ABSTRACT

Leadership skills have indisputably been known to influence performance in most successful firms globally. Strategic leadership practices in particular have been identified to facilitate organisations to perform effectively and efficiently in the turbulent and volatile business environment to a greater extent. Coffee farmers are concerned on how to revive the coffee sector due to the poor and untimely prices paid from the produce. The general objective of the study was to establish the effect of strategic leadership on performance of coffee cooperative societies in Nyeri County. The specific objectives of this study sought to determine visionary, transformational, transactional and situational aspects of strategic leadership on performance of coffee cooperative societies in Nyeri County. The study measured performance in relation to effective management practices and innovations in coffee cooperative societies in Nyeri County. The study focused on the path goal, the transformational the transactional and contingency leadership theories to evaluate literature related to strategic leadership. This study was conducted through explanatory and descriptive research designs. Stratified random sampling technique was used to select a sample size of fifty two (52) coffee cooperative societies management members. In this study, the population was grouped into various strata by sub counties in Nyeri County. The respondents were the management members who formulate the organization's goals and strategies, develop structures, processes, controls within the coffee cooperative societies of Nyeri County. Data was collected using questionnaires. Descriptive statistics and multiple regression were conducted with the help of SPSS software to analyze the data. Tables were used to present the data. Analysis showed that there is a strong positive correlation (r=0.794) between strategic leadership and performance of coffee cooperative societies in Nyeri County. About 63.1% of performance of coffee cooperative societies in Nyeri County can be explained by strategic leadership at 95% confidence level. The beta values in the model indicated that a unit change in visionary leadership would result in a 45% change in performance of coffee cooperative societies while a unit change in situational leadership would result in a 25.8% change in performance of coffee societies cooperative societies. Visionary leadership was the most important determinant of performance of coffee cooperative societies followed by transformational leadership, situational leadership and transactional leadership according to the beta values. The enhancement of performance of coffee cooperative societies is mainly seen through visionary leadership, transformational leadership, situational leadership and transactional leadership in that order. It was recommended that cooperative societies management should communicate key decisions to stakeholders more often and involve them greatly in decision making. The study also recommended that the cooperative societies management should introduce idea generation programs to enhance creativity at work. The study further recommended that the management of cooperative societies should enhance rewards for higher performers in order to instill motivation in stakeholders especially employees and also members of management committees should take courses in leadership skills to increase their ability to provide supportive leadership. The study concluded that strategic leadership affects performance of coffee cooperative societies in Nyeri County. Future studies should also seek to find out challenges faced by management committee members’ in executing strategic leadership.