Influence of Strategic Leadership on The Performance of CDF Sponsored Projects in Kitui County, Kenya

Abstract

This study sought to establish the influence of strategic leadership on performance of CDF sponsored projects in Kitui County, Kenya. The specific objectives of the study were to find out the influence of strategic direction, strategic alignment, change management and culture of creativity and innovation on performance of CDF sponsored projects in Kitui County, Kenya. In the past 10 years the government has lost resources allocated to the CDF kitty owing to the abandoning, incompletion and non-maintenance of CDF sponsored projects. Public resources have not been well maximized as they are expended on thousands of small, diverse projects which fail to move the country towards common goals, thus it is important to align the CDF development objectives with those of the County. The researcher presented the theoretical, empirical and conceptual frameworks underpinning the research topic through literature review of earlier theories such as upper echelon theory and other strategic leadership theories, research studies and conceptualized the interactions of both the dependent and independent variables and how they related in this study. This was a census study as the targeted population was small and thus it was reasonable to engage the whole target population of 72 respondents as the sample size. The sample was composed of 8 chairpersons and 64 CDFCs members. The study used descriptive research design. Data collection was done through semi-structured questionnaires which were administered on a “drop and pick later” method to respondents and which achieved a response rate of 83%. The data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistical tools and methods which included percentages and frequency counts which were used to analyze quantitative data obtained from respondents and the data was presented in tables, pie charts and graphs. The findings of this study showed that the various strategic leadership variables that were the focus of this study had varying degrees of influence on the performance on CDF sponsored projects with culture of creativity and innovation (74.5%) being the most advocated for factor followed by change management (72.3%), strategic direction (63.8%), and lastly strategic alignment which was not properly appreciated by the respondents in this study. The researcher recommended further intensive research studies on specific aspects of strategic leadership with reference to the knowledge or understanding of the leaders who are in charge of CDF sponsored projects and the individual leadership traits and characteristics required for strategic leadership to manifest at that level and how they can significantly contribute to the enhanced performance of CDF sponsored projects.