Influence of strategic planning on Performance of public Universities in Kenya: The case of university of Nairobi

Corporate strategy is an essential management tool for achieving a firm’s \nperformance through strategic initiatives. Managers of firms must assess their firm’s \ncurrent competitive position, build a vision for where they must be in future, and craft \ntransformation strategy to turn the future vision into reality. The research design was \na case study. The areas of interest in this study were the various college departments, \nschools and institutes and also the central administration departments which form the \nintegral part of the University. Structured/unstructured interviews were used with \nsome open ended questions to allow for more in depth information to be obtained \nfrom the interviewees. The researcher used secondary data from various existing \npublications, both administrative and financial reports including government reports. \nThe unit of analysis for this study included central administration and college \ndepartments together with some institutes and schools. Data was analysed using \ncontent analysis because this study sought data that was qualitative in nature given \nthat it is a case study. \nThe study concludes that strategic planning (SP) had an effect on the performance of \nthe University of Nairobi (UoN). SP had led to overall improvement in various areas \nwhich included compliance with set budgetary levels, events within the UoN being \nopen to public, work environment, implementation of service delivery charter, \nresearch innovation and technology and outreach and extension \nactivities/programmes. The study further concludes that University of Nairobi was \nfaced with various challenges of SP. \nThe study recommends that in order for (UoN) to overcome the challenges of SP, \nthere is need for commitment to goals, more staff training, workshops on strategic \nplanning, increased financing, complete decentralization of operations, marketing of \nUoN’s programmes, committed and qualified human resource and increased \nparticipation and consultation of all stake holders