The influence of shared vision on organizational ambidexterity in coffee marketing co-operative societies in Kenya

Coffee production in Kenya has plummeted, hurting the economy and worsening social inequality and poverty. Kenyan coffee marketing cooperative associations have failed to boost exports. Coffee is Kenya's main cash crop. Coffee is the country's principal foreign exchange earner, rural employment source, food security source, and revenue source. The reduction in coffee export earnings shows that coffee marketing cooperatives are inefficient and less flexible. This study examines how shared vision affects organizational ambidexterity. This transformational leadership-based study used exploratory and cross-sectional survey methodologies. The target audience was Kenyan coffee marketing cooperatives. The sample size was 242 Kenyan coffee marketing cooperative societies. A self-administered, semi-structured questionnaire collected primary data from cooperative society managers. The data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results show that shared vision favorably impacts organizational ambidexterity (R = 0.547, R2 = 0.299), explaining 29.9% of variation. Further, shared vision significantly affected organizational ambidexterity (P-value = 0.00). The study found that shared vision affected organizational ambidexterity. Thus, managers of coffee marketing cooperative societies should constantly


Introduction
Small-scale farmers grow most of the world's coffee.Kenya's coffee trade is an important element of its agricultural economy, and most of its six million smallholder farmers must sell their produce through cooperatives by law.Coffee is frequently sold through farmer cooperatives to optimize returns.Resources, agro-processing, and agricultural commercialization are dominated by cooperatives.In the short to medium term, adding capital and labor can accelerate economic growth, but sustained and rapid growth requires technological improvements and innovation that boost business productivity.The worldwide coffee industry is in serious need of management as it continues to decline.
Marketing an agricultural product from the farm to the consumer is agricultural marketing.Planning, planting, tending, harvesting, sorting, packaging, shipping, storing, agro-and food processing, distributing, advertising, and selling are some of the many related duties needed (Kathurima, 2016).Some consider marketing "the activities of purchasing materials, renting equipment, and paying employees" (Zang & Li, 2017).Communication and money are essential for such activities.
Coffee cooperative success hinges on leadership.The entrepreneurial process begins with an opportunity, then the recruitment of a team to help make it a reality and the leadership needed to help those individuals grow and the organization reach its full potential.Thus, effective leadership requires an environment full of fresh activities, cutting-edge discoveries, and ideas and concepts that are always changing and often defy classification (Utami & Wilopo, 2018).Kenyan coffee cooperatives must embrace the entrepreneurial process so leaders may share their vision with team members.

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The global exportation of coffee yields economic advantages that extend across several nations involved in the supply chain, encompassing coffee plantations and coffee establishments.The International Coffee Organization (ICO) reported that the annual value of the retail coffee market exceeds USD 200 billion (ICO, 2014).
Within the economic framework, the agricultural sector envisions prioritizing its pivotal role in Kenya's economy by fostering innovation, adopting a commercial orientation, and modernizing both the farming and cattle industries.In order to realize the desired outcome, the prevailing approach typically involves the reorganization of pivotal entities, such as cooperatives, with the aim of enhancing their performance and enabling rapid expansion within the sector (RoK, 2007).
Coffee cooperatives in Kenya should not just consider adopting good leadership processes; they should also strive to be ambidextrous.According to Mom et al. (2019), an ambidextrous organization is capable of achieving success in both well-established industries that prioritize predictability, hierarchy, and incremental progress, as well as in developing sectors that need boldness, agility, and a readiness to undertake risks.In order to achieve long-term success, particularly within the coffee industry, enterprises must adhere to two key principles as suggested by a longstanding concept in management: capitalizing on their existing capabilities and cultivating significant new ones.Several recent studies have examined the concept of ambidextrous organizations, which possess the ability to effectively engage in both exploratory and exploitative activities.However, past research endeavors encountered challenges in reconciling the inherent tension between these two objectives.
Cooperatives that possess a demand for knowledge may fail to recognize the advantages associated with the commercialization of their current capabilities (Gupta & Shalley, 2006).According to Lubatkin, Simsek, Ling, and Veiga (2006), businesses that possess adeptness in the pursuit of ambidexterity are more likely to have enduring success.The long-term viability of a firm is contingent upon its capacity to effectively respond to dynamic market conditions, thus underscoring the significance of organizational ambidexterity.Venugopal et al. (2020) and Hughes et al. (2020) provide comprehensive descriptions of the anatomical mechanisms underlying ambidexterity.Additionally, these studies suggest that ambidexterity has the potential to enhance productivity.Academic researchers have gone beyond the initial focus on structural antecedents to look at other factors, such as contextual factors, informal networks, and leadership-related factors.
Organizational ambidexterity in the business domain refers to the proactive pursuit of novel opportunities alongside the optimization of existing ones.According to Raisch and Birkinshaw (2008), the cultivation of a culture that embraces ambidexterity enables organizations to simultaneously pursue exploration and exploitation, resulting in a combination of innovation and efficiency.The process of exploration includes the generation of novel layouts, the development of fresh markets, and the establishment of additional routes of distribution.The primary objective of exploitation is to optimize the utilization of existing resources, including data, knowledge, and technology (Heavey & Simsek, 2017).According to O' Reilly and Tushman (2008), organizational ambidexterity refers to the capacity of an organization to simultaneously engage in both incremental and discontinuous innovation.This ability is crucial for ensuring the long-term viability of a firm, as it requires the integration of opposing structures, processes, and cultures within the same organizational framework.
The importance placed on an organization's ambidexterity, which refers to its ability to effectively utilize and explore novel prospects, is significant.Prior research has also indicated that prosperous enterprises demonstrate ambidexterity (Jansen, 2005: 15;Jansen et al., 2005: 352).In other words, organizational ambidexterity has the capacity to (a) mitigate abrupt and significant changes in the structure of an organization, (b) enhance its performance and longevity, (c) redirect the inertia within the organization, (d) increase its revenue, and (e) (f) generate profit through the implementation of both revolutionary and evolutionary preservation, change and preservation, or exploratory and exploitative innovations (Son and Birkinshaw, 2004, p. 210;O'Reilly and Tushman, 2007, p. 29;Han and Celly, 2008, p. 336).
The acquisition of ambidexterity is not a skill that can be deliberately imparted, nor does it occur randomly.The presence of ambidexterity within an organization is contingent upon the leadership styles that are adopted by the senior management.According to Adler et al. (1999: 48), previous research has demonstrated that worker education and trust are significant factors that contribute to effective interactions between workers and management.According to the findings of O' Reilly and Tushman (2008), the establishment of a decentralized organization characterized by a collective culture and shared vision, together with the promotion of effective leadership and the cultivation of flexible managers, are crucial elements in facilitating ambidexterity.According to Bartlett and Ghoshal (1994), an organization can enhance its global connectivity and local responsiveness by fostering a collective vision and effectively overseeing the recruitment, selection, training, and career progression of its leaders.However, Adler et al. (1999) highlighted that the current corpus of research has not yet provided a comprehensive hypothesis regarding the underlying reasons for individual differences in ambidexterity, despite considering relevant factors.According to O' Reilly and Tushman (2007), firms that foster trust between leaders and employees, as well as promote shared vision, tend to exhibit higher levels of ambidexterity compared to more conservative companies.
The agricultural sector in Kenya plays a crucial role in stimulating economic growth.The agricultural sector in Kenya holds significant importance and prominence, contributing 25% to the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), employing 20% of the labor force, and generating 50% of the export money.In Kenya, the cultivation, processing, and commercialization of coffee are predominantly carried out through cooperative systems, with coffee serving as the primary economic driver for rural farmers.Coffee cooperatives are commercial enterprises in which numerous producers collectively assume the role of business owners with the objective of engaging in sales activities.According to the Republic of Kenya (RoK, 2015), the coffee industry in Kenya plays a significant role in supporting around six million individuals, both directly and indirectly.This is achieved through the generation of employment opportunities and the facilitation of economic growth across the whole supply chain inside the nation.Nevertheless, it is worth noting that there has been a gradual decrease in export revenues over a period of time, which serves as a significant indication of the challenges encountered by coffee marketing cooperatives (Farmers Review Africa, 2023).The findings demonstrate a significant decline in Kenya's yearly coffee production, which reached a mere 900 bags.Additionally, the estimated land area dedicated to coffee cultivation was approximately 119,617 hectares, accommodating an estimated 204 million coffee trees.Nevertheless, it is imperative to acknowledge that the coffee business possesses a substantial capacity of 4 billion bags, indicating a significant reservoir of untapped potential that warrants exploitation.The issue faced by several cooperatives lies in the optimization of their capacity.
The International Coffee Organization (ICO, 2019) has reported that despite Kenya's production of high-quality coffee, its growers receive one of the lowest prices globally for their crop.The observed phenomenon can often be attributed to the significant expenses associated with production and a dearth of entrepreneurial mindset towards innovation.According to the African Development Bank (AFDB, 2018), farmer organization leaders frequently have challenges in accessing the financial resources required to procure essential equipment and technology for enhancing their coffee yields and quality, as well as for expanding their enterprises.This constraint restricts the potential pricing that the coffee can command in the global market.In order to achieve a positive impact on prices, it is imperative for leaders to adopt a nimbler style of leadership.If the challenges within the coffee industry are left unattended and the current trajectory is not altered, there is a possibility of a complete collapse of the sector.The potential ramifications of the coffee sector's collapse are extensive, encompassing employment reduction, foreign exchange depletion, heightened poverty rates, and escalated rural crime rates.The implementation of strategies to effect change is of utmost importance, necessitating an examination of the potential impact of shared vision as a characteristic of senior management teams on the organizational ambidexterity of coffee cooperatives.
The primary aim of this study was to examine the impact of shared vision on organizational ambidexterity within coffee marketing cooperative societies in Kenya.

Literature Review Theoretical and Empirical Review
Transformational Leadership Theory Burns (1978) held that when one or more persons engage others in such a way that leaders and followers raise one another to higher levels of motivation and morality transformational leadership occurs.Burns (1978) indicated that, with this kind of collaboration, the morale of their followers should be boosted and this is the transformation leadership.Bass (1985) introduced three distinct but interconnected aspects of transformational leadership, influenced by Burns (1978) and his work: charisma, creativity, and risk-taking consideration.
Charismatic people have the ability to win over and inspire those around them.For a leader to be creative, he or she must be able to inspire their team to think critically about challenges and come up with novel approaches to resolving them.The ability to assess people and guide them toward fulfilling their potential is at the heart of risk-taking.Burns (1985) rewrote the literature on leadership, replacing the term "transformational" with "charisma" and "innovation influence" and adding "inspirational leadership" as a third component.The ability to stir the passions of one's followers is another definition of inspirational leadership.
Similarly, Conger (1999) argues that the foundation of transformational leadership is the development of an awe-inspiring vision that gives followers a sense of belonging and direction.Those who follow a leader become familiar with the organizational or societal norms and practices that best support that leader's vision (Northouse, 2013).According Hughes, Hughes, Stokes, Lee, Rodgers and Degbey (2020) analysis, strong leadership is essential because it helps employees from different departments work together to achieve a common goal, despite their sometimes-competing responsibilities.
Finally, transformational leadership emphasizes movement toward a better future.To effect change in their followers, transformational leaders must first inspire them to act in ways that go beyond their own self-interest and to learn more about a given topic or problem (Yukl, 2013).The effects of transformational leadership can be mitigated by adapting current organizational structures to better serve the vision (Howell and Avolio, 1993).It also focuses on moving an organization from a low performance level to a higher one, such as from satisfactory to great (Bass and Riggio, 2006).The theory sits well with organizations that shares vision with every person in the organization is a sense of organizational ambidexterity.

Influence of shared vision on organizational ambidexterity in coffee marketing co-operative societies
Organizational ambidexterity refers to an organization's ability to simultaneously explore and exploit different opportunities, thereby enabling it to balance short-term and long-term goals.In the context of coffee marketing co-operative societies in Kenya, a shared vision on organizational ambidexterity can help these societies to achieve sustainable growth and long-term success.
According to Pangarso et al (2020), to develop a shared vision on organizational ambidexterity, the organization follows a number of steps.One is conducting a situational analysis of the organization.This involves assessing the current state of the coffee marketing co-operative societies in Kenya.This analysis should focus on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats facing the societies.Second is defining the Vision of the organization.The vision for organizational ambidexterity should be developed with input from all stakeholders, including the management, members of the co-operative societies, and external partners such as government agencies and coffee buyers.The vision should be aligned with the overall goals of the co-operative societies and should emphasize the need to balance exploration and exploitation.
Third is the development of a road map within the organization.A roadmap should be developed to guide the implementation of the vision.The roadmap should outline the key activities, resources, and timelines required to achieve the vision.Fourth, is the implementation the roadmap.The roadmap should be implemented with a focus on building the necessary capabilities to achieve organizational ambidexterity.This may involve developing new products and services, expanding into new markets, or investing in research and development.Finally, is to monitor and evaluate progress.Regular monitoring and evaluation should be conducted to track progress towards the vision.This will help to identify areas that require improvement and to adjust the roadmap accordingly.
Organizational ambidexterity refers to the ability of an organization to simultaneously pursue and balance exploration and exploitation activities, leading to innovation and efficiency (Gupta, Smith, & Shalley, 2006).In the context of coffee marketing cooperative societies in Kenya, organizational ambidexterity can enable these organizations to effectively navigate both the volatile global coffee market and the challenges posed by local conditions.A shared vision among members, management, and stakeholders is crucial in fostering organizational ambidexterity.This shared vision should prioritize the development of new products, services, and processes, while also optimizing existing ones.Additionally, it should foster an environment that supports experimentation, risktaking, and learning from both successes and failures (O'Reilly & Tushman, 2013).
To achieve this shared vision, coffee marketing co-operative societies in Kenya must also invest in talent development, innovation capacity building, and resource allocation strategies that support ambidexterity (Chengappa et al., 2014).Moreover, leadership should be transformative, adaptable, and collaborative to ensure that the vision is sustained in the long run.It is clear that, organizational ambidexterity is crucial for the success of coffee marketing co-operative societies in Kenya.A shared vision, coupled with deliberate investment and leadership strategies, can foster a culture of innovation and efficiency that allows these organizations to thrive in a rapidly changing environment.
A shared vision among members of these co-operatives could be developed through open communication, collaboration, and a commitment to long-term goals.This could involve a shared understanding of the need for both explorative and exploitative strategies, as well as a commitment to balancing short-term and long-term goals.Research has shown that organizational ambidexterity can lead to improved performance in various industries (Raisch and Birkinshaw, 2008).In the context of coffee marketing co-operatives in Kenya, it could lead to increased.Chebbi, Yahiaoui, Vrontis, and Thrassou, (2017) found that when senior teams have a shared vision, they are better able to solve conflicts that arise from different ideas about how to explore and exploit resources in the organization.A lack of such shared values, on the other hand, may be indicative of distrust and suspicion among senior team members and throughout the organization, making it difficult to draw common characteristics and to identify, extract, and utilize diverse skills, abilities, and perspectives within exploratory and exploitative functions.
Organizational ambidexterity requires senior team members to continually focus on their common goals and endeavor to share their vision and values in order to produce chances.The lack of top management and company-wide vision sharing increases distrust and suspicion, whereas a lack of vision sharing reduces friction and disagreements (Jansen et al., 2008).Sharing a shared set of values and goals also fosters a sense of belonging and encourages a perspective that is more long-term, both of which are crucial for any kind of research.Therefore, departments within a company should work together to achieve common goals (O'Reilly & Tushman, 2008).Such a shared vision can be articulated through the development of a strategic plan that explicitly recognizes the need for ambidexterity.This plan should outline how the co-operative will continue to improve its existing operations while also exploring new opportunities and adapting to changing market conditions.This requires a culture of innovation, where employees are encouraged to share new ideas and take calculated risks.According to Mukerezi, (2013), developing a shared vision is crucial for the success of co-operative societies in Kenya.This shared vision should be based on the co-operative's values and should align with the aspirations of its members.It should be communicated clearly to all stakeholders and should be regularly reviewed and updated to ensure it remains relevant.
In summary, developing a shared vision on organizational ambidexterity is crucial for coffee marketing co-operative societies in Kenya.This vision should emphasize the need to balance innovation and efficiency, and should be articulated through the development of a strategic plan.A culture of innovation should be fostered, and the shared vision should be regularly reviewed and updated to ensure it remains relevant.

Research and Methodology
The interpretivism philosophical approach was used for this investigation.According to Hudson and Ozone (1988), interpretivists hold the belief that the informants are both independent and engaged with one another.Methods of both exploratory and crosssectional surveying were utilized in the study.Farmers' coffee marketing cooperatives were specifically targeted as the study's demographic of interest.The formula that Yamane (1967) used to determine the sample size resulted in the identification of a sample size of 242 individuals.Both secondary data, which was acquired with the use of a data collection sheet, and primary data, which was collected with the help of semi-structured questionnaires that were filled out by the participants themselves, were used in the study.

Analysis and Findings
The objective of the study was to investigate the influence of shared vision on organizational ambidexterity in coffee marketing cooperative societies in Kenya.The response rate for the study was 86.78% which the researcher declares as good in agreement with Kevin, Shimon, Elija and Leah (2017) who indicated that a response rate above 70% was very good.
The shared vision as an attribute is embodied in collective goals and aspirations that show organizational growth and development path for its future.Essentially a vision has to be internalized by the members of the organization.The study examined how vision as an attribute of senior team members enhances organizational ambidexterity.The respondents were expected to indicate how they agree with statements on how often the engage in parameters of share with the following rating: 0 -Not at all, 1 -Once in a while, 2 = Sometimes ,3 = Fairly often and 4 = Frequently.The findings are as shown in Table 1.  1 the parameter that had the highest score was "I am satisfied when others meet agreed-upon standards" with a score of 3.384 and a standard deviation of 1.0011 displaying an aspect of shared vision in the coffee cooperative society.The parameter further indicated that Coffee Cooperative managers are satisfied when others meet agreed-upon standards as the majority 81.9% indicated during the study.
The second parameter in terms of scores was "I help others find meaning in their work" which had a score of 3.3077 and a standard deviation of 1.0032.On percentage, the managers of coffee cooperatives precisely 58.1% have to help others find meaning in their work frequently.The parameter that had the least score was "As long as things are working, I do not try to change anything" which had a mean of 1.95 and a standard deviation of 1.42 which means that the majority 54.2 % of managers of coffee marketing cooperatives feel that there need to change the organization shared vision sometimes and the review should not at all be ignored.
A combined value of shared vision was computed by its mean and the spread was checked by standard deviation, skewness and kurtosis as shown in Table 2.According to the study, shared vision has been internalized and managers have to review and keep on motivating as they keenly supervise their teams to enhance performance as confirmed by a mean of 2.8 and the standard deviation was small meaning there was less disparity.This is confirmed by the platykurtic distribution whose value is less than three while the negative skewness show the rating was higher on the scale.
The research indicates that shared vision is a very strong tool for ambidexterity as the coffee marketing cooperatives become more ambidextrous as senior teams inspire a shared vision through changing their goals, developing standards, finding a meaning for work, recognizing and rewarding their performance upon achievement of targeted goals which derives satisfaction when the goals are achieved.
The research is supported by other literatures from studies that have indicated that, senior team members have to consistently focus on their common goals and strive to share their vision and values in order to generate opportunities (Clauss, Kraus, Kallinger, Bican, Brem, & Kailer, 2020).Additionally, Mwangi and Karanja (2014) avers that inspiring shared vision is a very strong tool for the successful transformation of practice, as a vision releases four main forces in the organization attracting commitment, energizing people,creating meaning of work, establishing standard of excellence and bridging the present and future.The study agrees with McCormack et al., (2007) that engaging team members in a shared vision are not only important for transformational leadership style but also it is essential practice to provide direction and clarity of purpose for achievement of goals.
The null hypothesis was to test that there is no significant relationship between shared vision and organizational ambidexterity.To achieve this, multiple linear regression was done as per the following model;

Y = βo + β1 X1 + ε Equation 1 Regression Model
Where Y is Organizational ambidexterity in X1 represents shared vision, β0 is the regression constant, and β1 is shared vision regression coefficients for the independent variables respectively and Ԑ is the residual or error term.The dependent variable (Organizational ambidexterity) was regressed using multiple linear regression against the independent variables of shared vision under a 95% confidence interval.The finding of the regression was indicated in Table 3 below:  3 showed the values of R and R² for the model fitted of 0.547 and 0.299 respectively.Organizational ambidexterity is positively influenced by shared vision (R = 0.547).The R² value of 0.299 implied that 29.9% of the variation in organizational ambidexterity was explained by vision shared.
This relationship is statistically significant as confirmed by the ANOVA results in Table 4.  4 showed the F statistic p value of 0.000.Since the p value of the F-statistic was less than 0.05, it implied that considering the multiple regression model, this means that the data well fit the model being estimated.
The relationship between shared vision and organizational ambidexterity was modelled through the regression coefficients whose significance are indicated in Table 5.The coefficient tables showed that shared vision positively predicts organizational ambidexterity and this relationship is statistically significant.The lower and upper bound of the coefficient at 95% confidence interval confirm that the coefficient is not zero.The model of the influence of shared vision and organization's ambidexterity derived from the coefficient's table is indicated in Equation 4.

SV= Shared vision = error term
These results agree with Jansen, George, Bosch, and Vloberda, (2008) who noted that a set of senior team's attributes of shared vision remain important elements for ambidextrous organizations.They further noted that, for the organization to be ambidextrous, they have to help the employees understand the focus on the organization so that they operate in one focus.
Further, Jansen et al., (2008) noted that sharing vision through the company decreases the conflict and disagreements and lack of it brings distrust and suspicion within senior managers and throughout the organization.However, divergent beliefs about identity decrease the commitment of employees and increase competition between groups in the organization which result in dislike, distrust and conflict (Diaz-Fernandez et al., 2017).
The findings of this study support the transformational leadership which occurs when one or more persons engage with others in such a way that leaders and followers raise one another to higher levels of motivation and morality.In his view transformational leaders should give moral uplift to their followers.This is achieved when the leaders shares their vision with the people they lead (Chebbi et al., 2017).

Conclusion
According to the findings of the study, having a shared vision significantly contributes to the ambidexterity of organizations.Nevertheless, ambidexterity in organizational structures in coffee cooperatives remains low despite the enormous importance of shared vision in these organizations.According to the findings of the study, managers of coffee marketing cooperative societies should recommend to their staff that they frequently communicate their vision with the other workers because doing so would increase ambidexterity.In addition, the research suggests that all training for coffee marketing cooperative societies should focus on the necessity of having a shared vision as well as other drivers of the ambidexterity of companies, as this is essential in light of the fact that modern organizations are operating in extremely fluid and unpredictably complex contexts.

Table 2 :
Summary of shared Vision

Table 3 :
Model Summary for Organizational ambidexterity and shared vision