Behavioral critical success factors for developing sustainable strategic management frameworks: towards strengthening resilience of Zimbabwean urban councils.

Abstract

The study sought to explore the behavioural determinants for developing sustainable strategic management frameworks necessary for organisational resilience of urban councils in Zimbabwe. The study was guided by the following objectives, (i) To evaluate the influence of strategic planning in the creation of sustainable strategic management frameworks necessary for strengthening organisational resilience of Zimbabwean urban councils; ii) To determine the influence of organisational behavioural factors in formulating sustainable strategic management frameworks for strengthening organisational resilience of urban councils in Zimbabwe; iii) To assess the effect of employee traits on the development of sustainable strategic management frameworks for strengthening organisational resilience of Zimbabwean urban councils; iv) To examine the impact of styles of leadership on the creation of sustainable strategic management frameworks for strengthening organisational resilience of urban councils in Zimbabwe; v) To evaluate the extent to which stakeholders’ relationships influence the formulation of sustainable strategic management frameworks for strengthening organisational resilience of Zimbabwean urban councils. vi) To determine the impact of developing sustainable strategic management frameworks on strengthening organisational resilience of Zimbabwean urban councils. A mixed research design was used which required the use of both qualitative and quantitative data. Qualitative data were collected through the use of structured questionnaire whereas an interview guide was used for qualitative data collection. The population of the study were all professional employees within the four categories of the urban councils namely cities, municipalities, towns and local boards. A sample size of 351 participants for quantitative data collection, was drawn using the Krejcie and Morgan (1970) sample size calculator whilst 15 interviews for qualitative data collection, were conducted until a saturation level was reached. A cluster sampling technique was used in this study. Analysis of quantitative data was done using an SPSS version 23 package whilst NVivo version 12 package was used for analysing qualitative data. The results of the study showed that strategic planning; organisational culture, organisational structure, technology innovativeness capability, leadership styles and stakeholder engagement have a positive and significant influence in the development of sustainable strategic management frameworks necessary for the resilience of urban councils in Zimbabwe. Additionally, the development of sustainable strategic management frameworks was found to be positively related to enhancing organisational resilience of urban councils in Zimbabwe. The study recommended that urban councils take behavioural critical success factors into consideration when developing sustainable strategic management frameworks which are necessary for strengthening the resilience of their organisations in view of the prevailing volatile, unpredictable, complex and ambiguous operating environment.