STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP AND SERVICE DELIVERY IN AFRICAN CONTEXT

The general objective of the study was to determine whether ethical practices and organizational structure influence the relationship between strategic leadership and service delivery of County Governments in Kenya. The findings would aid the audit, review and strengthening of existing policies aimed at ensuring good ethical practices in public entities. The relevant theories reviewed for this study were the New Public Management (NPM) theoretical perspective, upper echelon theory, institutional theory and principal agent theory. This study used a positivism research philosophy. The study used a cross sectional survey. The target population for the study was drawn from the 47 Counties in Kenya as per 2010 constitution. The study used both primary and secondary data which were collected using questionnaires, interviews and desk review. Data analysis took place at two levels – descriptive statistics level and inferential statistics level. The study found that the entire hypothesis tested were statistically significant and thus supported by the study. It was therefore recommended that county governments must understand the service delivery dimensions in order to carry out frequent analysis and develop strategic leadership concepts relevant to their counties.