Strategic Actions and Firm Performance in Uganda's Legal Sector: A Lawyers' Perspective

Abstract

Firm performance in the Ugandan legal sector remains a challenging phenomenon. On the one hand, literature suggests that a few law firms attribute their success on strategic planning while on the other hand, majority of the firms reportedly do not undertake strategic planning. This phenomenon prompted this study. The aim of the study was to ascertain whether the law firms in Uganda: appreciate the strategic challenges to firm performance; the actions that could influence firm performance; articulation of the firm performance facets, which would be improved by certain strategic actions and the existence of systematic mechanisms for developing strategic actions. The study adopted a mixed methods descriptive design. The study involved 70 respondents in the legal practice in Kampala City. The findings indicate that law firms appreciate the strategic challenges mean score (4.10); they appreciate strategic actions that could lead to improved firm performance mean score (4.14) and can articulate firm performance facets that could be influenced by strategic actions mean score (4.20). In addition, there a positive and significant relationship between the strategic actions suggested and the firm performance facets (r=.838**, sig .010). Further, findings indicate that majority of the respondents 80 percent reported a lack of systematic mechanism for developing strategic actions in their firms. The study recommends research on the strategic planning behaviours of law firms in Uganda to guide the development of strategies for better firm performance in the legal sector.