An organization must grow and make profits for future development and it must be able to perform the tasks as stated in its objectives. It is necessary for the organization leadership to appreciate that the organization exists because of the people involved in it and these are whom they lead (Deaconu, Rasca, & Manolescu, 2010). The 21 st Century organization trends consider employees as 'assets' and like all assets, they must make a profit for the organization otherwise they would be discarded which would mean the end of the organization (Gabcanova, 2011). A leader may be very qualified in the technical aspects but ultimately, the actual performance of the tasks will only succeed through the performance of the followers and since the 21 st Century organizations are working through teams, then the success of the tasks will depend on how a line manager leads the followers in the team which makes the human capital performance a significant element in any organization (Deaconu, Rasca, & Manolescu, 2010).
The religion of Christianity was firmly established in Kenya by European missionaries in AD 1844 and since then, it has grown to be the religion for 85.5% of the population. After Kenya gained political independence in AD 1964, numerous Christian denominations have established church congregations in all parts of the country and the competition for congregation members is high. The Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK) and other mainline churches are experiencing declining congregations due to the entry of the Pentecostal churches but the earlier Pentecostal churches are also experiencing the same phenomenon due to the new denominations which are being established in all parts of the country. This paper examines how the church can retain its relevance and sustainability in the country by operationalizing the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) model to gain and retain its congregations. The model approaches sustainability by considering an organization’s social, economic, and environmental strategies. These are what made the early missionaries to penetrate the African market as they established schools, technical and agriculture training institutions and health centers. At their schools and churches, they taught about the need to live in a clean environment and set an example with their church compounds. This paper discusses how the TBL is operationalized in the ACK to resolve the declining phenomenon.
The Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK) is the oldest church in Kenya and the largest protestant denomination in the country. Since religions were liberalized after the attainment of political independence in AD 1964, the church has experienced declining congregations due to the registration of new denominations, especially the Pentecostal ones. The decline has been noticeable from the beginning of the 21st Century but there are no reports of strategies to resolve the phenomenon. Since congregation members are the customers for a church, the declining phenomenon indicates a marketing problem that requires a marketing strategy. This research investigated how the ACK is operationalizing a marketing strategy and its influence on its sustainability. The ACK operates on standardized structures and a diocese is the highest independent unit. This research was conducted in the diocese of Kirinyaga as the unit of analysis with Wanguru Archdeaconry as the unit of observation. The independent variables were the elements of the marketing mix, namely Product, Promotion, Position and Price strategies while the dependent variable was the church sustainability. Data collection involved 308 participants drawn from the 19 parishes in the Wanguru archdeaconry and included the church leadership and the congregation members. The research instruments were a semi-structured questionnaire and interviews. For the Product variable, the research applied the Maslow Hierarchy of needs theory while for the promotion variable, it was the AIDA Model (Attention, Interest, Desire and Action). For the positioning strategy, the Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning (STP) Model was applied while the Value-Based Pricing theory was used for the price strategy. For church sustainability, the research applied the Triple Bottom Line model. Data analysis was conducted using Structural Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The results indicated that the ACK has not operationalized an effective marketing strategy for while the Gospel as the marketing product of the church was highly rated, there were low scores for Promotion, Position and Price strategies.
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