Influence of Leadership on Electronic Commerce Strategy as Adopted by Commercial Banks in Kenya

Abstract

Over the past decades, the question of appropriate leadership paradigms and behaviours has received considerable attention. The way leader acts and behaves is said to directly affect company performance. Leadership is considered among key drivers of organizational performance. The world has shifted to the digital era where social and business structures are rapidly changed, and the trend of globalization forces all leaders to regularly learn more on what has changed and what is being changed. The main objective of this study was to analyze the influence of leadership on electronic-commerce strategy as adopted by commercial banks in Kenya. The general objective was operationalised by in-depth study of the following constructs; leadership performance, leadership pipeline, and middle management effectiveness. The study employed a descriptive survey research design. Self-administered questionnaire was distributed to management, supervisors, clerical and secretariat, and support staff randomly selected from the commercial banks that are sample respondent. The target population was 36,923, and the sample size of 384. The scope of the study targets was 43 commercial banks in Kenya. The quantitative data was analyzed by the use of statistical package for social scientists (SPSS). Result from the research findings indicates that different aspects of leadership influences electronic commerce strategy as adoption by commercial banks in Kenya in different directions and magnitude: Leadership Performance by 0.233, leadership pipeline by 0.009 and middle management effectiveness by 0.287. Commercial Banks embrace leadership performance and middle management effectiveness to achieve a higher level of electronic Commerce strategy adoption. Majority of commercial banks recognizes the importance of leadership development at all levels of the organization. The study recommends improved performance by middle management and leadership strategy alignment with the organization strategy. Future researchers to explore the influence of leadership on electronic commerce strategy as adopted by non- commercial banks, so as to support the generalization of the findings; and also, they can focus on the influence of other organizational capabilities.