Strategy Implementation and Organizational Performance of Private Security Companies in Nairobi, Kenya

Abstract

Globally a brilliant strategy may put a company on the competitive map and increase its performance. There still exists a gap as far as strategy implementation in the private security industry in Kenya is concerned. This therefore arouses more critical academic thinking within this subject area. The general objective of this study was to assess strategy implementation components and organizational performance of private security companies in Kenya. The specific objectives were to; establish the effect of structure; find out the effect of resources; determine the effect of leadership; and to examine the effect of information and communications technology on organizational performance of private security companies in Kenya. The study was anchored on two theories: Agency Theory and Resource-Based View. The study adopted a descriptive survey. The population consisted of the all private security companies in Kenya which were 216. Stratified random sampling was used to arrive at 54 respondents. Primary data was used exclusively where questionnaires were used. The data analysis included descriptive statistics, correlations, and linear regression analysis. The findings show that organizational structure was majorly local, with very few security firms operating internationally. The findings also show that majority of the respondents admitted that management was actually mobilizing resources from different stakeholders. However, through interviews and opinion responses, the researcher learned that mobilization of resources was not commensurate to the performance per se.The findings also show that though most firms rated their leadership as good, most security firms lacked the right leadership as revealed from the respondents. This could partly be contributed by the fact that a considerable proportion of leaders were not selected through a democratic process. On average, large population of the respondents agreed that ICT was majorly employed. However, respondents argued that the process lacked seriousness from the management.The study recommends the security firms to adopt an organizational structure that is simple, efficient and one that is universally acceptable by the organizational members. The study further recommends the county government and the financial institutions to consider funding security firms so that they can effectively help the government in reducing the rate of crime in the country.

Keywords: Resources, Leadership, Organizational Structure, ICT