This paper examined the relationship between environmental turbulence and strategic flexibility of SMEs in Port Harcourt. Primary data was generated through structured questionnaire. The accessible population was (50) registered small and medium enterprises as listed in SMEDAN and National Bureau of Statistics Collaborative Survey. The entire population of 50 SMEs in Port Harcourt was adopted as a census. The reliability of the instrument was achieved by the use of the Cronbach Alpha coefficient with all the items scoring above 0.70. The hypotheses were tested using the Spearman’s Rank Order Correlation coefficient. The tests were carried out at a 0.05 significance level. Findings from the study revealed that there is a significant relationship between environmental turbulence and strategic flexibility of SMEs in Port Harcourt. The specific findings revealed that there is a significant relationship between environmental turbulence and production flexibility, marketing flexibility and HR flexibility of SMEs in Port Harcourt. The study concludes that in the unpredictable and competitive world, organizations must have dynamic capabilities one of which is strategic flexibility to compete otherwise, they will move towards annihilation. Strategic flexibility provides the organization with the possibility of quick response and compatibility with the environment hence, allowing the organization to improve its efficiency. The study recommends that SMEs should develop strategic flexibility by deliberately and strategically crafting organizational capability, providing timely response and adapting to environmental changes that would meaningfully impact on organizational performance.
Keywords: Small and Medium Enterprises, environmental turbulence, strategic flexibility
