Mark Final Project 2016

THE INFLUENCE OF FOCUSED STRATEGY ON SERVICE DELIVERY: A
CASE STUDY OF POSTAL CORPORATION OF KENYA
MARK OLIVAH INYANGALA
13S03EMBA012
AN APPLIED RESEARCH PROJECT SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL
FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF MASTER
OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION DEGREE IN THE BUSINESS SCHOOL
OF AFRICA NAZARENE UNIVERSITY
SEPTEMBER 2016

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DECLARATION
STUDENT’S DECLARATION
I declare that this applied research project is my original work and that it has not been
presented in any other University for academic credit
Signature: -------------------------------------------------------- Date: ------------------------------
Name of student: Mark Olivah
SUPERVISOR’S DECLARATION
I confirm that the work reported in this applied research project was carried out by the
candidate under my supervision
Signature: --------------------------------------------------- Date: ---------------------------------
Name of supervisor: Dr. Ndung’u Kabare
AFRICA NAZARENE UNIVERSITY,
NAIROBI, KENYA

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DEDICATION
I dedicate this research project to my darling wife, Mrs. Anne Wanjiru Olivah who has
been my source of inspiration and my son and daughter Jahzeal Olivah and Mataniah
Olivah. They have formed a strong pillar of support, determination and encouragement
from the onset and all through to the completion of this project. This research wouldn’t
be this successful without their love, care, support and sacrifice.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION ............................................................................................................. iii
DEDICATION.................................................................................................................iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS..................................................................................................v
ABSTRACT................................................................................................................... viii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT................................................................................................ix
LIST OF TABLES............................................................................................................x
LIST OF FIGURES.........................................................................................................xi
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.......................................................................................... xii
DEFINITION OF TERMS............................................................................................. xiii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ANDBACKGROUND TO THE STUDY...............1
1.1 Introduction.............................................................................................................1
1.2 Background to the Study ..........................................................................................1
1.2.1 Postal Corporation of Kenya..............................................................................3
1.3 Statement of the Problem .........................................................................................5
1.4 Research Objectives.................................................................................................7
1.4.1 The General Objective ......................................................................................7
1.4.2 Specific Objectives ...........................................................................................7
1.5 Research Questions..................................................................................................7
1.6 Research Hypothesis ................................................................................................8
1.7 Significance of the Study..........................................................................................8
1.8 Scope of the study....................................................................................................9
1.9 Limitations of the Study ...........................................................................................9
1.10 Delimitations of the Study ......................................................................................10
1.11 Conceptual Framework ..........................................................................................10
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................13
2.1 Introduction...........................................................................................................13
2.2 Theoretical Review ................................................................................................13
2.2.1 Contingency Theory and the Mechanization of Mail Processing ........................13
2.2.2 The Resource Based View Theory...................................................................16
2.2.3 Profit-Maximizing and Competition-Based Theory...........................................17
2.3 Empirical Literature Review...................................................................................18

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2.4 Summary of the reviewed Literature .......................................................................38
2.5 Knowledge Gaps....................................................................................................39
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY...........................41
3.1 Introduction...........................................................................................................41
3.2 Research Design ....................................................................................................41
3.3 Research site and rationale .....................................................................................42
3.4 Target Population ..................................................................................................42
3.5 Sampling Procedure...............................................................................................43
3.6 Sample size ...........................................................................................................43
3.7 Data Collection Procedures.....................................................................................44
3.8 Research Instrument...............................................................................................44
3.8.1 Piloting of Research Instrument.......................................................................45
3.8.2 Validity of Findings ........................................................................................45
3.8.3 Reliability of Research Instrument...................................................................45
3.8.4 Data Analysis and Presentation........................................................................46
3.9 Ethical considerations ............................................................................................46
CHAPTER FOUR: DATA ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION OF FINDINGS...........47
4.1 Introduction...........................................................................................................47
4.2 Response Rate.......................................................................................................47
4.2.1 Level of Management ............................................................................................47
4.3 Demographic Considerations ..................................................................................48
4.4 Data Analysis and Presentation...............................................................................49
4.4.1 The Influence of Organizational Learning on service Delivery..................................49
4.4.1.1 Positive Feedback Structures...........................................................................49
4.4.1.2 Reduced lag Time...........................................................................................52
4.4.1.3 Hypothesis Testing .........................................................................................55
4.4.1.4 Customer Focus..............................................................................................56
4.4.2 The Influence of Corporate Strategies .....................................................................60
4.4.3 The Influence of Technological Focus.....................................................................63

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CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, DISCUSSION, CONCLUSION AND
RECOMMENDATIONS.................................................................................................66
5.1 Introduction...........................................................................................................66
5.2 Summary of Major Study Findings..........................................................................66
5.3 Discussion of the Study Findings ............................................................................67
5.3.1 The Influence of Organizational Learning on Service Delivery at PCK ..............67
5.1.1 The Influence of Customer Focus on Service Delivery at PCK ..........................68
5.1.2 The Influence of Corporate Strategy on Service Delivery at PCK.......................68
5.1.3 The Influence of Technological Focus on Service Delivery at PCK....................69
5.4 Conclusion ............................................................................................................69
5.5 Recommendations..................................................................................................71
5.6 Areas for Further Studies........................................................................................72
REFERENCES.................................................................................................................73
APPENDICES..................................................................................................................80
APPENDIX I: INTRODUCTION LETTER .......................................................................80
APPENDIX II: RESEARCH QUESTIONNAIRE...............................................................81
APPENDIX IV: NACOSTI RESEARCH AUTHORISATION............................................89
APPENDIX V: NACOSTI RESEARCH PERMIT..............................................................90

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ABSTRACT
Kenya has experienced one of the most tremendous growths in the mailing industry in the
last ten years in its history with the number of registered players in the same market
industry hitting the one hundred and fifty mark by June 2013. The same growth was also
visible in the use of mobile phone with the industry recording the subscription levels of
16,000,000 while the internet penetration levels hitting an estimated 33.3 %. These
factors have made the postal mailing industry quite competitive. For courier and mail
services the critical strategy is to meet the postal strategic initiative in the 21st Century,
by initiating the Postal Corporation of Kenya growth and its competitiveness within the
communication industry. Thus, the main purpose of this research was to investigate the
influence of strategic focus at Postal Corporation of Kenya. The specific objectives of the
study included: establishing the influence of organizational learning; determining the
influence of customer focus; establishing influence of organizational core values on
service delivery as well as determine the influence of technology on the service delivery
at the Postal Corporation of Kenya. The study was anchored upon profit maximizing and
Competition based theory, theory of economic development and contingency theory. This
study sought to establish how the focused strategies have influenced the service delivery
at the Postal Corporation in the light of increased competition and the constant change in
the technology that has affected how most of the services if not all are operating. The
study sampled 53 respondents from population of 132 staff members. Primary data was
collected through administration of an interview guide. The data collected was mainly
quantitative in nature hence content analysis was the best method of analysis as it was not
limiting the respondents on answers and had the potential of generating more detailed
information. Descriptive statistics such as means, cumulative frequencies and Chi-square
cross tabulation were used in analyzing the data. Chi-square cross tabulation was
computed to establish the level of significance between the study variables. The study
found out that there are mechanisms in place for collecting stakeholders’ feedback that
forms the basis for strategic reviews thus improving service delivery and introducing new
and customized services and product as per the changing times, tastes and preferences.
The data was presented in form of tables, pie charts, graphs and narrative report. The
study recommends that the respective management board that ensures that the PCK
adapts to the changing technology constantly upgrades the servers to enable it handle the
increasing customer base efficiently. The study also recommends that the strategic plan
should be made accessible to the relevant stake holders for assessment and contributions.
This study is very significant to Postal Corporation of Kenya by giving it an in depth
understanding on how it can restructure its Strategic plan and remain a force to recon
with in the mailing industry despite the constant pressure from the competitors. The study
is also significant to future scholars who will use it as a reference point in their studies.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I wish to take this opportunity to thank the Almighty God for giving me the chance,
grace, health, strength, care, protection and the ability to undertake this research. I wish
to express my heartfelt gratitude to the late Dr. Jecinta Mwaura and my current
supervisor Dr. Ndung’u Kabare for their guidance, corrections and suggestions
throughout the project, without which I would not have been able to complete this project
successfully. I extend my gratefulness to all my friends and relatives for their moral
support and encouragement that has helped me to complete this project.
I wish to recognize the Africa Nazarene University MBA department for it tireless
support towards my project writing and for organizing various research talks that has
enable me grow my research writing skills. I extend my heart most appreciation to the
entire African Nazarene fraternity for giving me a platform to grow in various fields,
career wise and also equipped me with skills to operate in the market place.

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LIST OF TABLES
Table 2:1 Four Organizational Learning Processes.…………….…………..…..…….…23
Table 3.2 Target Population………………………………………..……………..…...…42
Table 3.3 Sample Selection….………………………………………………………..….43
Table 4.1 Classification of Respondents in Level of Management…………………..….47
Table 4.2 Gender Distribution………………………………….…..……………………48
Table 4.3 Year of service for Respondent…………………….…..………..……………48
Table 4.4 There are Loyal and Repeat Customers…..……….…………………...…….52
Table 4.5 New Customers Come as a Result of Referral …………….…………….…...53
Table 4.6 Relationship between Organizational Learning and Quality Service Delivery.55
Table 4.7 Correlation between Feedback Structures and Increase Number of Repeat
Customers………………………………………………………………………………..56
Table 4.8 Relationship between Employee Development and Timeliness….…….…….59
Table 4.9 Relationship between Employee Development and Product Mix…..…..…….59
Table 4.10 Relationship between Employee Development and Timely services to a
Customer…………………………………………………………………………………59
Table 4.11 Frequencies of Adherence to Core Values, Clear Strategies and Open
Information Policy…………………………………………………………………….…61
Table 4.12 Relationship between Corporate Strategies Products Diversification….…...62
Table 4.13 Relationship between Corporate Strategy and Strategic Reviews……….......63
Table 4.14 Correlation Employee’s Development and the Bew Customers Come as a
Result of Referral……………………………………………………..…………….……63
Table 4.15 Influence of ICT Management Boards and Increased Online Services..…….65

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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1.1 Conceptual Framework……….……………..……………………….………11
Figure 4.1 Mechanism in Place for Feedback……….……………..……………………49
Figure 4.2 Systems to Track Parcels and Notify Customers….…………………………50
Figure 4.3 Basis for Strategic Reviews and other Action Plan.…………………………51
Figure 4.4 Customers Have Range of Products to Select From….….………..….……...53
Figure 4.5 There is Proper Mechanism for Internal Control…….……………....………54
Figure 4.6 Product Development……….………………………………………………..57
Figure 4.7 Strategies of Customer Focus…….……………………………………….….58
Figure 4.8 Knowledge on PCK Visions and Mission………………...…………….……61
Figure 4.9 Frequencies of Services Done Online at PCK………….…………………….64

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
APMGs: Assistant Postmasters General
CAK: Communication Authority of Kenya
CEO: Chief Executive Officer
DHL: Dalsey, Hillblom & Lynn
E2E: End to End
IT: Information Technology
KPTC: Kenya Posts and Telecommunication Corporation
Kshs: Kenya Shillings
MPLSM: Multiple Position Letter Sorting Machine
NACOSTI: National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation
OCR: Optical Character Reader
PCK: Postal Corporation of Kenya
PMG: Postmaster General
POD: Post Office Department
UPS: Universal Parcel Service

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DEFINITION OF TERMS
Core values - The Core values are the fundamental rules by which the Commission
wants to conduct “business” (Marvasti, (2000).
Mission is the purpose for which the Commission or department exists based on the
circular on organization of government, statutes of parliament and mandate (Milewa,
2010).
Pilot study is a trial version run done to prepare for the complete research study.
Piloting study is also known as the feasibility study. It can also be a specific pretesting
of research instruments, entailing some questionnaires or the interview schedules
(Kariuki, 2008).
Service delivery is a continuous, cyclic process for developing and delivering user
focused services (Andrews, 1999).
Strategic change is the process of an organization to align with the dynamics of its
external and internal environment over time (Van de Ven & Poole, 1995).
Strategic focus is a process that entails marketing strategy by which a company
concentrates more of its resources on entering new market or trying to expand in a
narrow market segment (Mintzberg, 1999).
Strategic planning is the process of determining the long term and short term goals of an
organization and the identifying the best courses of actions to be adopted and allocating
the necessary resources to carry out these goals effectively (Brown, 2016).

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Vision -The Communication Authority of Kenya strategic plan 2008-2013 defined Vision
as a vibrant and compelling image of the desired future state of the organization (Kimani,
2009).

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CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
1.1 Introduction
This chapter contains the background of the study which is exploring the shift from
management to strategic management, relationship between strategy and structure and a
brief description of Postal Corporation of Kenya. It looks at the problem statement,
research questions, research objectives, significance of the study, limitations and
delimitations of the study and scope of the study.
1.2 Background to the Study
Strategic management is a very wide field that has kept on evolving overtime. Ansoff
(2013) argued that strategic management involves coordinating various management
functions to one direction or goal. He also stressed that inter communication should be
structured in a way that allows both top to bottom and bottom to top information flow for
feedback and corrections. This involves identifying and matching the strength and
weakness to opportunities and threats to allow an organization perform optimally
(Barney, 2001). Strategic management as a discipline offers diverse routes that allow for
organizational restructuring and reorganization (Mahoney & Pandian, 1992).
Thompson, Strickland and Gamble (2007) tried to differentiate strategy from immediate
actions with resources at hand to fire fight an immediate challenge which is most often
rehearsed. He also looked at strategy as a long term plan of action that is put in place to
achieve a particular objective. Strategy is viewed as a deliberate move to search for an
effective plan of action that places an organization to be at a competitive advantage
compared to the other competitors in the industry. The search is an iterative process in
any organization that begins with recognizing of where you are or your current state and

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the resources at hand that can be easily mobilized. The key differences between an
organization and its key rivalry are the basis of its strategic advantage. When a
corporation has penetrated well in to its market and is well established then this gives it
some sought of advantage in the industry, no matter how small this is. The key concern
now becomes identifying strategies to enlarge the scope of this advantages which
definitely happen at the expense of other firm’s (Clayton, 1997).
Biggart (2015) looked at strategy and its relationship to structure arguing that structure
follows strategy and the strategy has to fit in the internal dynamics of the organization.
He added that strategic management is the long term goals of a firm and the adoption of
the strategic courses of action as well as the strategic allocation of the available
organizational resources necessary for carrying out these very goals effectively.
Schumpeter (1996) shed more light on the relationship between strategy and the existing
environment by putting more emphasis on how companies come up with very great
focused strategies but do very little on evaluating how these strategies impact on their
overall service delivery. Globally Postal Corporation plays a very significant role in the
economy. It is a saving vehicle for the poor in that it addresses the problem of inadequate
savings for retirement with myRA, a savings system deducted from paychecks that earns
a modest rate of return without risk of loss. It formed the better way of delivering federal
benefits that could be loaded into Postal ATM Cards at no additional cost, saving the
government and beneficiary’s money. All in all Postal services helps in reducing
inequality and boosting the economy through the inclusion for low-income Americans to
access banking facility which is a critical component of our modern society (Schumpeter,
1996).

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1.2.1 Postal Corporation of Kenya
Most organizations in the world today invest so much in improving their service delivery
to their customers. Most companies attribute their key success to the improvement of how
they are delivering their service and bad leadership as the major contributor to low
quality service delivery in the African continent (Huduma Kenya, 2013). The Postal
Corporation of Kenya is a government Parastatal created by Postal Corporation Act 1998,
after the split of KPTC into three separate entities. Kenya Posts and Telecommunications
Corporation split into three entities on 1st July 1999 namely Postal Corporation of Kenya
(PCK), Telkom Kenya and Communication Authority of Kenya (CAK). Postal
Corporation of Kenya (PCK) was mandated to offer mail and other financial services,
while Telkom Kenya was tasked with offering Telecommunication or phone call services,
and Communication Authority of Kenya (CAK) was given powers to be the regulatory
body. This saw the liberalization of the industry with more players being registered to
come on board and offer Postal and communication services. Currently there are over
ninety six different companies offering mail services and to be precise courier and parcel
that have been registered by the Communications Commissions of Kenya, the official
regulatory body in Kenya (PCK, 2009).
With the liberalization of the industry, PCK suddenly found itself in the intensive deep
waters of competition in the industry it had been monopolizing. PCK’s operation was
centered on the conveyance of handwritten mails throughout the country. However, as
new technology was adopted, gradually, the use of old communication services such as
letters and public telephone booths became outdated. The inception of the internet made
communication fast regardless of physical location. According to a report by Kimani

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(2009) very few people sent letters and the introduction of mobile phones made the
telephone booths unappealing and undesirable .As a result, PCK inevitably had to go
through the turnaround process least its own existence as a business operator ceased
(PCK, 2013). In 2003, the parastatal engineered major restructuring process that were
geared towards the transform the entire company, they scanned their business
environment both internally and externally and put in place the implementation strategies
through human resource planning that would give them an upper hand in responding
effectively to the market dynamics. These key focused strategic initiatives were captured
in PCK strategic (PCK, 2013).
In line with the corporation’s community service duty and the universal service
obligation towards the provision of cost effective, attractive, accessible , and consumer
reliable postal services to all the citizens local residents, PCK has devised a number of
focused Strategies to enable it achieve a cost advantage over its competitors. This
includes reconfiguring their value chain by shifting to e-business technologies,
simplifying product design and offering no frills service. They also shifted their focus
from more capital intensive, un-streamlined and rigid technological processes, and
adopted use low cost raw materials as well as component parts. In addition to these, they
also relocated most of their facilities closer to their key suppliers. They also went ahead
to re-engineer some of their key business and work process so as to remove the
unnecessary activities and cut out low value added customer processes through setting
up of Huduma centers country wide (PCK, 2013). PCP still has a significant effect on the
economy. Every organization needs a physical postal address which becomes part of its
business address location. In most of the rural part of this country has very poor internet

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connection is and thus PCK plays a great role in such areas in boosting their economic
activities and link them to the rest of the world through setting up Huduma centers.
1.3 Statement of the Problem
Since the formation of this government owned Postal Corporation of Kenya, the
customers who happen to be Kenyan citizens have yearned to obtain quality services
from this critical organization that was once a monopoly. A rapid change in the industry
has been of great concern for both the academic and practitioners who are keen on
strategic management literature (Eisenhardt, 2002). The concept of strategic focus on
service delivery potentially impacts every aspect of how the corporation in question
conducts business. The noticeable characteristic of most fast paced industries includes
rapid product changes, product diversification, changes in process technologies, keen
observation and identification of competitor’s possible strategic actions to be taken. This
makes it so difficult to come up with most efficient, sustainable and effective competitive
advantage (Fines, 1998; Williams, 1994).
For any organization to survive in these fast paced industries, the company needs to be
quick in adopting some flexibility in its strategic actions (Eisenhardt, 1999). The business
of Postal Corporation of Kenya has faced with very stiff pressure from both the internal
and external environment in the last five years. This has necessitated reassessing of the
overall strategic business direction that PCK had previously embarked on. In that regard,
the PCK Board and management has decided to implement a structured and focused turn
around approach within its five-year corporate strategic plan. The turnaround approach
will allow PCK to address the key challenges which include: the inability to meet its key
financial targets as well as make good returns from its products, the increasing expenses

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on wage bills resulting from staff who are being underutilized due to duplicated roles, the
underperforming of its key revenue generating units and the dynamics of an ever
changing market situation.
In most Postal corporation stations, customer service delivery has been identified as a key
obstacle towards the realization of organization’s strategic goal. The process of customer
service delivery has been characterized by delay in response to customer complaints, and
offering of outdated or obsolete products. The Communication Commission of Kenya
warned PCK that if it doesn’t strategically focus on modernizing most of its services
through the eyes of its customers it may be overtaken by its competitors. According to the
statistics by Tonui, (2013) PCK has lost a good chunk of their market share in the courier
sector to their key competitors who have come out very strong and now control the over
Ksh 3.3 billion (43 million uses Dollars) courier industry of which not long ago they were
the underdogs while PCK was the monopoly in that business. Several studies such as;
Strategies adopted by postal corporation of Kenya to gain competitive advantage in the
mail sub sector in Kenya by Kimani (2009), Competitive strategies adopted by the postal
corporation of Kenya by (Milewa, 2010), and attraction and retention of employees at
postal corporation of Kenya by (Tonui, 2013) have all been carried out in the field of
strategic focus at the PCK but to the best knowledge of the researcher, no research has
been conducted on the influence of strategic focus on service delivery at the PCK. This
clearly shows a gap which this study seeks to fill by finding out the influence of Strategic
focus on service delivery at the Postal Corporation of Kenya.

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1.4 Research Objectives
This study consists of both general and specific objectives. The researcher looked on the
following general objective which has been broken further into specific objectives and
General objectives.
1.4.1 The General Objective
This study endeavored to find out the influence of Strategic focus on the service delivery
at Postal Corporation of Kenya. The researcher has identified four key specific objectives
that he will be focusing on.
1.4.2 Specific Objectives
i. To establish the influence of organizational learning on service delivery at the
Postal Corporation of Kenya.
ii. To determine the influence of customer focus on service delivery at the Postal
Corporation of Kenya.
iii. To establish the influences of corporate strategies on service delivery at Postal
iv. To assess the influence of technological focus on service delivery at the Postal
1.5 Research Questions
i. What role does organizational learning play on service delivery at Postal
Corporation of Kenya?
ii. How does customer focus influence service delivery at Postal Corporation of
Kenya?

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iii. What is the relationship between organizational standards and service delivery at
Postal Corporation of Kenya?
iv. To what extent does Technological focus influence service delivery at the Postal
Corporation of Kenya?
1.6 Research Hypothesis
The study tested the following hypothesis
H01: There is a positive significant relationship between organizational learning and
service delivery at PCK.
H02: There is a positive significant relationship between customer focus on service
delivery at PCK.
H03: There is a positive significant relationship between corporate strategies and service
delivery at PCK
H04: There is a positive significant relationship between technological focus and service
delivery at PCK
1.7 Significance of the Study
This study is important in many ways. The study documents the strategies adopted at the
PCK and how they are influencing and impacting the service delivery. Customer service
delivery is a strategic issue that plays a major role towards determination of the state
corporation’s performance. The level of the achieved customer satisfaction is a strategic
measure of the efficiency and effectiveness of organizations customer delivery process.
The study adds value to strategic policy making debate in the public sector. The Postal
Corporation will be benefiting greatly from this review. The researcher has shown how
corporations strategically focus in implementing their service delivery strategies and
come up with progressive reforms and the impacts of this service oriented strategies to

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overall organizational performance considering all the players in the industry involved in
this process.
The researcher has identified the areas that need to adopt organizational learning, how
they can restructure their mandate and actualize their core values better. The researcher
also identified the stake holders involved in this process and the role played by each
stakeholder in the strategy formulation process. The process of monitoring and evaluating
was necessary in identifying when change is needed and if there is a match or a gap
between actual results and expected outcomes. This study will also be of good use to
other key licensed players in the courier operation industry. The researcher has also
shown how strategic management can be used as a tool to build a successful business that
is very competitive in the industry. This study will be used as reference points for other
studies in the area of strategic management by other researchers and scholars.
1.8 Scope of the study
The study looked at the influences of focused strategies on service delivery at the Postal
Corporation of Kenya in order to gain a competitive edge. The research focused on the
corporate level of management; Business level and operational level of management
where the key decisions strategy are made. The research was held at the headquarters
office in Nairobi.
1.9 Limitations of the Study
The organizations confidentiality policy in most organization PCK included was binding
most of the respondents to answer some questions in a particular way for fear of
victimization. To overcome this, the researcher assured the confidentiality of the

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information that was provided as well as presented the introductory letter obtained from
the university and the research permit. The other limitations included limited time and the
technical aspect of the study which did not permit in-depth, thorough analysis and
understanding of all the variables involved in the study. Times constraints lead to
unavailability of interviewees due to their busy schedules and strict working hours. The
researcher drafted a work plan that factored in all the available flexi-times to meet with
the respondents. The other strategies were leaving the questionnaires behind and
collecting them at a designated time. There are over sixty one head post offices, four
hundred and eighteen departmental offices and three hundred ninety two sub post offices,
implying that the study population is extremely big. The researcher overcame this
through sampling the headquarters which would give a representation of the whole
population.
1.10 Delimitations of the Study
All the senior managers are located at the head office in Nairobi thus being the crucial
decision makers. All the other satellite PCK branches directly depend on the decisions
made at the head office in Nairobi. This informed the researcher to restrict the research to
head office in Nairobi where the key decision makers are situated and due to this the
researcher administered the questionnaire to the Headquarters office in Nairobi.
1.11 Conceptual Framework
A conceptual frame work can be defined as a set of principles or broad ideas pulled from
the fields of investigation or research that can be used in structuring the subsequent
presentation (Orodho, 2003). It is structured with theories and concepts which are pulled

11
together as a guide or roadmap for the study clearly showing the existing relationship of
research variables (Orodho, 2003).
Independent variables Dependent Variable
Figure 1.1: Conceptual Framework
Source: Researcher (2016)
The study sought to establish how past information in relation to organizational learning
has been used to improve customer services delivery and their satisfaction as well as
improvement of time deliveries and customer initiated product diversifications. The
researcher sought to understand how product development and differentiation is done at
Customer focus
 Product development
 Employee development on
customer relation
 Quality assurance
Service Delivery
 Increased number of
repeat customers
 Increase of new
products (product
mix) in the market
 Increased online
services
 Reduced time taken
per customers
 Product
differentiation
 Timeliness
 Quality

Corporate Strategies
 Vision
 Mission
 Core values
 Strategic plan
Technological Focus
 Marketing
 Payments
 Purchases
Organizational learning
 Feedback structures
 Reduced lag times
 Efficiency and increased
productivity

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the PCK, how are the employee developments in relation to customer relation done as
well as mechanisms put in place for quality assurance and management
The research also sought to establish how the PCK’s vision, missions, core values and
strategic plan is influencing the overall goal and service delivery to its customers. The
research sought to understand how the technological changes have influenced the service
delivery at PCK and how they have adopted the new technology by the number of
services offered online.

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CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction
This chapter contains the literature review of the stated research topic. It covers the
contingency theory and the mechanization of mail processing, the resource based view
and profit maximization and competition based theories. It goes further to look at several
empirical studies. In general, it illustrates the theoretical framework reviews, empirical
reviews, summary of literature reviewed and the research gap.
2.2 Theoretical Review
The early theorists on the concept of strategic focus argued that service delivery
strategies are advents of strategic reorientations of the firms as the sole approach to the
recovery of the declining firms (Hammer & Champy, 1993). On the sideline, empirical
studies have indicated the association of successful turnarounds with cutback actions that
ensure improved firm performance by increasing efficiency within the corporations.
Ideally, there is a vivid gap in the information when collated with respect to the two
points of view (Hammer & Champy, 1993). The study therefore seeks to employ
Contingency theory; Resource based view theory and the Profit Maximizing and
Competition based Theory.
2.2.1 Contingency Theory and the Mechanization of Mail Processing
This theory is of the idea that for any given organization there is no one best approaches
of management. This now calls for Organizations to develop their own customized
managerial strategies depending on their own situation at hand. There is a great need to
implement the various strategies in phases at the PCK and ensure that each
implementation phase is done in good time monitored and evaluated after some time

14
following the full PCK sector reforms. These can be done well by setting up emergent
strategies and both short and long term planned strategies (Kimani, 2009).
The PCK however is a state owned Corporation of Kenya that is hard hit by the waves of
change in the industry, and with specific reference to the strategic focus in corporate
service delivery (Kariuki, 2008). PCK is a parastatal that utilizes its limited resources to
offer crucial services to the citizens and accrue profits that are reinvested in the firm or
given out as dividends to the Government of Kenya the sole shareholder. PCK serves the
local and international market as it competes with other players in the market to offer
core postal services such as mail, financial, agency and courier services. PCK products
and services constitute majorly on the corporation business which includes company
letters, philatelic materials parcel, cargo, courier, postal financial services, deposit and
payment agency services. It however retains a monopoly in postal rental boxes and mails
weighing less than three hundred fifty grams in an attempt to help it offer universal Postal
services and still be commercially viable. Other players are required by law to charge five
times the cost PCK charges to qualify for this class of mail. According to Kimani, (2009)
CAK was mandated to enforce the law but has been unable due to lack of capacity.
The process of collecting and delivering of parcels or Mails in particular is very complex
with a lot of labor. Labor in particular attributes to eighty three percent of the entire
Postal corporation revenue. PCK has distinguished its task based on its clientele. PCK
key tasks includes the direct contact with their extremely distinguished diverse
customers, the staff in charge at this stage parks the products for transit and the
processing system where all the outputs are hand delivered to customers businesses,
homes and satellite postal boxes across the country. Thompson et el., (2007) saw this as

15
a gap to get a mediating and harmonizing technology that standardizes the operations that
are used to deal with diverse clients. Initially before the 1970 Post Office Department
(POD) had an internal structure that guided and coordinated the operations that featured
the Postmaster General (PMG) at the corporate level and six Assistant Postmasters
General (APMGs) at the business and operational level management who provided
leadership at separate bureaus.
Contingency theory stressed on the rational of most the political driven actions. It also
did not clearly distinguish the difference between private and public organizations. This
theory is of believe that any "publicness" in an organization is considered as a function of
the extended political influence on the same organizational behavior. For any individual
to analyze the environmental influences on public organizations, then it is appropriate
him to have a politically focused explanation (Boreham, 2004). A normal day today
integrated postal operator performs the following core functions; inwards and out
sortation, collection, local transportation, long hauls transportation, transportation to both
the locale and international post office and finally the delivery of the mails. De’Dondar et
al., (2004) in his research noticed that there is very little evidence that the functions of
transportation, collection, and sortation have any significance in the economies of scale.
With this limited line of product then an organization such as PCK needs a Management
team that thinks outside the box to come up with other modernized product that keeps it
running and that’s why the contingent theory applies well where they have several
approaches to adopt with back up plans.

16
2.2.2 The Resource BasedView Theory
A study conducted by Kimani (2009) indicated that the theory of resource allocation is
very relevant and it needs to be incorporating in the central characteristics of the
innovation process. The ability and capacity of an economy to develop is thus very
closely related to the process involved in the corporate resource allocation. The
foundational resources for investments of any organization are derived from its
undistributed profits, retained earnings and capital consumption allowances provided.
These boost the organizations productive capabilities by enabling it to foster innovation
and economic development. The approach on how major corporations allocate their vast
resources is nothing but a matter of strategic choice. For every strategic choice that the
corporate decision makers makes has ripple effects on the overall performance of the
entire industry and the economy at large (Cazals et al., 2004).
Innovative resource allocation is very strategic and therefore gives all the stakeholders
control of resources if they are to engage them to other developmental process in line
with their key evaluation constraints and the possibilities of alternative strategies
(Schumpeter, 1996). They also require controls to keep the resources in line until the
learning process has generated improved quality and lowered the cost of production that
enables the investment strategies to reap more (Lazonick & O'Sullivan, 1996).
Financial economics treats resources allocation based on fisher theories of investment as
explained in his book theories of interest (1930). Interest theory resembles price theory
which talks of the marginal propensity of consumption. The theory talks more about
people’s marginal preference of present over future goods, which is also referred as time
preference or human impatience (Fisher, 1990).

17
Fisher's recognized that creation and distribution of value are related in a major way,
resource allocation processes that generate innovation are developmental, organizational
and strategic. At any point in time the system should be able to generate three conditions
namely; financial commitment, organizational integration and insider control. It should
support commitment of resources to promising investments and allows for the integration
of human and physical resources to the organizational process (Fisher, 1990)
2.2.3 Profit-Maximizing and Competition-Based Theory
This is based on the conventional assumption that business thrive to make profits and
maintain competitive advantage over their rivals in the market place (Porter, 1990).
Strategy which is described by (Thompson et al., 1999) as the movement and approaches
that leaders employ to help the organization attract and please its stakeholders and
achieve the mission and objective of the organization efficiently, is a top priority for the
public sector managers for two very big reasons: the urge to proactively shape how the
department will run and the need to create positive and lasting public perceptions and
growth patterns. Great strategy formulation and execution is equal to great public
management (Thomson et al., 2007).
Many scholars have indicated in their findings that strategies follow structure (Pearce &
Robinson, 2000). For any public sector organization to be effective structure must fit
strategy. The firm should be able to adapt to changes in the dynamic competitive
environment (Porter, 1990). Competition accelerated technological advances and
changing customer expectations are various factors that shape the turbulent environment.
Though structures provide an overall framework for strategy implementation, they should

18
allow for the dynamic environmental changes and developments (Balogun &Johnson,
2004).
2.3 Empirical Literature Review
Empirical researches involving strategic choice assume that political actors anticipate the
decisions of other actors when making their own choices. Thus, actors' decisions are
interdependent. The strategic choice model also suggests election effects for both the
internal and external (Fearon, 1993). Empirical studies have indicated the association of
successful turnarounds with cutback actions that ensure improved firm performance by
increasing efficiency within the corporations. Ideally, there is a vivid gap in the
information when it is collated with respect to the two points of view (Hammer &
Champy, 1993).
A research by Steiner (1997) distinguished between internal and external forces and their
role in shaping strategic positioning in service delivery. Later on (Porter, 1990) also made
his impute by distinguishing between corporate strategy and competitive strategy. Further
complicating the problem is the fact that many strategic activities such as strategic
planning (Ward, 1990), strategic management (Hax & Majluf, 2006) and strategy
formulation (Andrews, 1999), are used interchangeably. Strategy can also be viewed as
three related processes namely opportunistic decision making, strategic thinking and the
strategic planning (Ward, Griffiths & Whitmore, 1990). According to (Scholes, 1999)
strategy can also be viewed as the guiding line and scope of an organization for a long
term, which aides it to achieve some added advantages through its maximum utilization
of its minimal resources within the constant changing internal and external environment
to meet the needs of the market and its stakeholders.

19
Porter (1990) on the other hand simplified strategic focus further by stating that it is a
situation where a corporate company choses to engage on the strategic analyses and
planning before launching of new products or new business units. Strategic focus cannot
be mentioned without considering strategic change. Van de Ven & Poole (995) on the
other hand viewed strategic change as the difference in quality, the form, price and its
overall state over a period of time in the firm's alignment with its both internal and
external environment. Change is inevitable thus for any business to survive and remain
relevant in the market industry they need to position themselves in a way to
accommodate the changes that exist in their business environments. The business
alignment with its external environment take place when its critical business patterns of
the present, the budgeted limited resource being deployed and adaption in the
environmental constant changes that indicates how the organization will achieve its goals
(Johnson, 2004). Any slight change in this alignment forces drastic changes in the entire
content of an organization’s focused strategy since all this is defined by the available
resource, synergy stipulated scope and competitive advantages. Holmberg (1998)
concludes that changes in the organizations external environment is brought about so that
it can push the management to initiate change and implement it in the context of strategy.
The overall goal of Strategic focus on service delivery strategies is to turnaround an
underperforming firm to its former glory normal in terms of solvency, liquidity,
,acceptable levels of profitability, cash flow and retain its market share. Strategic focus
on service delivery is a common concept in change management for purposes of financial
realignment of corporations, given that the market conditions are constantly changing.
This calls for implementation of a series of planned actions for the purpose of avoiding

20
stagnation, failure and financial solvency. This therefore requires a strong leadership and
it may include a restructuring of the corporate hierarchy, eliminating redundancies, a
thorough investigation of problem root causes, and the development of a long-term
strategy to revitalize and motivate the corporate culture of the organization (Hammer &
Champy, 1993).
A research by the Kimani (2009) supported the argument that it is very important for the
management team to recognize these warning signals at their early stages and take
appropriate action to counteract the decline and quickly put the business back on the road
to profitability. A critical and careful thinking approach to resolving the problem that is
methodically implemented throughout all levels of the organization is necessary.
Pandit (1995) conducted a research to establish a theoretical framework of strategic
focus. This study clearly indicated the applicability of GT in the frame working of the
concept of influences of strategic focus on service delivery. In this case, the auxiliary
objectives will be first to establish the kind of decline experienced by PCK then itemize
the strategies used by the management and the effects that came with them (Kimani,
2009).
2.3.1 Organizational learning
A successful recovery on service delivery involves increasing the confidences of the
work force by building their capacity through training, improving their moral, equipping
them with necessary resources, and valuing them as the organizational key assets
(Marvasti, 2000).

21
Prior to 1999 the communications sector which the postal services is part of was a
monopoly of Kenya Posts and Telecommunications Corporation and handled both
operational and regulatory functions. However after repeal of KPTC act in 1998, the two
functions were separated where by the PCK was tasked to provide key postal services,
the Telkom Kenya was to offer telecommunication services while Communication
Commission of Kenya was to offer regulatory services. Since then the postal service sub
sector in Kenya has witnessed tremendous growth and as at June 2009 there were 150
registered operators. The Categories of licensed postal and courier operators are: forty
three International, three regional, five international inbound, twenty seven intra-cities,
and one public postal licensee (PCK). A study carried out by PCK (2007) to identify
competitors in the mail identified the following competitors as posing the biggest threat:
DHL, FedEx, Universal Parcel Service (UPS), and TNT in the international market and
G4Securicor Courier, Bus and freight companies, real and on time deliveries in the local
market.
The key to these competitors success was found to be reliable, secure and fast services
that PCK was not offering. There was also the substitution of mail services by the faster
and cheaper technology based short message services (SMS), electronic mail (email) and
mobile telephone. According to a report by Kariuki (2015), mobile subscriber numbers
had risen to over sixteen million by June 2009 and internet usage penetration levels of
thirty three percent. The same report estimate the postal courier market share to be three
percent in a market estimated to be worth Kenya shillings seven billion.
Another report on Milewa (2010) indicated that PCKs service delivery precisely in mail
deliveries were very erratic and slow. The PCK are currently trying to boost revenue by

22
building up direct mail marketing, franchising out postal offices that are making loses and
undertaking restructuring of its financial remittance as well as reengineering and
restructuring its courier component. They are also planning to introduce new products
such postal based savings scheme, hybrid mail system and in addition reinventing postal
courier services. However, this has come under criticism with some analysts clearly
pointing out that this strategic shift may not have an overall impact in the industry since
competitors have already introduced products that have locked up the most profitable
market niches.
Most of the strategic focus studies contacted have been criticized for their overly
analytical orientation, corporate management bias, lack of attention to the course of
action taken and the learning element that lead to the creation of strategies (Mintzberg et
al., 1999). Strategic focus is majorly founded on the organizational learning.
Organizational learning is the processes of developing capabilities that have competitive
advantage that are highly treasured by its customers. Crossan et al. (1999) argued that
organizational learning has most of the time led to realization of new sources of
capabilities that promote innovativeness, creativity and development new strategies.
According to Eisenhardt (2002) he emphasizes that strategic focus cannot be effective
without good sustainable organization learning process put in place. Argyris & Schon
(1996) described organization learning as a process that entails pulling lesson from past
experiences, understanding what needs to be done, putting in place corrective and
monitoring and evaluation mechanisms’ that are value committed, having a good
prescriptive and implementing the strategies to the latter. Crossan et al. (1999) found out
that Organizational learning goes through four vital processes as per the table below for it

23
to be effective and impactful to the overall goal of the organization. He also insisted that
organization needs to have constructive critics from both the internal and the external
environment for it to identify and pull out some of these lessons learned.
Table 2.1: Four Organizational Learning Processes
Level Process Outcomes
Individual Intuiting
Experiences
Images
Metaphor
Group Interpreting
Language
Group Cognitive map
Shared Communication
Integrating
Clear understandings
Symbiotic relationship
Routines
Organization Institutionalizing
Interactive system
Policies, procedures and rules
Diagnostic systems
Source: Crossan, Lane and White, (1999)
Crossan et al. (1999) described four organizational learning processes in the following
manner. He described intuiting as the early detection or recognition of the possibilities
inherent in a personal wealthy of experience. This process on its own has an effect on the
individual's behavior alone but it only affects others if the person in question is their role
model and they are trying to act like that individual. Interpreting is the process of trying
to explant he insight and idea of one’s self and in comparison to others. Integrating on the
other hand is a process that entails development of Symbiotic relationship amongst
individuals and coordinating their course of actions through mutual adjustment. This
encourages dialogue and joint action which is very crucial to the development of

24
Symbiotic relationship which leads to institutionalizing. Institutionalizing in involves
defining of tasks, specifying of course of actions and putting in place the organizational
mechanisms that guides the certain actions. It also entails embedment of the learning
process that takes place by individuals and groups.
According to Crossan et al. (1999) the tension existing between adopting new learning
and using previous lesson learned by other to help in examining these three levels of
learning and the relationship between the levels, it also identifies processes that link the
levels, links these processes to strategic focus and goes on to recognizes that
organizational learning involves an interaction between cognition and action. These now
brings a great revelation that organizational learning plays a key role in strategic focus. It
now brings in some of the key learning PCK has pulled in to help in it remain relevant in
this vibrant and competitive industry.
In recent years, the concept of organizational learning has attracted a lot of attention from
researchers in many disciplines, including specialists in the fields of adult learning,
vocational education and training and school improvement. Most researchers have
defined organizational learning as the extent that it is undertaken by members of an
organization to achieve organizational goals, taking place in teams or other small groups,
is distributed widely throughout the organization and embeds its outcomes. Eisenhardt
(2002) observed the current theories of organizational learning and noted that they were
very weak in spelling out the specific processes or actions that make the learning process.
Organizational learning emphasizes on the effectiveness of the dialogue through which
organization’s learn depends on a shared developmental history in which certain practices

25
have been adopted as the accepted way of behaving in that community. A practice may
be defined as a recurrent pattern of activity embodying explicit rules, precepts and
instructions (Schatzki, 1996). Holmberg (2000) found out that the company will always
learns as an organization because engaging in these practices enables co-workers to co-
ordinate different subjectivities with different perspectives and experiences in relation to
what then becomes, for the participants, the common object of their activity.
Fenwick (2001) on the other hand differed with Organizational learning by arguing that it
reduces individual autonomy, the sense of paradox disappears if we take into account of
the theoretical recanting that has occurred in recent years in relation to the concept of the
self-driven initiative. Gergen (1991) seconded this by challenging the traditional notion
that being is self-sustaining ignoring the need for others. These has however been
challenged the recent times.
Holmberg (2000) noted that taking a political perspective increases the understanding of
organizational learning. He notes that power relations are vital for organizational learning
as they involve the whole organizational hierarchy. Boreham et al., (2004) argues that
organizational learning looks at the relationships of employees amongst each other.
Policy documents unchanged or unaltered created a barrier to well functional self-
directing teams as envisioned by the management.
2.3.2 Customer Focus
The researcher looked at theoretical literature on innovative pricing and its application to
the postal industry. Similar studies include; Armstrong, (2001) and Armstrong et al.
(1996) that focused on the consequences of bypass and universal service on innovative

26
pricing. The structure of demands that it posits is much simpler than the one developed in
this paper, with homogenous goods and inelastic demands. Armstrong et al., (1996) tried
to develop a framework which had a little weakness in that it could not include the
universal service obligations but gave allowances for the bypassing and production of
multiple heterogeneous products. Panzar (2004) also developing a low cost model that
offered an end to end (E2E) product.
To become the best service provider, resolved to put aside resources that would enable it
have low cost services with appealing features and excellent quality. They borrowed the
concept from Porter (1990) that Strategic focus is basically identifying your customers’
niche needs and meeting them as well as developing the capacity to offer something
different from rival competitors. According to Kimani (2009) PCK have turned to
cooperative strategies that involve ways of responding to strong competitive pressures
between organizations by identifying their capabilities and core competencies and
combining it with their limited resources to achieve their goals. Cooperative strategies
may be short term or long term and may include partial or contractual ownership. These
strategies help the organization in accessing new markets, entering new businesses,
introduction of new products, overcoming trade barriers, avoiding predatory competition,
gaining access to complementary resources, sharing risk, research and development
expenses, and risk capital (Hitt, 1995).
Cooperative strategies includes strategic alliances, partnerships, mergers, acquisitions,
integrations, outsourcing and offensive as well as defensive strategic moves to secure
competitive advantage and protect a firm’s position. Strategic counteractions target the
competitor’s strength or weakness and they can either be at one point or at various fronts

27
at the same time (Porter, 1990). The essence of an offensive strike is to tumble the market
leader or competitor in the industry while the defensive strategies are aimed at
maintaining the market leader position by putting up barriers and shunning off
competitors from trying to attack (Thompson & Strickland, 1999).
Defining who is a customer in a government environment or Institution is made more
complicated by power being fragmented and shared among government ministries,
departments and by the existence of multiple interest groups. Trying to simultaneously
satisfy multiple the goals of public programs is very difficult if not impossible, a good
example being when customers have to be treated differently if government is trying to
protect individual rights versus trying to provide efficient service. Barzelay (2011)
realized that inefficient units can be transformed into very responsive customer friendly
and a well-functioning provider of valuable services. He also believed that the same work
unit within centralized staff operations is responsible for performing two conflicting
functions: delivering services and complying with regulations.
Osborne and Gaebler (1992) were convinced that government can be effectively
customer driven because democratic governments exist, in their view, to serve their
citizen customers. Customer-driven government, they say, offers many advantages over
bureaucratic government. Some of these advantages include accountability to customers,
greater in novation, more service choices, and less waste. Barzelay (2011) like Osborne
and Gaebler, suggested that government's customers are usually citizens. According to
Barzelay (2011), government organizations should be customer driven and service
oriented. The Citizens who add up as customers of the government parastatal to be the
always anticipate to be treated with respect. They expect the same treatment they get

28
from a supermarket replicated to all the social security offices (Dilulio, Garvey & Kettl,
1993). This left Hitt (1995) wondering whether citizens should be treated as customers or
as owners. He saw no reason why citizens cannot be treated as both customers and
owners conclude that there is genuine value in the customer service approach.
According to Balogun et al. (2013), the top priority of high level managers is to managers
is development of strategies and ensuring they have the right middle and operational level
management who can implement the new strategy. Their confidence resides in the kind of
team they have that can successful execute the strategies. They ensure that during
recruitment they can spot these characteristics given characteristics; the abilities, special
skills, talents, academic background, job experience, personality traits and the
temperament.
2.3.3 Technological Focus
Parsons (1993) realized that many organizations have been unable to assimilate the
benefits of information technology. He termed this difficulty as a strategic focus gap that
results from different thought of theories that have evolved over time in different parts of
the organization. In the essence, Information Technology team in most companies when
they are formulating focused technology strategy, they speak of improving processing
speed, storage capacity, and response times. For the technological strategies to be
efficient then the strategic team needs to think in terms of competitors, industry trends,
and the like. Aligning the Information Technology strategy with business strategy
requires that each level become sensitive to the different needs orientations of the other
and that information technology managers work directly with the strategic business

29
planners in order to help them gain an awareness of technology and its potential benefits.
Parson still insist that if the top management are armed with better understanding of IT,
then strategic planning team are then in a better position to reformulate their initial
strategies and identify opportunities to better address the various competitive forces that
they confront in the market.
Although there are so many differences between the public and private sectors that results
from how both align their applications and technological strategies. In all kinds of
organizations, applications strategies tend to be developed in separate operating bureaus,
oriented toward constituent, customers and client’s demands. Closing the gap between
these applications strategies and traditional activity based, supply oriented, and tool
focused technology strategies are a ubiquitous problem across all sectors (Ellis et al.,
2009).
The overall goal of strategic focus in service delivery basically bringing back a poorly
performing and strained company to normalcy in terms of customer base, solvency,
building the customers confidence and loyalty, liquidity, levels of cash flow and
profitability (Robinson, 2010). To achieve its objectives of strategic focus the entity
requires identifying and tackling the causes of the distress, and coming up with
appropriate measures resolve their financial crisis. They need to regain and maintain their
stakeholder’s confidence and support so that overcome the internal bureaucratic red tapes
and unfavorable industry dynamics (Hammer & Champy, 1995).
Several studies have been done on the concept of strategic focus in Kenyan firms. These
include; Strategic response by Postal Corporation of Kenya to competition in the

30
telecommunication sector in Kenya (Omolo, 2011), and Strategies adopted by PCK to
gain competitive advantage in the mail sub sector (Kimani, 2009). Despite the said
importance of strategic focus in turnaround strategy on service delivery past studies have
not adequately addressed the roles of the strategic focus on service delivery at the PCK.
The strategic focus can therefore be defined as the financial recovery of a company that
had been performing poorly for a considerate period of time (Kariuki, 2008). It can also
be referred to as a set of implementation course of actions that can be used to save an
organization from business failure and return it to operational normality (Hammer &
Champy, 1995). It is also closely related to turnaround strategies that try to rescue
companies though areas like cost reduction and financial restructuring which are all
aimed at the revitalization of a falling company or corporation financially (Marvasti,
2000).
A research by PCK (2007) indicated that PCK operates a vast network of about sixty one
head post offices (61), four hundred and eighteen departmental offices (408) and three
hundred ninety two (392) sub post offices. It has three hundred and eighty eight thousand
two hundred and eighty one (388281) private letter boxes, one thousand and fourteen
(1014) private letter bags one thousand hundred and thirty four (1134) private letter
posting bags one thousand three hundred and fifty six (1356) public counter positions,
three hundred and twelve 312 stamp vending machines and five thousand (5,000) stamp
vendor that have been Licensed across the country.
According to PCK (2007), Mail contributes 75% to the total PCK revenue. PCK is facing
competition from both international and domestic mail service providers, mobile

31
telephony, electronic mail and commerce and this has led to declining mail revenues at
average rate of six percent per year (PCK, 2007). Currently postal courier mail market
share is three percent in a market estimated to be worth seven billion Kenya shillings.
(www.cck.go.ke). Thus PCK seems to have lost competitiveness in the mail sector. The
study thus seeks to determining and understand the strategies that PCK has adopted in its
quest to regain and maintain its lost glory in the mail sub sector in Kenya.
A study by Milewa (2010) found out that the competitive strategies adopted by PCK in
response to increased market competition include;- product development, product
differentiations, being more technological savvy, contacting market research to
understand the market dynamics and for regular feedback. A low cost strategy that majors
on differentiations is more attractive when the market is large enough to allow for
profitability and has room for growth where other players have not identified the niche
market. Thompson and Strickland (1999) indicated that it is expensive and difficulty for
companies dealing with multiple market segments to meet the specialized needs of the
each market segment.
PCK also focuses on employing market penetration strategy involves going head-on, in
an existing market with the currently existing products. This can be achieved by
attracting new customers from other players in the market, retaining the existing
customers through product and service customizations (Armstrong & Kotler, 2002).
Product development strategy involves developing new products for existing market.
Through need identification strategies a firm is able to identify new opportunities for
product developing and modification in line with customer taste and preferences
(McCarthy & Perreault, 1993).

32
Michael Porter's on the other hand talks about the need for consistency in strategic
positions which allows growth and development of a company culture that builds the
identity of an organization and its stake holders allowing for recruitment and retention of
a work force that is in agreement with its missions (Situma, 2006). A research Kimani
(2009) supports the argument that it is very important for the management team to
recognize these warning signs at their early stages and take respective action to
counteract the downfall and quickly put the business back on the road to profitability. It is
the most critical and careful thinking approach of resolving the emerging problems in all
the levels of the organization.
Kurt Lewin’s theory of change is based on (Unfreeze-Change-Freeze) that provides a
strategic approach to change. The initial stage of change involves identifying the need for
change and seeing the importance of breaking the exiting status quo. The second stage
involves implementation of the changes or the introduction of the new status quo while
the third and final stage is the acceptance and refreezing of the new changes as the
normal status quo (Graham, 2002).
2.3.4 Corporate strategies
Value is a common subject of discussion in corporate quarters. Most annual reports
devote several pages to enumerate their values. Tenacity integrity, transparency,
customer focus, honesty frequently appears in discussions and write-ups. Most of these
values are societal obligations. If corporations or individuals were to neglect them or act
contrary to these tenets, then they would be subject to legal action or in many cases lose

33
out on business. With such value statements we cannot offer a choice to an individual or
a corporate entity (Dayal, 2013).
Organizational value system is very critical in providing in depth understanding, stability
and consistency of systems, which are vital for management purposes. For well
performing organization values supplement performance. The importance of
organizational values is steadily gaining recognition as these are norms of corporate or
individual behavior expected by society and apply to every individual and organization
(Rowe et al., 1999). Organizational values exists either in strong or weakly shared form.
Evaluations should be contacted in an attempt to assess the extent of consensus of an
organizational value, and examine the organizational structures and process to try and
explain the reinforcement of value systems or lack of it (Moothy, 1998).
Padaki et al. (2000) found out that all management practice is founded on organizational
values. However this finding was weak since most Values operates in silence and without
direct articulation thus regarded as soft and not given much attention. Values are also
likely to be regarded as the soft matter, and not given serious attention. However, the
intimate connections to 'hard' management practice cannot be denied. The most critical
thing for given organizations performance is to understand the existing value system,
appreciating its implications, restructuring and designing both existing and new values
systems.
PCK vision statement is all about becoming the leading global providers of postal and
related services while its Mission statement focuses on delivering superior
communication and financial solutions to its customers and create recognizable value to

34
stakeholders. Their value statements comprise of a set of beliefs and standards of
behavior that drive PCK’s agenda and contribute to their corporate culture and identity.
Their value includes; integrity, Professionalism, honesty, teamwork, fairness,
accountability, stewardship and transparency in all their operations (Kimani, 2009).
This core values on their own promote organizational learning and innovativeness.
Lazonick et al. (1996) argues that committing the limited organizational resources to
innovation means foregoing some other competing opportunities for the same resources
while the learning process is taking place. The organizational Learning helps in shifting
the perception of a problem and identification alternative solution as well providing
appropriate room for further learning. The withdrawal of some of the learners or physical
resources from the learning process before it is complete may endanger the success of the
entire undertaking. Teece (1996) emphasis that the scale of innovative investment thus
depends not only on the size of the investment in productive resources and in the abilities
and incentives of learners, but also on the duration of the investment necessary to sustain
that process over the period during which learning occurs (Fisher, 1990).
PCK Board of directors was appointed by the minister for Information and
communication to oversee the activities of the organization. Top management is
comprised of a Postmaster general (PMG) who is the chief executive officer, eight
General Managers responsible for Human Resource Development, finance and Strategy,
Information and Communication Technology, Mail, Courier, Financial and Agency
services, Corporation Secretary, Logistics and Facilities, Research and one head of
department in charge of Marketing. The corporation has a total staff compliment of four
thousand two hundred and twelve (4,212).

35
PCK has continued to strengthen its capacity and diversified it products and services so
as to satisfy its customers’ needs. The corporation has been working with individuals,
medium sized businesses, private business, government agencies and nongovernmental
organizations, to enhance quality service delivery. PCK is headed by a Board of Directors
appointed by his excellence the president. The Chairman of the same the board is charged
with the responsibility of providing guidance. The CEO who is initial was called the
‘Postmaster General’ heads the corporation and reports to the Board. The corporation is
driven by the following: Mail service, financial services, courier services, Finance and
strategy, Human Resource Management and Development, Information Communication
and Technology, Logistics and Facilities Management Research and Development,
Marketing and Customer service, Audit and Investigation, Legal Services, Procurement.
Change Management, and Corporate Communication.
Rowe et al. (1994) brought out the vision as is an organizational desired future providing
a clear picture of where the entire organization is headed to. He went ahead to elaborate
that achieving this desired state calls for use of the current strategy as well as
development new strategies that would foster radical organizational changes. The high
level managers need to develop a vision that translates to where they see their
organization in future for them to gain the support of their stake holders. They also
looked at strategic vision as a very desirable and realistic future state of an organization.
He emphasized on the simplicity, clarity vision that can easily be understood by the
stakeholders of the organization. Formulation of the vision varies from one organization
to another. Rowe et al. (1994) clearly indicates that some organizational limit this process

36
to the high level management termed as the entrepreneurial approach while other
involves all the stakeholders.
Robinson (2010) viewed mission as a set scope of actions taken by an organization
towards realizing the set vision. Pearce and Robinson (2010) describe the mission of an
organization as the unique purpose that sets it apart from other organizations of its type
and identifies the scope of its operations. Since a mission helps a firm in wading toward
the future it aspires, it must be able to influence behavior throughout the organization in
order to be of much impact on the firm’s action.
Parsons (1993) argued that the overall impact of technology to the citizen’s on accessing
government online services in relation to their attitudes towards government at large is
somehow debatable. The transformationalists on their end are predicting positive impacts
of new technology while the instrumentalists have noted a number of constraining
influence both social and economic on the dynamics of technology itself (Margolis & et
al., 2014). Information technology has interfered with the control features of the previous
traditional bureaucracies in PCK keeping in mind that most of the services it used to offer
were rendered obsolete by technology. Fountain (1999) realized that costs of operation
can drastically go down if the technology is adopted within the federal agencies, public
and private sector.
Delivering of key government services and information in an online or digitalized
platform is referred to as E-government. This kind of platform is more efficient and
reliable compared to the traditional structures which were slow and inefficient. The
internet delivery systems are non-hierarchical and readily available. This has led to

37
creation of interactive platform that allows the users to send and receive information at
the same time. The two-way interaction brought about by technology has greatly
attributed to improve the government service at large. It has brought all the governments
services at door steps of the citizens thus in the long ended up building public confidence
in government (Markoff, 2000). The Internet has brought numerous changes and brought
about uncountable benefits in the entire economy thus positively affecting all the system
that were initially (Kamarck, 1998).
Chadwick (2011) on the other hand found out that most of the government web sites
across the world were non interactive and non-deliberative thus ended up concluding that
e-government platform may not actually change perception of people towards their
government. In Africa and specifically in Kenya, even though the government is trying so
hard to invest in technology, most of its ministries websites are very dormant. The
website is supposed to provide a platform for feedbacks and customer cares where
customers in this case happen to be citizens. But you notice that most websites are as old
as ten years ago and no update has been made ever since. The primary goal for
organizations to increase competitiveness is to improve the human performance in most
cases if not all (Marshall et al., 2000). Organizations most often invest millions and
billions of money every year in technology and its implementation, and anticipate getting
increased productivity and performance from their investments (Marshall et al., 2000).
In 1990s, Bill Gates the Microsoft chairman predicted that soon business would allow
people to do a full day's work in four or five hours, freeing them to spend more time on
leisure pursuits or with friends and family because of the technology development. A
survey was conducted in1990s and found out that the average work per week was nearly

38
an hour longer than in the early 1980s. These a survey found that more than sixty eight
percent of respondents felt that there is more overwhelmed worker at work today (Cohen,
2005).The managers on the other hand expect more tasks to be completed at the same
amount of time by employees because of the increased technology that they have
invested (Brown & Leigh, 1996).
In light the technological benefits there were still a section of untapped services in the
industry that was very significant to the economy of Kenya. In realization to this fact,
Postal Corporation of Kenya has set up more strategies that have led them to offer more
services to its clientele other than just sending and receiving letters. This has brought
about the formation of numerous and reliable Huduma Centers offering most of
government services online or on E-citizen platform. This has greatly been achieved
through the them interlinking with so many other government organs such as Kenya
revenue Authority and many other services thus increasing its growth and customer base
which is significant to the economy as well (Kariuki, 2008).
2.4 Summary of the reviewed Literature
Most of the findings from previous studies have indicated the need for PCK to
strategically focus on service delivery for its own profitability and survival. Browne
(1999) has identified four crucial organizational processes that affect the intuitive
individual’s behavior in a place of work such as PCK. This process involves recognition
of personal streams of experience, developing shard understanding, amongst individuals,
and ensuring that action takes place. Schatzki (1996) indicated that the Organizational
learning relies most on effectiveness communication that is derived from a shared past
experience in which certain practices have been embraced as the accepted way of

39
behaving. According to Barzelay (2011) the government should be customer driven and
service oriented since the Citizens expect the same treatment they get from a supermarket
replicated to all the public offices.
Organizational value system or standards provides consistency, in-depth and stability to
management practices and they go hand in hand with performance. The importance of
organizational values especially in management has steadily gained popularity and the
most important point is that these are norms of corporate or individual behavior expected
by society and apply to every individual and organization (Rowe et al., 1994). The
Internet has brought numerous changes and brought about uncountable benefits in the
entire economy (Kamarck et al., 1998).
2.5 Knowledge Gaps
The literature reviewed indicated that different researchers have undertaken several
studies to explain the major factors affecting service delivery at the PCK. However there
is no specific literature and major studies known to the researcher that has been done on
the influence of strategic focus on service delivery at the Postal Corporation of Kenya.
This therefore indicates that the explored theoretical and empirical literature is of little
significance towards addressing the role of strategic focus on service delivery at the PCK.
Lack of theoretical and empirical literature on focus strategies for service delivery at the
PCK have developed major knowledge gaps on innovative focus, customer focus and
Operational excellence focus.
The other clear gap from the studies is that none of the studies sought to investigate the
afterward effects or influences of strategic focus on service delivery experienced by PCK.

40
This is a gap that this study heavily acknowledges and forms the basis of motivation for
conducting the research. This study will draw its focus into these gaps by gathering data
that will be relevant to come up with effective recommendations on the role strategic
focus plays in service delivery and thus assist in filling the missing gaps with solutions to
service delivery problems.

41
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
3.1 Introduction
This chapter describes the research methodology used to accomplish the research
objectives. The research design that was used for this study was clearly brought out. The
study outlined the target population, sample procedures, data analysis and presentation,
sample size, research instruments, the piloting of research instrument that was used in the
research, validity of the findings, reliability of research instruments, research site and
rationale, data collection procedures and finally the ethical considerations.
3.2 ResearchDesign
The research was carried out with intention of assessing the influence of strategic focus
on service delivery at the PCK. The research was quantitative in nature. This study was
carried out using the descriptive survey method which was an appropriate research
method for this type of study. Descriptive survey placed more emphasis on a limited
number of activity and their interrelations. A case study on the other hand focuses on a
detailed contextual analysis of a limited number of conditions and their relationships.
These were used to assist in achieving at the research objective and answering the
research questions. By focusing on this single corporation, this design led to the
concentration and more refined findings that were identifiable to the context at hand.
The research environment was carried out in Nairobi County which was hosting the
headquarter office for PCK. It is deemed reasonable to use one hundred and thirty two as
target population due to the population of the case study area. This being number of
employees approximated to be at the PCK at that particular time.

42
3.3 Researchsite and rationale
The research was conducted at the PCK headquarters in Nairobi since it hosts most of the
top, middle and lower level management team and thus all the decision are done at this
point. The parent population was divided into three categories on the basis of divisions.
Stratified random sampling was used in the study where individuals were grouped as top
level managers, middle level managers and the lower level managers.
3.4 Target Population
This is basically a sample of items, individuals or objects from which crucial information
was gathered from so as to assist in data analysis (Corbin, 1990). The study targeted the
corporate level management, Business level management and operation levels
management at the headquarters offices in Nairobi. A sample was picked to reduce time
and cost of the research.
Table 3.2 Target Population
Designation Percent
Corporate Level 15
Business Level 35
Operational Level 82
Total 132
Source: PCK Human Resource 2016
The target population consisted of members of the top, middle and lower management
team or the staff who deal on a daily basis with ensuring that day to day growth of that
particular unit goal.

43
3.5 Sampling Procedure
A population of one hundred and thirty two people was chosen to solicit information.
Mugenda and Mugenda (2003) clearly indicated that any sample size that is 30% of the
population targeted or more is good enough to make conclusion on the basis of the study
under investigation. A Stratified random sampling was used in the study. The parent
population was divided into categories on the basis of divisions. A sample of 40% was
randomly picked from each stratum of the respondents. Due to the heterogeneous nature
of the population, the stratified random sampling method was the most suitable for this
research.
3.6 Sample size
Being an important feature of any empirical study, the main goal of the sample size was
to make inferences about a population from a sample. This study sought to get its sample
size from the three levels of Management (Mugenda, 2008).
Table 3.3 Sample Selection
Category Sample size of study population) Sample
Corporate level 40% 6
Business level 40% 14
Operational level 40% 33
Total 53
Source: Researcher (2015)
Mugenda and Mugenda (2003) indicate that a representative sample should not be less
than 30 percent of the entire population. The researcher applied 40 percent on all levels of
management as it is well above the minimum requirement and provided a good
representative sample. The researcher used the convenience sampling technique to settle

44
on the PCK headquarters Nairobi as it is easily accessible and has staff representing all
the various satellite branches thus giving a good representation of the whole organization.
The sample was chosen from each of the three categories of respondents identified for
research. These were the corporate, business and operational level management team.
The total sample size was 53 employees who are 40% of the entire Population which is in
accordance with statistically allowed figure of 30% or more for sampling. Each object in
this population had an equal probability chance of being selected since the study used the
stratified random sampling (Fraenkel et al., 2000).
3.7 Data Collection Procedures
The research used the questionnaire which was hand delivered to all the respondents at
the Postal Corporation of Kenya Headquarters. The questionnaire was structured with
both open and closed ended questions to enable the respondents to provide their views
and general comments based on the objectives of the study. The questionnaires was
dropped in the PCK head office and picked after two weeks having allowed detailed
information to be provided for analysis.
3.8 ResearchInstrument
Self-administered and a uniform questionnaire comprising of open and closed ended
questions was used to collect the data. These were hand delivered to the target
respondents at the headquarters of Postal Corporation of Kenya. The questions were
framed in line with researcher’s objectives.

45
3.8.1 Piloting of ResearchInstrument
The researcher tested the research instrument at one of the branches of Postal Corporation
of Kenya along parklands road in Westland’s who were not be part of the main study so
as to verify gaps with the tools, the average time it would take to interview a person and
cost implications on the budget. The station had about 20 staff members who were
involved in the pilot study sample. The researcher used the split half method to carry out
the pilot study. According to Wertsch (1991), Split-Half statistical method is used to
determine the reliability of a typical test and is very common (Corbin, et al., 1990) argued
that the value of pilot research in any research work cannot be overestimated.
3.8.2 Validity of Findings
Crocker and Algina (2006) defined data Validation as an integrated evaluation judgment
of an extent to which empirical evidence and theoretical rationale support the adequacy
and appropriateness of inferences and actions based on test scores and other modes of
assessment. It involves the inspection of all collected data for reasonableness,
completeness as well as elimination of erroneous values. The researcher ensured validity
through discussion with faculty and the supervisor.
3.8.3 Reliability of Research Instrument
Reliability of the research instrument was ensured by the researcher through pre-testing
the tool. Cronbach coefficient alpha testing measure was used. This measure shows how
closely related a set of objects are as a group. Most consider this measure as a measure
of scale reliability. Cohen and Swerdelik (2005) agreed that this is the most appropriate
method of testing reliability since it only requires one administration of the test. Crosby
(2003) on the other hand said that it is the more appropriate when the items have choices

46
while Fraenkel and Wallen (2000) Indicated that a reliability Cronbach's alpha
coefficience of 0.70 and above is considered very desirable for consistency levels.
3.8.4 Data Analysis and Presentation
The type of data that was sought for in this research was mainly primary data which is
mainly quantitative. Data cleaning was done manually by going through the returned
questionnaires. A simple coding method was used to avoid confusion to the researcher.
The data was analyzed using SPSS and excel spreadsheets to be presented in a
quantitative form which aided the drawing of inferences. Parameters like the mean and
cross tabulation Chi-square was calculated to find out the indicators of the various factors
being researched on. Correlation analysis was carried out to ascertain the degree to which
the depended variables influence the independent variable. The data was presented
inform of tables, graph, charts and a final summary report with recommendations and
areas of further research.
3.9 Ethical considerations
Once the approval of the study Project by the graduate School of African Nazarene
University was issued out, a research clearance letter and permit was obtained from
NACOSTI (National Commission for Science Technology and innovation). The county
level permission was obtained from the Nairobi county council and local District
Commissioner. The researcher also went ahead to assure the respondent of the
confidentiality of the information. The questionnaire avoided sensitive issues that could
cause physical, mental and emotional harm to the respondent.

47
CHAPTER FOUR: DATA ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION OF FINDINGS
4.1 Introduction
This chapter presents the findings of the study. The discussion and interpretations of the
findings of this study are presented basing on the objectives that the study sought to
achieve. The study sought to achieve the following objectives: to establish the role of
organizational learning on service delivery at the Postal Corporation of Kenya; to
determine the influence of customer focus on service delivery at the Postal Corporation
of Kenya; to establish the relationship between organizational standards and service
delivery at Postal Corporation of Kenya and to assess the influence of technological focus
on service delivery at the Postal Corporation of Kenya. All questionnaires that were given
out were filled and returned registering a response of 100%.
4.2 Response Rate
The researcher gave out fifty three questionnaires to the respondents. There was a
hundred percent 100% response.
4.2.1 Level of Management
The respondents in this study were categorized in three levels of managements as
presentenced by table 4.1 below.
Table 4.1: Classification of Respondents in Level of Management
Designation Frequency Percent
Corporate/Top Level Manger 6 11.30%
Business/Middle level Management 14 26.40%
Operational/lower Level Manager 33 62.30%
Total 53 100

48
There were 11.3% (6) respondents who indicated that they were serving in the corporate
level of management, 26.4% (14) in business level, and 62.3% (33) in the operational
level of management.
4.3 Demographic Considerations
The table 4.2 below shows the gender distribution of the respondents at the PCK
headquarters office in Nairobi.
Table 4.2 Gender Distribution
Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent
Female 23 43.4 34.4 57.8
Male 30 56.6 42.2 100.0
Total 53 100 100
The respondents comprised of 43.4% females and 56.6% males. From this analysis there
was more male than females in the three management levels.
The study also sought to establish the number of years each according to tables 4.3 below
Table 4.3 Year of Service for Respondents
Total 53 100 Valid Percent Cumulative Percent
0-5 years 11 16.9 16.9 35.4
6-10 years 11 16.9 16.9 100.0
11-15 years 12 18.5 18.5 53.8
16-20 years 1 1.5 1.5 55.4
21 and above years 18 27.7 27.7 83.1
Total 53 100 100
The study found out that 16.9% of the respondents had worked at PCK for less than five
years, another 16.9% for less than 10 years, 18.5% have worked at PCK for more than
10years but less than 15yeas while 1.5% fall under 16 to 20 years of service and finally
27.7% have worked for over 21year.

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