| dc.description.abstract | Strategic choice is defined as the wayan organization seeks to align itself with the
environment. It concerns the decisions about the organizations future and the way in
which it needs to respond to pressures and influences. Despite studies indicating that
strategic choices have a bearing on organizational performance, many public
organizations in Kenya including Kenya Pipeline Company continue to register
downward growth. KPC has faced a fair share of challenges such as aging of the
pipeline in its quest to ensure efficient distribution of oil products in Kenya. In the
annual report of 2007 and 2008, the revenues declined by 7% to Kshs.8.2 billion and
pretax profit of 54% down to Kenya shillings 2.6 billion in 2008. Many studies on
strategic choices have focused on other sectors with no attention to the public sector.
A leading study in Kenya focused on strategy and organizational behavior; however
little is known about the strategic choices on the performance of public organization
in the energy sector. The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of strategic
choices on the performance of public organizations. Specifically, the study sought to
identify the strategic choices adopted by KPC, identify the relationship between
strategic choices and performance of Kenya Pipeline Company limited and to
establish challenges faced by the organizations in the implementation of strategic
choices. The study adapted the Ansoff's conceptual framework in which the study
population comprised of 235 top level employees of KPC in western Kenya region,
who represented Nakuru, Kisumu and Eldoret, from which a sample of 47 (20%)
respondents was selected using simple random sampling technique. The study adapted
a case study research design in which data was collected from a variety of respondents
from top management for the purpose of determining the uniformity of information.
Primary data was collected by pretested self-administered questionnaires while
secondary data was obtained from financial reports. of the company and government
reports. Quantitative data produced was analyzed using descriptive statistics such as
mean and percentages, as well as by use of correlation and regression analysis to
establish the degree of association between the variables. The study found out that the
firm had adopted market penetration strategy to a greater extent (mean =3.91;
standard deviation =.079) in a scale of 1-5; that there is a significant positive
association between various components of strategic choices and firm performance.
Overall, market penetration, market diversification,' new product development and
market development strategic performance had an R2=.556;(p<.05)meaning that these
variables accounted for 55.6% of firm performance leading to conclusion that firm
performance can greatly be enhanced by focusing on these strategies. The study also
revealed that lack of effective conflict management resolution was the greatest barrier
to strategy implementation (mean= 3.75; standard deviation=.l35). Therefore, the ~
study recommends that, firms should focus on strategic choices and institute effective
conflict resolution management in order to boost their performance. The study is
significant because its findings have elucidated key strategic choices that can be
manipulated to predict performance of firms. This study may further contribute to the
literature on the relationship between .strategic choice and performance in the public | en_US |
