Influence Of Transitional Leadership In Effectiveness Of County Government Of Vihiga

ABSTRACT Devolution has worked in different parts of the world, US, India, Nigeria, Sweden, UK and South Africa. Counties will draw experiences from similar environments and factors that bring them closer and learn how they operate, benchmark their strengths and transfer that knowledge and experience to benefit the county. But the counties vary in their level of development. The County Government of Vihiga has continued to face a number of challenges. According to reports in The County Fiscal Strategy Paper of 2017, County Budget Review and Outlook Paper of 2017 and County Integrated Development Plan 2013 to 2017 rising debt burden, unstable macro-economic environment, poor local revenue performance, rising unemployment, poor implementation of projects, leakage and misappropriation of county resources continue to be challenges. These have been attributed to non adherence to financial system and lack of coordination in the activities of the county government even at project implementation. The previous efforts have not linked these problems to leadership approaches in the county and especially transitional leadership, when in fact, the solution may lie in the leadership orientation of the county. Previous scholars in the subject of leadership in various contexts focused broadly. They covered leadership styles but did not cover transitional leadership. The influence of transitional leadership in the effectiveness of organizations, County Government of Vihiga included, continue to be unknown. Specifically, influence of open position transitional leadership (OPTL), slot-filling transitional leadership (SFTL), intentional transitional leadership (ITL) and or strategic transitional leadership (STL) in the effectiveness of County Government of Vihiga has remained unclear. This study intended to investigate influence of OPTL, establish influence of SFTL in the effectiveness of the county government, investigate influence of ITL and establish influence of STL in the effectiveness of the county government. The study was guided by Bridge‟s Transition Model and a conceptual framework in which independent variable is transitional leadership and dependent variable is effectiveness. The population comprised 3040 staff of the County government of Vihiga. Sample was 353.Stratified random sampling was used. Primary and secondary data was used. The latter from relevant documents, such as records of the county government, reports and publications; and the former using semi structured questions. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics such as means, standard deviation and frequencies. The results are expected to benefit policy makers involved in the county government. Researchers may also pursue further research from this study.