Technical Skills Strategy and Organizational Performance in Volatile Markets: Lessons from Commercial State-owned Corporations in Nairobi City County, Kenya

Public-private partnerships have become an important mechanism for improving service delivery and organisational performance in commercial state-owned corporations, particularly where institutions operate under financial, technical and operational constraints. This study examined the effect of technical skills strategy on organisational performance among commercial state-owned corporations in Nairobi City County, Kenya. The study adopted a descriptive research design and targeted 46 commercial state-owned corporations implementing public-private partnership initiatives. Purposive sampling was used to select 138 management-level respondents, comprising finance managers, human resource managers and operations managers. Primary data were collected using structured questionnaires and analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Reliability testing produced a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.71, indicating acceptable internal consistency of the research instrument. The descriptive findings showed that respondents generally agreed that technical skills are important in managing public-private partnership projects, with an aggregate mean of 4.03 and a standard deviation of 0.76. Correlation analysis indicated a positive and statistically significant relationship between technical skills strategy and organisational performance (r = 0.641, p < 0.01). Regression results further showed that technical skills strategy had a positive and statistically significant effect on organisational performance (β = 0.241, t = 3.265, p = 0.001, R² = 0.612). The findings suggest that technical expertise, specialised training, experienced personnel and skills development contribute to improved efficiency, innovation, adaptability and project implementation. However, the study also identified gaps in the specialised competencies required for complex public-private partnership models. The study concludes that technical skills strategy is an important organisational capability for enhancing performance among commercial state-owned corporations. It recommends continuous professional training, specialised capacity development, mentorship and structured knowledge-sharing mechanisms to strengthen technical competencies and improve partnership outcomes.