Effect of Strategic Communication on Employee Performance in Public Universities in Upper Eastern Region, Kenya

Change management is the effective management of a business modification that organisational leaders, administrators, and employees thrive in to successfully realise the needed technology or organisational changes. Recognising the need for change and guiding organisations through change is the most challenging role for any leadership. Strategic management determines the vectors of the future development of the company with clear goals for activities. Some changes can be altered while others are not; hence, the risk involved in managing change. The general objective of this study was to determine the effects of strategic communication on employee performance in public universities in the Upper Eastern Region, Kenya. The study was anchored on Kurt Lewis Lewis' change management theory and supported by two other theories, Resource-Based View theory and Leadership theory. A descriptive survey design was adopted using quantitative methods. Employees of these three universities were the study population, with a target population of 1296 employees. Data were obtained using structured questionnaires, a sample size of 324 respondents, and a response rate of 246, indicating a response rate of 75.95%. A stratified sampling technique was used in selecting Academic Staff and Support Staff, while a purposive sampling technique was used to select the university Management Staff; lastly, stratified sampling was used to select the Administrative Staff. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to assess the questionnaire's reliability, and a score of at least 0.7 indicated the dependability of the data. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings indicated that there was a significant positive relationship between strategic communication (β=0.557; p=0) and employee performance.