Change Management and Performance of Kenya Ferry Services in Mombasa County, Kenya

Change management is a style of management that aims at encouraging organizations and individuals to deal effectively with the changes taking place in their work. For change management to be successful and its effect positive, managers or supervisors in the organizations need to understand what motivates their team and enroll employee participation. Organizations undergoing transformations must have teams that champion the change process. This demands that all employees within the institutions desiring change especially the top management must commit to the change process. The study aimed to determine the effect of change management and the performance of Kenya ferry services. The specific objectives of this study were to determine the effect of information technology on the performance of Kenya ferry services, to analyze the effect of organizational culture on the performance of Kenya ferry services, to examine the effect of organization structure on the performance of Kenya ferry services and finally to investigate the effect of communication on the performance of Kenya ferry services. The study used Stake holders theory, Lewins three step change theory and Kotters 8- step change management theory. The study used cross sectional survey research design, primary data was collected by administering questionnaires. The target population was made up of 62 members of staff drawn from four departments. Census was used for the purpose of this study where all the members in the population were. Data was collected by the use of open ended questionnaires. Reliability was ensured through a pilot test carried on 6 respondents from Kenya Ports Authority who were not included in the study. Once the questionnaires were collected, they were edited to detect errors and omissions for consistency and completeness. The data was analyzed by the use of Statistical Package for Social Science version 24, T-test was used to test the relationships between variables. The study found out that information technology awareness, organizational culture and communication strongly affect change management, organizational structure has a weak effect on change management. The study concluded that Change in organization structure should be flexible enough to respond quickly to changes, challenges and uncertainty. A Well-functioning organizational structure is important for an organization going through change, because if there are flaws in the structure it will affect communication flow. The study also concluded that when there is a good communication between the employees and employers, and the proper information of strategic relevance of imposed organizational change being told, this can help the employee to accept the change. Better acceptance of the change will lead employees to have better performance. The study recommends that for successful change implementation, workers should be properly trained on change programmes and should be educated on the reasons for change. To avoid resistance to change, appropriate change strategies should be put in place by change managers the participative strategy is recommended for change managers.