Institutional determinants of strategic plan implementation in public secondary schools in Machakos County, Kenya

Abstract

Strategic plan as a management tool can help to improve the performance of an organization since it guides all stakeholders to work towards the same objectives. It also makes an organization adapt to the ever changing environment toward realizing better results. This study sought to investigate the influence of institutional determinants of strategic plan implementation in public secondary schools in Machakos County, Kenya. The specific study objectives sought to establish the influence of school structure, resource allocation, leadership communication strategies, and the stakeholders’ participation in school development plans on the strategic plan implementation. The study used descriptive survey research design. The study targeted 351 public secondary schools, 351 principals in these schools, and 3,159 class teachers and academic Heads of Departments. The study used a sample of 30% of all the targeted principals and 10% of the targeted HoDs and class teachers from each zone to arrive at 105 principals, and 316 academic HoDs and class teachers. Public secondary schools in Machakos County were grouped into eight zones (strata) using the stratified sampling technique. The study used open-ended questionnaire to obtain qualitative data and closed-ended questionnaires to obtain quantitative data. Descriptive statistics that is distribution of responses, measures of variability and measures of central tendency were used to analyze data which was presented using frequency distribution tables, and pie charts. Multiple linear regression was used to analyze the inferential data. Qualitative data gathered using open-ended questionnaires was grouped into themes based on the study objectives. The study tested four hypotheses each at a 0.05 level of significance. From the first objective, the study gave a positive coefficient of 0.0470 on school structure with a p-value of 0.314 and was not statistically significant at 0.05 level, hence we fail to reject the null hypothesis that, school structure had no influence on strategic plan implementation. Based on the second objective, the study produced a positive coefficient of 0.4168 on school leadership with a p-value of 0.000 which was statistically significant at the 0.05 level, hence we reject the null hypothesis that, school leadership had no influence on strategic plan implementation. In the third objective, the study produced a negative coefficient of -0.0168 on resource allocation with a p-value of 0.714 which was not statistically significant at the 0.05 level, hence we fail to reject the null hypothesis that, resource allocation has no influence on strategic plan implementation. The findings from the fourth objective produced a positive coefficient of 0.2519 on stakeholder participation in school development plans with a p-value of 0.000 which was statistically significant at 0.05 level, thus we reject the null hypothesis that, stakeholder participation in school development plans has no influence on strategic plan implementation. From the study findings, the study concluded that institutional leadership and stakeholders’ participation in institution development plans have a statistically significant influence on strategic plan implementation; however institutional structure does not have a statistically significant influence on strategic plan implementation even though school structure is positively and significantly related to strategic plan implementation, in addition, institutional allocation of resources had no statistically significant influence on strategic plan implementation in public secondary schools in Machakos County. Based on these findings, the study recommends that the school Principals ought to make sure that there is clarity in co-coordinating the curriculum, and stakeholders’ need to honor the invitation to participate in the school development plans in the strategic plan.