Abstract:
County Governments are mandated to design development plans which are
incorporated in the five-year strategic plans called County Integrated Development
Plans. However, many of these programmes are rarely integrated into the County
Government structure and systems. The main objective of the study was to establish the
influence of management support on strategy integration in County Governments in
Kenya. The specific objectives were to establish the influence of strategic leadership,
resource allocation, capacity building and employee involvement on strategies
integration in county governments in the County Government of Kirinyaga. Descriptive
survey design was adopted. The target population was 277 employees. The sample size
was 164 respondents. Primary data was collected using questionnaires while secondary
data was gathered through a review of documents, published journals and articles. Data
analysis was done using descriptive statistics, correlation and regression analysis. There
was a strong positive relationship between management support and strategies
integration in the county government as indicated by the coefficient (r = 0.872). The
coefficient of determination (r2 = 0.76) revealed that 76% of the variation in strategy
integration could be explained by management support. It was concluded that the level
of strategy integration in the county government is highly dependent on the level of
management support. Based on the research findings, we recommend that county
leadership should be focused on implementing the strategic goals as outlined in the
county integrated development plans without political disruptions. To meet the goals
enlisted in the county development plan, it is recommended that the county
governments in Kenya should invest on capacity building to enhance the efficiency of
their human resources, endeavor to adopt efficient strategic leadership and increase
employee involvement in the planning and execution of the county development plan.