Strategic Alternatives for the Continued Operation of Kenya Airways

A Project Report Submitted to the Chandaria School of Business in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Masters in Business Administration (MBA)The concept of strategic alternatives has received a lot of attention from scholars for a very long time now. Despite numerous studies in this area, interest has not faded away. To this end, the objectives of this study were to identify the determinants of strategic alternatives to better understand what drives airlines into such alliances and to identify factors that affect the performance of the alliances. The research was done through descriptive survey design, which involved all airlines with scheduled flights in and out of Kenya totaling thirty six (42). The target population was CEOs or senior managers within the airlines, which had response rate of 92.7%. Key findings of the study showed all the variables under study affected the strategic alternating in KQ. The study found that the all the variables have a positive Pearson correlation which shows that the effect is direct proportion to the strategic alternatives for continued operation of Kenya Airways. Organization competitiveness have a strong relationship with organization leadership with r = 0.661 which is significant at 0.01 level. In addition, organization competitiveness had a very strong correlation with industry challenges which had a Peasrson correlation of r = 0.836 where are it was significant at 0.01 level. Further, the correlation between organization competitiveness and organization resources had a Pearson correlation of 0.053 where by it was not significant for strategic alternatives for continued operation of Kenya Airways. The study recommends that competitive in the airline industry can be eliminated by the industries forming alliances that will allow the airline industries to rip the benefit of operating in different destination. In addition, when the airline adopts the right technology and invest on the state of the art air plane that can be able operate in the harsh climatically conditions and different routes. Also recommends that the board of directors should always put in place the best leaders they can get because best leaders are known to foster growth of the organizations by maximizing the shareholder’s wealth. Leaders should be in front line to identify the best strategic alternatives that the organization can adapt to ensures growth. Further, the study also recommends that the airline industries should diversify their operation in order to curb the rising global oil crisis and also the economic instability of the different countries that they are operating. This will help the organization to rip the benefits even when some of the economy in which the firm is operating is economically unstable. Finally, the study recommends that the airline industry should withhold the dividends pay out first so that the amount to be issued can be ploughed back to help boost the airline in making profit. In addition, the airline industry can think of mergers in order to eliminate competitio