MANAGEMENT OF STRATEGIC CHANGE AT COUNTY GOVERNMENT OF VIHIGA, KENYA

The County Government of Vihiga, Kenya aligns its governance with a resonating change management strategy geared towards progressive socio-economic development. With the advent of devolution and county governments in Kenya in 2013, the efficient management of strategic changes has been a key area of focus.Implementing strategic change management at the County Government of Vihiga is vital for better performance in economic, health, education, and other sectors. It ensures flexibility and adaptability to continually changing circumstances, simultaneously maintaining transparency, accountability, and improved service delivery. However, as with any evolving system, strategic change management faces challenges in this county. This comprises resistance to change among employees, inadequate resources, and unstable political environment. The County Government of Vihiga must be committed to change leadership, capacity building, resource allocation, managing resistance to change, and creating an environment that facilitates continuous improvement.Reviewed studies have focused mainly on strategic change management in private institutions hence there is little empirical data on the application of strategic change management in public institutions, a gap this research aims to bridge. The specific objectives of the study are to establish change management practices adopted by Vihiga County Government,to determine challenges faced by Vihiga County Government in managing strategic change and to ascertain the measures Vihiga County Government has put in place to mitigate challenges of management of strategic change. The research was anchored on open systems theory, chaos and complexity theory and contingency theory. Primary data was collected by use of interview schedule and analysed through content analysis. The results revealed that the county uses various strategies for strategic change management which include employee participation, effective communication active leadership and training. Similarly, it was discovered that the notable challenges encountered in managing strategic change included employee resistance, middle management resistance due to perceived loss of power and poor resource allocation. The main mitigation measures that the county management used to mitigate these drawbacks encompassed the creation of strong synergy and management monitoring of the change implementation process. The study concludes thatCurrently Vihiga County Government has successfully navigated through the change management. It recommends that,there is need to introduce change in a humane way, and if need be, set a guiding and counselling office to enable employees to cope with the change.