Abstract:
There is a household. call for public sector departments to provide services efficiently through
effective implementation of policies projected in strategic plans. This article is based on a study
carried out between January and June year 2009 to investigate on the factors that affect strategic
plan implementation in public sector departments in Central Province. The study objectives were:
to establish whether leadership affects strategic plan implementation, to find out whether employee's
technical skills affect strategic plan implementation, to find out whether employee involvement in
the formulation of strategic plans affect strategic plan implementation and finally to find out how
financial resources affect strategic plan implementation. The primary purpose of the article is to
shed light on the factors that influence the implementation of public sector strategic plans. The
study sought information from documents from statistics departments showing the number of
departments in Central Province Provincial Headquarters. Other vital information was got from
strategic plans from sampled departments, sessional papers, journals and books, relevant previous
studies and the internet. Data was collected from 15 heads of departments out of a possible 46 and 60
line staff employees out of 300. Findings from the study revealed that strategic plan implementation
is affected by amongst other factors financial resources, technical skills, employee involvement and
leadership. It was recommended that appropriate reinforcements be used to turn around employees'
attitude to work, relevant on- job trainings be carried out, communication levels be more open
and employees be held squarely accountable for any section of public service delivery that is faulty,
lagging behind or not effective at all.
