Effects of Implementation of Project Plans on the Performance of Commercial Banks in Kenya: (A Survey of Commercial Banks in Migori Town)

Abstract

While formal project plans are of a practically central concern in project management, their successful implementation remains an essential challenge for virtually every organization. In situations where the organization’s environment is changing, the organization itself is faced with a need to change. The fact that Commercial Banks in Kenya are in transition following the change in market demand, consumer behavior and influence of technology, require an appropriate background and detailed understanding of previous and existing challenges in project plans implementation so that a new shift is established. The banking industry has experienced a rapid growth in terms of profits, deposits, revenues in the recent past. This trend has triggered a lot of competition in the banking industry. Commercial Banks in Kenya have managed to weather this competition to stand out as one of the most successful Kenyan businesses today. In rhythm with this, the study set out to investigate the effects of implementation of project plans on overall performance of commercial banks in major towns in Kenya. The thematic focus was on organizational culture, organizational structure, corporate leadership and financial resource. Towards achieving this, the study purposively targeted a case of Migori Town to form a basis for objective generalization. The town has six commercial banks in whose purview the target population of 90 staff was constituted. Sampling was conducted by proportional stratified sampling to generate ultimate respondents of 30 being one third of the target population, whose views and opinions was used for the study’s generalizations. From the identified respondents, questionnaires were administered to collect the required data, which were then processed and analyzed using descriptive statistics and content analysis. The target respondents were the bank managers and section heads. The research also used secondary data for the study. The data was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistical analyses. The study found that organizational culture, organization structure, corporate leadership and financial resources influenced implementation of project plans at commercial banks in Migori Town. Culturally, poor internalization of mission and strategic content, lack of participation in making of rules and regulations, lack of knowledge of content in operational manuals, insensitive employee development policies and highly structured downward communication effected employees’ mobilization to executing project plans. Organizational structures of the commercial banks influenced implementation of project plans. Management did not give employees required independence in performing their implementation duties. Also, authority was more centralized than decentralized, making employees wait for instructions from the top. In addition, spans of control were relatively big and difficult for efficient control. The long hierarchy derailed most of the essential decisions as information flow delayed to a large extent. This also contributed to weakening of employee synergy. Structurally, the commercial banks were more rigid than flexible as they hardly conducted reviewed regularly. The study concluded that internal culture that does not support ultimate realization of business objectives should be avoided by first ensuring that all employees are well inducted into their roles and space in service delivery. The research study recommended that experts are involved in regular reviews of adopted organizational structures. On leadership, it is recommended that top managers undergo executive capacity building sessions to come to realization that their corporate objectives are easily attained through team work and not through strict supervision and instructions. KeyTerms: corporate leadership, project management, project implementation, project plan, organizational culture