Effect of Stakeholder Linkages on Organizational Performance of Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization

Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization is tasked with facilitating improved production technology and establishing adequate feedback systems from agricultural producers. However, the agricultural research services and outputs from the institution are not adequately availed and adopted by the target clients for sustainable development through agriculture. This led to the assessment of effect of stakeholder linkages on organizational performance of Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization. The objectives of the study included; to find out the effect of normative linkages, diffused linkages, enabling linkages and functional linkages on organizational performance of Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization. It was further guided by theories; stakeholder theory and marketing myopia theory. Descriptive survey design was applied to gather adequate and detailed information for the research study. The target population was the research scientists of institutes of Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research organizations. Questionnaires were used to collect data that was analysed by descriptive and inferential statistics with aid of Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS). Study findings were presented in tables. Both descriptive and inferential findings revealed that stakeholder linkages had an effect on organizational performance. Regression analysis showed that the correlation of each independent variable and dependent variable was strong and positive. It implied that there was a relationship between normative, diffused, functional and enabling linkages taken together and organizational performance of KALRO was strong, positive and statistically significant. Therefore, the interactions of KALRO with stakeholders affected their organizational performance. Based on the coefficient of determination findings, variation or changes in organizational performance was well explained by the changes in the changes from the stakeholder linkages. The overall significance of the model showed that it fitted the data and all independent variables affected the dependent variable. The ratio of departure of estimated values of the study parameters from the hypothesized values to the standard errors showed that the stakeholder linkages affected organizational performance since their association was significant. The study findings will benefit Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization, the government through ministry of agriculture, farmers and other researchers. Findings contain important information that can guide marketing of KALRO products thereby improving their uptake and help in revenue generation to fill the existing gap between budget and revenue which indicates the extent of organization performance.