Investigate the Role of Monopolistic Competitive Environment Responses on Organizational Performance: A Case of Kenya Power Company in Kisii and Nyamira Counties
Author: Moses Mainye Simbe, Dr. Stella Omari, and Dr. Andrew Nyang’au, Kenya
Abstract:The competitive environment in which organizations operates has been vibrant and turbulent. Several changes have had implications on the performance witnessed in the past years and are expected to control firms’ operations in both medium and long term actions. The competitive environmental responses brought by anxieties and threats created by new entrants, technological advancement, social reforms, legislative changes, government policy changes, regionalization and economic changes. Kenya power company inflates power bills to its customers, postpaid meters are not read they do estimates that lead to illegal connections, the electronic payment system normally breaks making hard for payment of top up tokens on prepaid meters, customers often encounter delays when buying tokens, exploitation by third party vendors, pressure on the payment channel and delayed in installation of prepaid paid meters. The main objective was to assess the effect of competitive environment response on organizational performance in Kenya Power Company. The following specific objectives were used; to assess the effect of social competitive responses on organizational performance, to determine the effect of technological response on organizational performance, to establish the extent to which marketing response affect organizational performance. The study adopted a case study design. The study targeted a population of 218 respondents who were employees of Kenya Power Company working at Kisii and Nyamira counties. This is because of convenience as it has many customers across the counties. The study sampled a population of 65 respondents who were employees of Kenya Power Company by applying 30% of the target population. A research questionnaire was used as the main research instrument to collect data. After collecting data, the data was processed, registered, edited, coded and tabulated using SPSS. Data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics and correlation. Multiple regression technique was used in determining the simultaneous effect of the independent and dependent variables. The analyzed data was presented in tables and figures. The study found that employees were encouraged to use brand image value for social competitive response in improving performance. The study concluded that technological response had a positive correlation to organizational performance. The study recommended that Kenya Power Company should connect power using a communal connection scheme. The study recommended that KPC to effectively link customers with emergency team to respond to power disruptions and emergencies whenever they occur. The study finally recommended that KPC should install modern transformers that are of good quality and be serviced regularly.