Effects of strategic leadership on change management in private universities: Nairobi County, Kenya

Abstract

The study focused on determining the effects of strategic leadership on change management in Private Universities in Kenya, Nairobi County. The study was guided by the specific objectives on institution’s mission, decision making process, and administrative measures. The study used situational leadership and strategic leadership theories to ascertain and validate the findings of the study. The study targeted a population of 350 with a sample size of 292. The study adopted a descriptive research design. The study used stratified random sampling procedure. In this sampling technique, the population was divided into smaller groups known as strata. The respondents were randomly sampled from each stratum in order to reduce amount of tension and suspense of respondents towards the study. Data was collected from 15 private universities in Nairobi county. Pilot study was conducted at 10% of the target population. The pilot study helped to inform the researcher on the strength or weakness of the study. The researcher made 292 questionnaires for distribution to the respondents. The response obtained from the respondents was 257 which was sufficient to analyse. A multiple regression analysis was conducted to test the influence among predictor variables. The research used statistical package for social sciences (SPSS Version 25) to code, enter and compute the measurements of the multiple regressions. The most significant correlation was between institution’s mission and administrative measures with a coefficient value of 0.925 (at significant level of 0.05). Decision making and change management practices also was shown to contribute up to 83.6% (at a significant level of 0.05) of strategic leadership in private universities in Kenya, Nairobi County. Similarly, a strong correlation existed between institution’s mission and change management practices with a coefficient value of 72% (at a significance level of 0.05). Decision making process and change management practices exhibited a correlation at a coefficient value of 67.2% (at a significance level of 0.05). The findings revealed there is no significant relationship between the effect of mission and change management in private universities in Nairobi County, Kenya and no significant relationship between decision-making process. Similarly, change management in private universities in Nairobi County, Kenya were highly accepted at 92.5% by the respondents at a significant level of 0.05 while hypothesis on there is no significant relationship between the effect of administrative measures and change management in private universities in Nairobi County, Kenya was rejected as an effective strategic leadership on change management in private Universities in Kenya, Nairobi County.The study recommends that future academic researchers to understand and interpret the findings of this study in order to contribute to the body of knowledge. The study suggests areas for further study should be carried out in other counties in Kenya to determine if the effect of strategic leadership on change management in private universities in Kenya is comparable. Different variables on the same study should be used to investigate the actual source of change management for informed decisions to be made.