Strategic Leadership and Performance of Savings and Credit Co-operative Societies in Kakamega County, Kenya

Abstract

Despite the fact that most Saccos in Kenya have strategic plans showing their vision, mission and objectives set to be achieved, their service delivery falls below the expectation of the members. Good strategic plans put in place require good implementation which is steered by strategic leadership and it is on this background that the study on the effect of strategic leadership on the performance of Saccos in Kakamega County was designed. The study was guided by the following specific objective: to establish the effect of strategic leadership on the performance of Saccos. To meet this objective, the researcher stated it into a null hypothesis which was tested. The study was hinged on a conceptual framework where the envisaged strategic leadership forms the independent variable while performance forms the dependent variable. It was hoped that the findings will be of value to the Ministry of Co-operatives, Development and Marketing in terms of Strategic Leadership and also form a basis for improving performance of Saccos. The study contributes to knowledge body and adds value to the current literature on strategic Leadership as a modern thinking in leading organizations. Descriptive survey research design was used during the study. The study was carried out in Kakamega County which is one of the fourty seven (47) counties in Kenya. There are 38 registered and active Sacco Societies in the County with a membership of 34,343. Methods of data collection included; Interview schedules, questionnaires and documentary analysis. Validity of the research instruments was attained by administering the instruments to pilot respondents who were not be included in the main study and also use of feedback to improve the questionnaire. Both the questionnaire and the measurement process was guided by the conceptual framework in order to measure the key elements of Strategic leadership and performance to ensure construct and face validity because they reflect the key components of the study variables. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was used to measure the reliability of the scale which was also be used to assess the interval consistency among the research instruments items. The data was then entered and analyzed by simple descriptive analysis using statistical package for social scientists computer software version 12.0 to generate cumulative frequencies and percentages. To describe the relationship between Strategic leadership and performance simple regression model of the nature P=α+β₁SL+ε was used. The regression results also shows that 48.6 percent of the performance of Saccos can be explained by Strategic leadership (R squared = 0.468).