Organizational Resources and Strategy Implementation in Non-Profit Organizations; A Case of Kenya Medical Research Institute, Kenya

Abstract

Most NPOs in Kenya have not fully embraced the use of strategic plans due to the difficulties involved in development implementing of strategic plans. There are many factors that hamper implementation of strategic planning an organisation including inadequate financial resources, human resources, technological competences and organisational culture. The aim of the study was to determine the influence of organizational resources on Strategy Implementationin Non-Profit Organizations with a key focus on The Kenya Medical Research Institute Wellcome Trust Research Programme based in Kilifi County, Kenya. The specific objectives of the study were to examine influence of financial resources on strategic plan implementation, influence of human resources, and influence of technological competences on strategic plan implementation. The study was guided two theories, Resource Based View theory and Learning organisation theory. The research employed a descriptive survey research design. The study’s population was the management staff at KWTRP who were 60 according to the KWTRP (2018). Since the population was small, a census was adopted. The primary data was collected by use of self-administered semi-structured questionnaire. Data analysis was done by use of descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages, mean scores and standard deviation with the aid of SPSS and presented through tables, charts, graphs, frequencies and percentages. The study established that human resources, financial resources and technology competence had a positive and significant influence on the implementation of strategy at KWTRP. The study concluded that an organization’s workers important assets as they consistently contribute to an organization’s efficient functioning. That proper allocation of financial resources allows managers to put together more productive and efficient workplace teams and enables them to assess their schedules and predict the availability of resources in real time effectively and that technology competence lies in its ability to streamline interaction both internally and externally. One of the essential benefits of software expertise is its potential by promoting strategic thinking and knowledge transfer to improve the competitive advantage of an organization in the marketplace. The study recommends that the organisation incorporate top-down and bottom-up plan development on human resources in order to gain input from the lower management tier and involve workers in formulating strategies in order to significantly increase their contribution to executing a strategy. The study advises that the leadership of the institute should provide enough financial resources to execute strategies effectively. For each assignment within the plan, periodic cost estimates are important so that the use of financial resources can be made as efficiently as possible. On technology competence, the study suggests that management should seek more support for technical ways of executing strategies by having clear and articulated career paths for their staff, leave room for improvement to ensure cohesion of efforts in support of the implementation of the strategy. Similar studies should be carried out in private and public organizations since this study only focussed on non-profit organizations.