity in the questions. The questionnaires were coded to ensure accountability of the number of questionnaires that were issued. They were edited for completeness, accuracy and consistency and the data inputted using SPSS version 24. Data analysis was done quantitatively using regression analysis to guide the testing of the hypotheses. Some aspects of the questionnaire that had open ended questions were categorized according to the thematic areas as they had been captured by the KoBo Collect at data collection stage. The main finding indicated that jointly, institutional leadership factors had the highest influence on the development of strategic plans in the two universities, followed by stakeholder involvement, then availability of financial resources. However, in the implementation of strategic plan at KU, availability of financial resources had the highest influence, followed by institutional leadership factors, then stakeholder involvement. At PAC University, institutional leadership factors had the highest influence on the implementation of the strategic plan, followed by stakeholder involvement, then availability of resources. The study recommends that university’s leadership should be committed to the strategic planning process right from the development up to the implementation of the same. Second, all key stakeholders should be included in the strategic planning process since their engagement is critical in ensuring its success. Third, universities should avail financial resources required for success of the development and implementation of the strategic plans to be realized. The study concludes that (i) leadership in a university is critical for the success of the development and implementation of strategic plan (ii) the voice of all stakeholders in a university matters during the development and implementation of strategic plan, and (iii) the success of the development and implementation of strategic plans requires the allocation and availability of adequate financial resources. When these three factors are considered, universities will have well developed and successfully implemented strategic plans.