EFFECT OF STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP, ETHICS AND ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE ON SERVICE DELIVERY IN KENYAN COUNTY GOVERNMENTS

Abstract

Abstract The study sought to determine the joint effect of strategic leadership, ethics and organizational structure on service delivery in Kenya’s County Governments. The county governments were primarily designed to improve services and bring them closer to the people. Contentions over the applicability of strategic management concepts such as strategic leadership, ethics, organizational structure and service delivery given the politically driven and tribal nature of public entities in Kenya informed this research. The theories upon which the study was based were; the New Public Management (NPM) theory, Upper Echelon Theory, the Agency Theory and the Institutional Theory. This study used positivism research philosophy where quantitative approaches were utilized in a cross-sectional survey. The unit of analysis was the 47 Counties in Kenya as per the 2010 Constitution of Kenya and these were the target population thus a census was done. Six respondents were purposively selected from six key departments in the counties and thus the study had a sample size of 282. The study used primary data collected using questionnaires administered to county chief officers. Data analysis was done using descriptive statistics to show manifestation of the variables in the counties and through multiple regression to test the hypothesis. The study found a significant joint effect of strategic leadership, ethics and organizational structure on service delivery. The study thus recommended that the county leadership be more strategic and train employees on innovations to be able to offer better services to the citizens. The study recommended that law enforcement agencies should enforce sanctions on unethical leaders and employees to ensure more effective service delivery. Senate and county assemblies also needed to align the legislation to ensure appropriate county structure for better services.