Business Processes Re-Engineering and the Performance of Commercial State-Owned Enterprises in Kenya

Commercial State owned enterprises (CSOEs) in Kenya have recently recorded poor performance forcing the government to constantly bail them through exchequer funding. This has continued to put pressure on the country’s fiscal landscape. To reverse the negative trend, the government implemented business process re-engineering measures. However, to the best of my knowledge, there is no empirical evidence that supported the initiative. This study therefore sought to investigate the effect of business process re-engineering on performance of state-owned enterprises in Kenya. Descriptive survey style of research design was adopted for the study using questionnaire to obtain primary data. Primary data was drawn from a census sample size of 48 Commercial state-owned enterprises where the unit of analysis included two employees from each CSOE comprising of one manager and one head of departments involved in the transformational strategy initiation and implementation for at least the last five years. Out of the 96 questionnaires administered, 81 responses were received reflecting 84.4% response rate. Using Ordinary Least Square, the findings revealed that implementation of business process re-engineering led to an increase performance of Commercial state-owned enterprise by a factor of 0.755. The study concludes that a continuous improvement aimed at redesigning business process reengineering is enough to enhance performance in the state owned enterprise. The study therefore recommends that the state should fully implement Business Processes re-engineering strategy as a means of improving their overall performance of Commercial State-owned Enterprises in Kenya. Keywords: Business Process Reengineering, State owned Enterprises, Performance, Kenya