The International Journal of Business and Management Strategic Factors Affecting Change Implementation: A Case Study of Chai Trading Limited in Kenya

Abstract

Creating a sustainable yet profitable agricultural sector in Kenya has been one of the major challenges facing the country for decades. More advanced economies with much less fertile land than Kenya have managed to feed their vast economies by investing in newer technologies thus adapting to the ever changing environmental conditions.  Organizations therefore need to remain competitive in a changing business environment. Change may be necessitated by a change in competition, technology, company desire to grow, need to improve organisations processes or a change in government regulation. A static organisation faces the risk of becoming non-competitive and by extension unprofitable. The impediment experienced by most organisations is not realising the need for change, but rather failure to implement the desired change due to poor implementation module. Change requires innovation and transformation which are unpopular responses to disruptions. Most companies will identify areas for change but fail to realise desired change due lack awareness of factors affecting change implantation and ways of addressing them and failure to determine why the change, the extent and to whose benefit the change is being implemented. The study therefore sought to establish the strategic factors affecting change implementation in Chai trading company ltd. The study used a descriptive research design. The target population of this study was 200 respondents; this included 5 senior managers and 16 section heads, 55 management staff and 124 union staff. The study used stratified random sampling to select the 40% of the target population. The sample size of this study was therefore be 80 respondents. Semi-structured questionnaires were be used in this study to collect primary data. On the other hand, SPSS version 20 was used to analyse quantitative data. The study used Ordinary Least Squires (OLS) regression analysis to test the relationship between the variables. Data is then presented in a tables, bar charts and pie charts. Primary data analysis indicate the most organisation employees were less than five years and bulk of them were deployed in warehousing and operations. The study established to a large extent, change implementation was determined by corporate leadership, organisation culture, employee participation and the strategic plan. The study established that though leadership involvement to change implementation was of outmost importance, senior leaders were not actively involved. The study further revealed requisite power distribution and teamwork were not yet granted and embraced to realise change. The change champions were not properly encouraged and the strategic plan actions were not well communicated across board in the organisation. The study recommends more senior leaders involvement in change implementation, strategies be put in place to improve on teamwork and enhancement of the communication channels. The middle level leaders need to be more empowered and change champions need a forum to be presenting ideas with a view of future adoption and they be adequately recognised and rewarded. The study further recommends that adoption of new action strategic plans need to evolve with adequate changes from previous plans especially on areas of weakness have been established. Finally the study recommends proper communication of strategic action plans and efforts to ensure they are fully implemented.