Influence of employees’ perception of leadership strategy on strategic plan implementation in public technical training institutions in Kenya

Abstract

Strategic plan as a tool for improving institutional performance and competitiveness has been taken seriously by both private and public institutions in Africa and the rest of the world (Demirkaya, 2015). In Kenya, Public universities and tertiary institutions including public TVET started using strategic plans in 2007 as part of the wider public management initiatives to enhance their operations and service delivery (MOHEST, 2008).This study investigated the influence of employees’ perception of leadership strategy on the implementation of strategic plans in Public Technical Vocational Education and Training institutions. The implementation of strategic plan in public TVET institutions in Kenya is ineffective as evidence by weak managerial behavior, weak institutional policies and poor execution of planned programmes. While leadership has received substantial attention in the education sector in Kenya, marginal attention has been given to leadership strategy in public TVET institutions and hence established the gap of this study. Upper echelon theory supported the specific objectives of the study. The study adopted descriptive survey research design using both qualitative and quantitative approach. The target population was 1255 employees in selected seven (7) public TVET institutions within Rift valley region; while a sample size of two hundred ninety four (294) respondents was drawn using purposive and stratified random sampling. Primary data were collected using questionnaires and interviews. The collected data were edited and analyzed using both SPSS and content analysis. Only 242 respondents returned questionnaires translating to 82% of the valid response rate. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to describe both dependent and independent variables. The result indicated that Leadership strategy significantly influence implementation of strategic plans. The findings suggested that management in public TVET institutions should pay more attention to leadership strategy in order to ensure success in strategic plan implementation. The findings are expected to be of value to the management and decision makers to form a basis for improving implementation of strategic plans in higher education. The study recommends that top leadership need to create awareness on the importance and processes involved in strategic plans implementation in public TVET institutions in order to ease employees understanding and participation.