Influence Of Strategy Control And Evaluation On Improvement Of Performance Management Practices By Principals Of Public Secondary Schools, Nyamira County, Kenya

Abstract

Abstract: Strategic planning in educational institutions, just like in many successful organizations in the world today has become a very crucial tool that is used to improve performance based management to ensure survival and competitive advantage, and presently, educational institutions too have embraced strategic planning to improve performance management practices. In the process of using strategic planning as a tool for improving performance, strategy control and evaluation is very important to ensure effective implementation and to gauge if progresses made towards the achievements of strategic goals and objectives are on track. This purpose of this study was to examine if the Principals had employed effective control measures and evaluated the progresses made on strategy designs and structures initiated to improve performance management practices in public secondary schools in Nyamira County, Kenya. The study used descriptive survey design with a total of 225 subjects. Stratified sampling was used to group the subjects while simple random sampling was used to select the participants from each stratum. Purposive sampling was used to select the Principals and Deputies while Slovin formula was used to select the HODs. Questionnaires were used for collecting data from the Principals, Deputy Principals and HODs,. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 22.0 was used to analyze quantitative data. The findings of the study revealed that most of the Principals did not employ effective strategic plan control and evaluation and this affected improvement in performance management practices. Lack of effective control and evaluation of strategic designs and structures was therefore an impediment to the achievement of the desired standards in performance practices. The study recommended that there is need for Principals to put appropriate modalities in place to ensure there is effective control of strategy designs and decisions and enforce performance measurements processes to gauge the levels of achievements made in relation to strategic planning. Keywords: Influence, Strategic planning, Strategy control, evaluation, Improvement, Performance, Management, Practices, Public secondary schools.