Strategic Leadership Practices on Performance of Charitable Ambulance Services in Nairobi City County, Kenya

Abstract

There is no doubt that charitable organizations are critical contributors in the provision of essential services of public interest. In the recent past, the number of people contributing to charity has been reducing due to lack of financial accountability and performance concerns. The environment these organizations operate, therefore calls for leaders who will come up with radical new ideas that will enable them re-invent their organizations to perform. The study sought to find out how strategic leadership impact performance of Charitable Ambulance Services in Nairobi City County. Study objective was to examine the outcome of strategic direction, operational efficacy, human capital development, and strategic control on the performance of charitable Ambulance service organizations in Nairobi City County. The researcher used resource-based view, upper echelon and contingency theories to anchor the study on the outcome of strategic leadership practices on organizational performance. Descriptive design research was used by the researcher. Target population comprised of 144 Managers and staff, a sample of 130 responded giving a response rate of 90.28%. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS software using descriptive statistics to infer to the data and connection between independent and depend variable were found using multiple regression. Pilot study was done to pretest the questionnaire. The study results show that strategic direction correlate with performance up to 22.3% which is a weak positive correlation with organizational performance. A unit change in strategic direction yields 0.171 positive changes on performance of charitable ambulance services in Nairobi County. Operational efficacy correlates with performance up to 63.4% which is a strong positive correlation. A unit change in operational efficacy yields 0.735 positive changes on performance. Human capital development correlates with performance up to 49.7% which is an average positive correlation. A unit change in human capital development yields 0.422 positive changes on performance. Strategic control correlates with performance up to 47.6% which is an average positive correlation. A unit change in strategic control yields 0.270 positive changes on performance. The Overall, analysis showed that strategic leadership practices correlate with organizational performance of charitable ambulance services up to 69.3% which is a strong positive correlation. A unit change yields 0.108 negative change in strategic direction, 0.599 positive change in operational efficacy, 0.120 positive change in human resources development and 0.135 positive change in strategic control. This change is statistically significant, meaning that strategic direction, operational efficacy, human resource development and strategic control influence on organizational performance significantly. The study recommends replication of the study using the same variable with other sectors. The study informs the strategic leadership practice in academia, students in strategic management will use the variables used in this study to study the different sectors contributing to academia. The outcome of the study is valuable to charitable ambulance service organizations as it will inform the strategic leadership practices and their influence on organizational performance.