The role of leaders on the performance of water resources projects in Kwale County

Abstract

Water resources projects are essential to the population of Kwale County as well as being the pillar that support most projects in agriculture and fisheries sectors. In this study, the role of leaders such as coordination, change agent, conflict resolution and monitoring were analysed, and the findings showed how the leader’s roles influenced performance of projects and ultimately dictate the success of these projects. From the study, it was important for leaders to optimize performance measurement on projects so as to provide the basis for assessing how well projects progressed toward the planned and achieve targeted objectives. The study was conducted through a descriptive design .The target population for the study constituted 21 water resources projects that had a total population of 190 participants. The sample frame was 62 as the sample size which was 30% of the total population. The instrument for primary data collection was a structured questionnaire with questions anchored on a five (5) point Likert type ranking scale. The data processing and analysis was done mainly by descriptive analysis and the use of statistical package for social science (SPSS Version 20) to produce presentable summaries of the data and findings. A multiple regression analysis was used to explain the existence of a relationship between the independent variable; (Coordination role, Change agent role, Conflict resolution role and Monitoring role) and the dependent variable; (Performance of water resources projects). The findings indicated that the role of leaders as coordinators, and monitoring had a higher influence on the performance of water resources projects in Kwale County. Additionally, the study concluded that monitoring role should be a continuous task thought all project phases especially in areas relating to resource utilization, budget and the timelines defined in the project briefs and schedule.