Strategic Leadership and Organizational Performance of Directorate of Criminal Investigations in Nairobi County, Kenya

Abstract

Performance of an organization relies on the strategic moves and direction that it makes. For all strategies formulated to work, the leadership itself must be strategic. The security sector in Kenya has been faced with a myriad of challenges ranging from low public confidence, poor leadership, incompetence, poor housing and other facilities, limited funding and above all poor strategy formulation and implementation. Strategic leadership is the leader's ability to anticipate, envision, maintain flexibility, and empower others to create strategic change as necessary. This general objective of this study was to establish the influence of strategic leadership on the organizational performance of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations in Nairobi City County, Kenya. The specific objectives of this study were to establish the influence of management competencies on organizational performance of the DCI, to examine the effect of corporate culture on organizational performance of the DCI, to establish the influence of shareholder involvement on organizational performance of the DCI and to determine the effect of ethical practices on performance of the DCI. The study was anchored on trait leadership theory, path-goal leadership theory and the transformation leadership theory. The study used descriptive research design. The target population of this study comprised the senior officers from the 10 units in the DCI in Nairobi City County who total to 141. Stratified random sampling was used to select the sample size of 42 which is 30 percent of the total study population. The study used both primary and secondary data. Primary data was collected using a semi structured questionnaire to be administered to the officers through drop and pick later method. Secondary data was obtained from the DCI strategic plans, records, annual reports and human resource data base. Data collected was analysed through descriptive and inferential statistics by the use of SPSS. Findings were presented by use of tables, frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviation. The study found that given the significance of significance of the variance (p-Value < 0.05) and F-Value is 44.283 and further supported by R-Square = 0.76, it was concluded that management competencies, corporate culture, stakeholder involvement, and ethical practices are all essential strategic leadership aspect that require complete adoption if performance of an organization has to improve to the desired level. Of particular importance to achieve this performance include professional trainings, staff capacity building, possession of exemplary skills and ability, service without fear or favour, and believing in delivery of quality service. The findings of the study will be useful to the security organs in the National Police Service and other security organs within the Republic of Kenya.