School of Business & Public Management
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://repository.kcau.ac.ke/handle/123456789/43
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Item Debt as Maternal Emotional Work: Financialized Caregiving in Nairobi's Digital Credit Economy(Wiley Online Library, 2026) Wamalwa, Lucy S.This paper examines how women's caregiving responsibilities are sustained through digital credit in Nairobi's informal settlements, reframing borrowing as unpaid emotional work. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 30 women mobile-credit users, the study shows that borrowing and repayment are embedded in practices of care and moral obligation, including managing hunger, schooling, and socially visible moments of inclusion. In this context, borrowing emerges as a response to caregiving crises rather than a calculated economic choice. Repayment is experienced as embodied work marked by exhaustion, anxiety, and sacrifice, whereas opaque algorithmic decisions generate mistrust that women must manage. These dynamics form a recursive maternal debt–care nexus: Strain triggers borrowing, borrowing restores moral order, repayment demands bodily effort, and emotional containment sustains continued participation. By positioning emotional work as the mechanism through which digital credit becomes workable in household life, the paper extends emotional work theory beyond organizational settings and shows how digital finance relies on gendered obligations of care. Financial inclusion thus operates by reallocating the burden of care onto women through debt, positioning emotional work as the hidden infrastructure that sustains digital finance in conditions of precarity.Item Double Legitimacy in Member-Driven Organizations: The Complementarity of Formal and Relational Governance in SACCO Performance(Wiley online library, 2026) Wamalwa, Lucy S.Governance research has traditionally emphasized either formal structures of accountability or relational mechanisms of trust, often treating them as substitutes. This study advances a different view by conceptualizing governance as a system of double legitimacy: formal mechanisms confer external credibility, while relational mechanisms generate internal moral authority. Drawing on survey data from 458 Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies (SACCOs) in Kenya, this study examines how these dimensions interact to shape organizational performance. Hierarchical linear and polynomial regression analyses show that performance is highest when structural accountability and relational trust coexist. Formal governance—through audits, elections, and by-law enforcement—safeguards solidarity from opportunism, while relational governance—through fairness, conflict resolution, and trust—renders rules legitimate in the eyes of members. The results confirm that neither dimension is sufficient on its own: organizations relying exclusively on formal rules risk disengagement, while those depending solely on trust lack external legitimacy. The study makes four contributions. First, it extends institutional theory by showing how hybrid governance forms are sustained through relational practices as well as structural adoption. Second, it advances relational governance research by theorizing relational governance as an intra-organizational dynamic. Third, it develops legitimacy theory through the construct of double legitimacy, highlighting the recursive interaction of compliance and trust. Finally, it challenges conventional views of authority boundaries by showing that blurred roles can recycle legitimacy across domains, sustaining governance under weak institutional enforcement. Beyond SACCOs, these insights apply to schools, NGOs, churches, and other member-driven organizations where authority depends on both rules and relationships.Item Trust violation, spirituality and authentic leadership(Emerald publishing, 2026) Wamalwa, Lucy S.Purpose This study aims to examine how follower trust violations influence authentic leadership and how leaders’ spiritual orientations shape this relationship. While most trust research focuses on leaders as violators of followers’ trust, this study shifts the analytical lens to explore how leaders’ authenticity is affected when followers violate expectations. Design/methodology/approach Survey data were collected from 588 managers and employees in Kenya’s tourism sector. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to estimate baseline relationships between trust violations, spirituality and authentic leadership. Polynomial regression was then used to examine potential nonlinear and interaction effects across four dimensions of trust violation and five dimensions of spirituality. Findings Integrity and dependability violations significantly undermined authentic leadership, whereas competence violations showed weaker effects and relational violations displayed no consistent linear pattern. Spiritual orientations generally reinforced authentic leadership, particularly purpose, transcendence and compassion. However, some dimensions – such as gratitude and inner peace – were associated with more ambivalent effects, occasionally coinciding with reduced openness. Polynomial analyses further revealed nonlinear dynamics, including accelerating declines in authenticity following repeated integrity violations and curvilinear patterns in relational violations. Research limitations/implications The cross-sectional design and reliance on self-reported measures limit causal inference. In addition, the sectoral and cultural context may constrain generalizability. Future research using longitudinal and multi-source designs could examine how authentic leadership evolves over time following trust disruptions. Practical implications Leadership development programs should prepare leaders to manage follower trust violations constructively. Spiritual orientations can support authenticity when grounded in purpose and compassion, but excessive emphasis on harmony or gratitude may discourage necessary confrontation and accountability. Social implications The findings highlight the importance of trust and spiritual meaning systems in leadership relationships, particularly in collectivist and high power-distance contexts where relational disruptions can have broader organizational and social consequences. Originality/value This study advances authentic leadership theory by examining how authenticity is recalibrated under conditions of follower trust violations. It also extends trust research by shifting attention from leader violations to follower violations and contributes to spirituality research by demonstrating that spiritual orientations can have both enabling and constraining effects on leadership authenticity.Item Strategic Action After Succession: The Behavioral Governance of CEO Trait Divergence(Wiley Online Library, 2026) Waswa, Fanice; Wamalwa, Lucy S.; Munene, LaiboniResearch Question/Issue: CEO succession is a pivotal governance event that can entrench existing strategies or catalyze renewal. This study examines how psychological trait divergence between outgoing and incoming CEOs—across conscientiousness, openness, extraversion, agreeableness, and locus of control—shapes strategic change versus continuity in firms' competitive actions. Conceptualizing succession as a relational behavioral- governance process, we analyze how trait alignment and divergence jointly condition post succession outcomes. Research Findings/Insights: Using dyadic data from 304 Kenyan enterprises, we find that divergence in extraversion, open ness, and locus of control is associated with greater post succession strategic change, whereas similarity in conscientiousness sustains stability but may constrain flexibility. Curvilinear effects indicate diminishing returns at very high trait levels, whereas agreeableness exhibits context- dependent effects, underscoring the nonlinear nature of trait interactions. Theoretical/Academic Implications: The study extends Upper Echelons Theory by advancing a dyadic, trait- divergence framework that conceptualizes succession as a relational cognitive process rather than an individual effect. It also refines imprinting theory by showing how predecessor dispositions embed behavioral norms that condition successor adaptation. Practitioner/Policy Implications: Boards and nomination committees can actively manage psychological continuity and selective divergence to balance institutional memory with strategic flexibility and long- term competitiveness.Item Together We Can Do Great Things An Inclusive Business Model(Journal of the International Academy for Case Studies, 2020) Wamalwa, Lucy S.Doing business in developing economies like Kenya is difficult because of resource scarcity, weak institutions, poor market infrastructure and lower purchasing power of consumers especially in rural areas. In the past, most multinational corporations have repeatedly failed to penetrate this market, acquire relevant and valuable resources, to create value for these consumers, launch, and grow a sustainable business. The challenges in designing a business model in this market is how to combine and maintain a balance between low cost, quality products, sustainability, profitability, and integrate all stakeholders in value creation. Safaricom Kenya offers a viable business model for this market, as they are socially and culturally appropriate and environmentally sustainable building value off local resources and capabilities. The company harnesses customer competencies by engaging with them beyond the mere buyer-seller relationship to innovate products with them. Their strength and survival largely depend on how they understand consumers' needs and how they create, enhance, retain, and, most importantly, utilize and preserving the existing social capital."Item TQM perspectives under the competitive strategies and the organization performance in Kenyan manufacturing sector(Academy of Strategic Management Journal, 2017) Wamalwa, Lucy S.The Kenya manufacturing industry contributes to 10.7% of the country GDP, 26% of the merchandise exported and 12 % of formal employment. The manufacturing industry in Kenya is faced with a number of challenges one of which is competition from local firms as well as well-established multinationals. This necessitates the need for the sector to implement a viable business strategy in order to improve its competitiveness. Generic strategies are widely accepted both academically and practically as sustainable competitive strategies and their influence on performance have been critically examined in a wide range of business settings in countries worldwide. TQM on the other hand establishes quality enhancement as a dominant priority and one that is vital for long-term effectiveness and survival, it focuses on increasing efficiency and improving processes, providing superior customer value and meeting customer needs. The purpose of this study was to examine the mediation effect of TQM practices, on the relationship between competitive strategies and organization performance in the Kenyan manufacturing industry. The study adopted a descriptive research design. The target population for the study was 39 ISO certified, manufacturing firms. The target respondents were the CEO, Strategic managers and Quality Assurance Managers a total of 117 respondents. A pilot test was conducted to assess the questionnaire validity and reliability of the data. Structural equation modeling (SEM) and multiple Regression analysis were used. The finding indicated that TQM partially mediates the relationship between cost leadership strategy and organization performance (organization learning and growth and internal process performance) but TQM fully mediated the relationship between differentiation strategy and the following performance measures internal process performance and organization learning and growth.