| dc.description.abstract | Performance of medical employees became a major concern all over the world during the
emergence of Covid-19 pandemic among others. Thus, it is paramount to assess
performance of medical employees and its determinants to improve on quality of service
offered and achieve organizational goals. Most referral hospitals in central region
economic bloc (CEREB) of Kenya are perceived to be suffering from low medical
employee performance which might be attributed to lack of strategic leadership abilities.
There is scarce literature on how strategic leadership is employed in hospitals and its
influence on performance of employees. This research aimed at establishing the influence
of strategic leadership (strategic communication, strategic agility, strategic alignment and
strategic direction) on medical employees’ performance in county referral hospitals in
CEREB, Kenya. Positivism paradigm was the guiding philosophy while convergent
parallel mixed methods design was employed in the study. The target population
comprised of 1804 medical employees from the 10-referral hospitals in central regional
economic bloc, Kenya. Stratified sampling and simple random sampling from the
probability sampling approach was used in getting 327 employees. This study used both
closed-ended and open-ended questionnaires. Validity and reliability of the research
instruments was tested using appropriate methods like piloting and expert knowledge for
validity while Cranbach’s Alpha coefficient was determined for reliability. Data was
analysed using descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages, means and
standard deviation. kurtosis, skewness and normality tests were carried out to ensure data
was amenable to analysis. Results showed that all the four components of strategic
leadership (strategic communication (β = 0.274, t =4.180, ρ = 0.000), strategic direction
(β = 0.232, t=3.258, ρ = 0.001), strategic agility (β = 0.201, t = 2.797, ρ = 0.001), strategic
alignment (β = 0.162, t= 2.470, ρ = 0.001) had significant and positive effect on medical
employees’ performance in county referral hospitals. Results also revealed that innovative
work behaviour significantly mediated the relationship between strategic leadership
aspects (strategic direction (β = 0.444, BootLLCI = 0.307, BootULCI = 0.598), strategic
alignment (β = 0.0432, BootLLCI = 0.003, BootULCI = 0.102) and strategic
communication (β = 0.0415, BootLLCI = 0.006, BootULCI = 0.088) and medical
employees’ performance in county referral hospitals. However, innovative work
behaviour had insignificant mediating influence on relationship between strategic agility
(β = 0.414, BootLLCI = 0.075, BootULCI = 0.598) and medical employees’ performance.
Therefore, hospital leaders should provide timely feedback, foster effective vertical
communication channels, ensure clarity of ideas and strategies, and utilize various
communication channels and technology for improvement of employee performance. The
hospitals should prioritize strategic agility by fostering flexibility in decision-making.
They should also foster a culture of innovation. Future studies could consider replicating
the study in different economic blocs in Kenya. | en_US |
