Influence of strategic leadership on strategy implementation in chartered Universities in Kenya

Abstract

Past studies suggest that strategic leadership is important in determining organizational outcomes. However, few studies have empirically examined the influence of strategic leadership on strategy implementation. This study sought to examine the influence of strategic leadership on strategy implementation in Universities in Kenya. The specific objectives of the study were to determine the influence of transformational leadership on strategy implementation, determine the influence of transactional leadership on strategy implementation, and establish the combined influence of transformational and transactional leadership on strategy implementation. The study was guided by the transformational leadership theory and the Upper Echelon Theory. The study adopted explanatory and cross- section research designs. The target population comprised 49 public and private chartered Universities in Kenya, and all the Universities were studied. Primary data was collected using a structured questionnaire. To summarize the data, descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation were used. To test the research hypotheses, simple and multiple regression analysis were used. The findings of the study demonstrated that transformational leadership positively affects strategy implementation and transactional leadership positively affects strategy implementation. The findings further demonstrated that transformational and transactional leadership jointly positively affect strategy implementation. The study concludes that strategic leadership has positive and significant effect on strategy implementation. The study recommends that the senior management teams of public and private Universities in Kenya should adopt transfonnational and transactional leadership style to enhance strategy implementation. The researcher recommends replication of the study in different sectors to enhance understanding of the relationship between strategic leadership and strategy implementation.