Internal factors influencing service delivery in Kitui county government

Abstract

Kenya is among the developing third world countries. The country adopted devolved administration in 2013 with an aim of giving powers of self-governance to the people and promoting social and economic development. For effective service delivery, County governments develop a service delivery framework which is guided by the County Administration through public participation. Kitui County has prioritized Universal Health Care, Food and water, Wealth creation, Education and youth development and Women empowerment as the key service delivery pillars. According to Infotrack Kenya (2020), the County was ranked position 25/47 with 58.5% in 2015 and position 29/47 with 51.2% in 2016 on the performance of devolved functions. With the introduction of devolution, County governments have witnessed management and administration challenges in public service due to increased demand and expectations from the citizens. The objective of the study was to determine the extent to which internal factors influence service delivery in the Kitui County Government. The specific objectives of the study were to establish the influence of leadership style, resource allocation, organizational culture and organizational structure on service delivery in the Kitui County Government. The study is based on institutional behavior and the extent of service delivery resilience as anchored in the Institutional Theory by Meyer and Rowan (1977), the three step change model as discussed by Kurt Lewin (1951) in the Force Theory of Change, Resource Based Theory by Wernerfelt (1984) and the Culture Web Model by Johnson and Scholes (1992).The study adopted a descriptive research design and the target population was 303 respondents. This research study employed stratified random and simple random sampling methods to establish the study sample. For effective data collection, the study was based on primary data which was both qualitative and quantitative. The data was collected through questionnaires and analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 22.The analysis involved descriptive and inferential statistics. Data was presented in form of frequency tables for easy interpretation. Regression analysis was employed to establish the relationship between the variables. The R squared value is 17.7% which measured the extent of variability of service delivery as predicted leadership style, organizational structure, organizational culture and resource allocation. The F-value of 4.345 is more than the confidence level 0.05 hence rejected the null hypothesis and concluded that there is significant relationship between the variables. The study established that leadership style, organizational structure, organizational culture and resource allocation significantly affect the quality of services delivered by the County government. From the study, it was established that resource allocation is a key factor in service delivery with seventy seven point nine percent, a finding consistent with Karama and Muia (2019) where they found out that financial resources had significant and positive effects on devolved service delivery in Kenya. The study concludes that the County government has adopted autocratic and democratic leadership styles, implemented the constitutional structure, adopted a constitutional culture and invested on good planning procedure for effective service delivery. The study recommends that the County management adopts strategic leadership style, does rebranding of the County symbols, makes lean the management structure and motivates the employees for enhanced service delivery. The study further recommends for more involvement of citizens in governance to maximize utilization of the available resources.