STRATEGIC INTENT AND ITS IMPACT ON ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE OF ELECTRONIC MEDIA IN KENYA: AN EMPIRICAL REVIEW
Moses Ochieng’ Obonyo - Business Student (Strategic Management), Kenyatta University, Kenya
ABSTRACT
In defining strategy, Porter (1996) states that; strategy is the creation of a unique and valuable position, involving a different set of activities. The essence of strategic positioning is to choose activities that yield superior profitability because they are different from rivals’ and thus create a sustainable competitive advantage. This study was on strategic intent and organizational performance in the media industry. The purpose was to identify how strategic intent and its dimensions relate with organizational performance. These dimensions include, mission, vision and objectives are widely identified as avenues of expressing strategic intent (Brand, 2010). In Kenya, the media is a diverse and vibrant industry. The media has though been facing and is still facing an uncertain future as a result of the dynamism in the sector. Some of the players in electronic media include; Royal Media Services limited which is the one with the largest footprint in Kenya, Radio Africa, Nation Media Group, Standard Media Group, Mediamax Group among others (KARF, 2018). The study was undertaken through comprehensive literature review from the following secondary data sources: scholarly journals, theses and dissertations, government documents, papers presented at conferences, books, references quoted in books, international indices, abstracts, periodicals among others. This study looked at strategic intent, its implementation and the corresponding organizational performance in the electronic media industry in Kenya. From the study, it is concluded that strategic intent is an obsession for winning that undermines limitations imposed by available resources and capabilities. More specifically, strategic intent is defined as management’s vision of the firm that creates a misfit between current resources and future ambition (Hamel, G & Prahalad, 1989). Strategic intent involves statement of direction and intention. And the means by which organization largely expresses its intention are mission, vision and objective statements. Therefore, to confirm the existence of strategic intention would most likely require examine these statements. In the literature, mission, vision and objectives are widely identified as avenues of expressing strategic intent (Brand, 2010). Dimensions of strategic intent include: Organizational vision, Organizational mission and Organizational objectives. Further descriptive studies are however needed to be undertaken in order to ascertain whether the highlighted dimensions of strategic intent are evident in the electronic media industry in Kenya.
