Abstract:
This study sought to determine the effect of strategic leadership practices on performance of
health facility-based youth centres (HFYCs) in the Kenyan city counties of Nairobi, Mombasa
and Kisumu. The study was postulated on a combination of general systems and upper
echelon’s theories and grounded on a paradigm of both positivism and phenomenology
philosophies. The study adopted cross-sectional study design using mixed methods where the
results were subsequently triangulated. All the 37 accessible HFYCs in the three counties were
selected and responses received from the 29 HFYCs. The respondents were 29 health facility
in-charges and 26 in-charges of HFYCs who responded to online questionnaires while 16
leaders of youth peers were interviewed using question guides through zoom platform. The
questionnaires were piloted to determine their reliability and validity before actual data
collection. The quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics, while
qualitative data was thematically analyzed and reported in verbatim form. The findings showed
that there was a positive and significant relationship between strategic leadership practices
and performance of HFYCs in Kenya (r=0.701, p<0.05) and the relationship was moderate.
Hence it was concluded that there is a direct proportional effect of strategic leadership
practices (strategic direction, ethical practices, core competences, human capital, corporate culture and strategic control) on the performance of HFYCs. The study recommended that the
in-charges of health facility-based youth centres should reward good performance of
employees from time to time as well as reviewing the impact of the rewards on performance of
the employees.
