Effect of strategic leadership and organizational change on organizational performance in chartered universities, Kenya

Abstract

Leadership has undergone much adaptation to suit the unique needs of each organization owing to the changes in globalization, technology, demographics and work practices. As a result of this evolution, institutions of higher learning globally have embraced strategic leadership. The study involved cross sectional research design and a census of all the 48 chartered universities in Kenya. Questionnaire instruments were administered to 43 Vice Chancellors and 103 Deputy Vice Chancellors of the selected universities. A pilot study was conducted from three (3) public and two (2) private chartered universities that did not take part in the study to determine the validity of the instrument. Data analysis was done using descriptive statistics, simple regression, multiple regression, hierarchical regression analyses, t-test and Pearson correlation analysis. The response rate after data collection was 84.93% in terms of the respondents (Vice chancellors and deputy vice chancellors) and 76.7% response on the basis of universities that were targeted. The results of objective one indicated that transformational leadership style had a positive significant effect on organizational performance. Intellectual stimulation turned out to be the most effective element of transformational leadership. The results for the second objective indicated that transactional leadership had a negative and significant effect on organizational performance. When transformational leadership was combined with transactional leadership in a multiple regression in the third objective, both factors are significant with the direction of influence remaining the same as when regressed independently. The explanatory power of the two variables was 15.6%. In the fourth objective, organizational change was positively influenced by transformational leadership while transactional leadership remained insignificant. The independent variables explained 30.2% of the changes in the organizational change. In the fifth objective, the results indicated that organizational change had a positive and significant influence on organizational performance. The individual elements of organizational change explained 8.5% more changes in organizational performance. Finally, in the last objective, the moderating effect of organizational change in the relationship between strategic leadership and organizational performance was visible among Kenyan universities. nOrganizational change improved the explanatory power of strategic leadership from 15.5% to 38.9%. It was recommended that university management should consider implementing strategic leadership with keen interest in transformational leadership (intellectual stimulation) and organizational change (technology and strategic orientation) which have a higher predictive influence on organizational performan