Effect of Organisation Structure on Performance of County Governments Development Projects in Kenya: A Case of Kiambu County Government

Abstract

County governments use projects to implement their development agenda. Most of these projects are faced with high failure rates leading to waste of millions of shillings. Many of the projects undertaken suffer from cost and time overruns and do not meet customer-specific goals. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of organisation structure on performance of development projects by county governments specifically focusing on Kiambu County, Kenya. Explanatory research design was employed. The research site was located at Kiambu county government offices in Kiambu town. The target population was thirty-six (36) projects implemented by the department of Roads Transport Public Works & Utilities while the study respondents included sixty (60) staff involved in implementing and managing the projects in the department. The study used descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations and the simple linear regression model to analyse quantitative data. Content analysis was be used to analyse qualitative data. The study findings showed that organisation structure had significant and positive effect on performance of the development projects. The study recommended that the county government should ensure that there is a right structure in place to support project staff work flow and the project tasks assignment should be aligned to employees’ abilities and interests. The structure should empower the project team to make timely decisions and enable them to complete project activities on time. Further the organisation structure should foster effective execution of strategic decisions related to projects.