Abstract:
The purpose of the study is to investigate the relationship between employee
commitment and successful strategy implementation in retail banking in South Africa.
Successful implementation of strategy is key for organisations to remain competitive.
Numerous organisations have perfected their strategy formulation process, but
subsequently fail to move from formulation to implementation. Accordingly, this study
explores the field of strategy implementation, and focuses on employee commitment
as a factor for successful strategy implementation. Data was collected through a selfadministered
questionnaire given to participants working in retail banking and
involved in strategy implementation. A total of 104 responses were received.
The findings revealed that employee commitment had a significant effect on
successful strategy implementation. Furthermore, successful strategy
implementation was affected by factors, such as employees not being involved in
strategy planning and formulation, projects not completed within the allocated time
and budget, employees not being rewarded for successfully implementing projects,
lack of feedback on strategic initiatives, and leaders failing to clearly communicate
the strategy.
It is recommended that organisations use employee commitment as a lever for
successful strategy implementation. This will increase employee commitment and
address the factors identified to impact strategy implementation. The value of this
study lies in its exploration of the relationship between employee commitment and
successful implementation in the South Africa context.
