Strategic Management Practices and Performance of State-Owned Corporations: A Study in National Housing Corporation, Kenya

Abstract

The study aimed to investigate the effect of strategic management practices on the performance of state-owned housing corporations, with a focus on the National Housing Corporation (NHC) in Kenya. The research sought to understand how various strategic management practices influenced the operational performance and overall effectiveness of the NHC. The study was anchored on the Resource-Based View (RBV) and the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) model. The research employed a mixed-methods approach, integrating both qualitative and quantitative techniques. A correlational research design was used to assess the relationships between strategic management practices and performance outcomes. The target population consisted of 630 individuals within the NHC, and a sample size of 245 participants was determined using Yamane's formula. A questionnaire was used to collect data which was anlysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings revealed that strategic management practices (strategic financial planning, land governance, building technology and house ownership process) had not been effectively embraced in the state-housing corporation. This was found to significantly affect performance of the corporation, thus the concluding that as a result of ineffective embrace of strategic management practices, the national housing corporation failed to effectively meet its mandates. It was therefore recommended that there is need for the management of the corporation to steadily embrace strategic management practices through effective strategic financial planning, embrace of modern building technologies and streamlining the house ownership process as a way of strengthening performance of the corporation.