The Effect of Management Education in Tertiary Education in Producing Office Personnel (a Case Study in Bolgatanga Polytechnic)
CHAPTER ONE
Objective of Study
The objectives of the study are as follows:
- Ascertain how management mindset enhances clarity of business vision of
- Determine how management status facilitates the development of graduates innovative skills.
- Determine how management capability of graduates facilitates graduates willingness to take
- Determine the overall effects of management education outcome on office personnel behavior.
CHAPTER TWO
INTRODUCTION
Management education is a popular course in the polytechnic curriculum, however, the issue of management education and its effect on office personnel behavior of students has remains in question. This thesis is aimed to propose a model for management education by investigating how the components of education can influence the personnel office behavior of polytechnic students. Four objectives must be addressed in order to achieve the aim. Firstly, the theoretical and conceptual approach must be identified for studying the effect of management education on office personnel behavior. Secondly, the effect that management education has must be tested in terms of office personnel behavior. Thirdly, empirical test must be carried out on the influence of management education on office personnel behavior. And finally is to provide a model in other to serve as a guideline for management education.
The theory of planned behavior was used for the theoretical basis of management education because provides information about office personnel behavior process. The concept of management as a whole is a behavior that is planned in which a new business is suddenly established without planning which is best predicted by personnel office behavior.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
The Concept of Management
The word management was gotten from a French word called “entreprendre”, which therefore means “to undertake” or “to run a business”. Management has become popular and it is seen as the fastest and largest employer of labour in developed economies around the world, which focuses on the growth and development of the economy, Casson (1982). One major problem of research on management is how entrepreneur and management is defined. Gartner (1988) commented that management is lacking clear definition because there are different beliefs concerning management. He further noted that for someone to be called an entrepreneur, the behavior, traits and personalities of the individual must have the characteristics of an entrepreneur. Delmar (1996) was of the opinion that management can be linked to different fields in social science with each creating a definition that is likened to it. Studies conducted in the past have tried to explain various processes and factors that increases the performance of a business unit.
The concept “management” has a wide range of definitions. Management involves the capacity of an individual to develop and manage a business successfully alongside with the risks that comes with it. Management can also be defined as the will and ability of an individual to search and invest in opportunities in an environment and the ability to establish a successful enterprise as a result of the identified opportunities, Okpara (2000). Cantillon (1730) sees management as “self-employment of any sort”. He/she is willing to manages, organizes and takes up the risk of a business. Management brings about the exploitation of opportunities and resources that exist or are available in the market. It is made up of a wide spectrum of activities which are;
- Self employment
- Innovative ideas applied to a business
- Establishment of organizations
- Use of different resources
- Awareness and exploitation of available opportunities in the market
- Working with all factors of production under risk
A prospective entrepreneur pursues the available resources around him not minding the resources that are presently on ground and the ones that are not available. It is the willingness of an entrepreneur to use all factors of production such as resources, labour and capital so as to ensure the business becomes successful. The concept of management as a conceptualization process, organizing, launching and through innovation nurturing a business opportunity into a potential growth venture in a complex and unstable environment. Management entails the willingness and inbuilt ability of a person to research and find new opportunities and investments which can help the individual to establish an enterprise and run it successfully at a profit. It entails finding out the various gaps and opportunities that exists within a business environment and wisely using the necessary resources in an innovative and creative manner to fill up these gaps. Gottleib and Ross (1997) identified management concepts and divided them into three which are evaluating opportunities, securing resources, and growing and sustaining the enterprise.
Entrepreneurs are people with high aptitude that are able to enforce change and have distinctive characteristics that are found in a few people. An entrepreneur as a risk taker (Burnett, 2000). A person that is willing to work for his/herself is known as an entrepreneur. Schumpeter (1934), defined an entrepreneur as a person that innovates and implements changes around the market through the process of new combinations such as using a new technique for production process in the industry. Schumpeter (1934), further defined an entrepreneur is an actor that is responsible for carrying out innovations, sources for new raw materials, new production methods, new product and market and also new principles for the organization.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHOD
INTRODUCTION
The chapter three of this research work covers areas like; research design, population of study, sample size, sources of data collection, research instrument, validity of research instrument, reliability of research instrument and method of analysis of data. It covers how the research work was being conducted. The major purpose of this research work is to examine the effect of management education outcome on office personnel behavior.
Research Design
This is the overall plan, layout and guideline of the study that is used to analyze the needed data. This helps to know if the research questioned is answered accurately. “Research design as a plan for the collection, measurement, analysis of data and a scheme to obtain answers to research questions” (Coopers and Schindler, 2006).
Descriptive research design and causal research design was used. Descriptive research design was used for the analysis of data which involves finding the mean and standard deviation of the results while causal research design was used to describe the effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable.
Population of Study
Population is defined as the total number of units in a particular place. The study population was 1239 students of Bolgatanga Polytechnic. The study population was gotten from the School of Postgraduates, Bolgatanga Polytechnic, Sumbrungu.
Sample Frame
Sample is a small part of a thing that shows what the whole is like. A sample frame is a source material where a sample is gotten from. “The sample frame refers to a collection of all the items that constitute a population from which a sample is drawn”, (Mugenda and Mugenda, 2003). The sample frame of this study is focused on post graduate students of Bolgatanga Polytechnic.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS
Introduction
This chapter provides a clear and detailed analysis of the data gathered with theuse of questionnaire and empirical findings. The aim of this research work is to examine the effect of management education outcome on office personnel behavior among post graduate students of Bolgatanga Polytechnic. The data gathered from the source with the use of questionnaire were classified, organized and analyzed in order to identify the patterns and relationship among the data which is necessary for interpretation.
The variables of the research work directed the arrangement of the tables. Each of the hypothesis focuses on the variables identified and the summary of the main findings follow each hypothesis. This chapter begins with the presentation of the general response rate, socio-demographic distribution of respondents, presentation and interpretation of likert-scale statements and the test of hypothesis.
Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used for analysis and hypothesis testing which used the answered questions in the questionnaires to test the hypothesis after which the results were interpreted.
General Response Rate
Altogether, 302 copies of questionnaire were administered to post graduate students of Bolgatanga Polytechnic, however, a total of 284 questionnaires were properly returned and completed adequately. This therefore represents a response rate of 94.04%.
Socio-Demographic Distribution of Respondents
This section shows the reported demographic profile of the sample, showing distribution in terms of sex, age, college, department, level, work experience, registered business and how long the business has been managed.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
INTRODUCTION
This chapter is the concluding part of the research work which contains the summary of work, conclusion, policy implication of findings, recommendation, limitation of research work, suggestions for further study and the contribution to knowledge.
Summary of Work
The major aim of the study is to identify the effect of management education outcome on office personnel behavior among post graduate students of Bolgatanga Polytechnic.
Specifically, the study sought to achieve the following objective:
- To determine the level of relationship between management education and management education
- To ascertain how management mindset enhances clarity of business
- To determine how management status facilitates the development of graduates innovative skills.
- To determine how management capability of the graduates facilitates graduates willingness to take
- To determine the overall effects of management education outcome on office personnel behavior.
In addition to the objectives, chapter one contains the statement of research problem, the research questions, significance of the study, hypotheses, scope and limitations of the study.
In Chapter two, a review literature and theories of both past and present works on management education and personnel office behavior. The opinions and views of different authors were highlighted as regards to definition, concept, dimensions, traits and overview of management.
Chapter three which is research methodology involves the various methods used in the research work which are the descriptive research design and survey method. The research instrument used for the collection of data was the questionnaire. The questionnaires were administered to 302 post graduate students of Bolgatanga Polytechnic, 284 were retrieved and analyzed.
Chapter four involves the presentation and analysis of data which was gotten from questionnaires administered. Descriptive statistics was used for the analysis of the data, regression and correlation analysis was also used to test the presented hypothesis.
Conclusions
This study concludes that management education has a significant positive effect and is a predictor of management education outcomes. It also concludes that management mindset enhances the clarity of business vision. This study found out that the innovative skills of graduates is a predictor of management status and management capability facilitates the risk taking abilities of graduates. This also reveals that there is a direct positive relationship between management education outcomes and personnel office behavior, this findings therefore validates the theory of planned behaviour by Ajzen and Fishbein (1980).
Recommendation
The following recommendations are made based on the findings of the study:
More institutions should include management courses in their curricula and must ensure that all students regardless of their academic specialization study management. Management education should be grouped according to skills and abilities of students and should also be linked to the academic specialization of each students in a way they can use their knowledge to identify and exploit existing opportunities around them. The learning environment should be conducive enough for learning so as to encourage students to pursue management.
Management education should have the practical aspect whereby students are asked to take up a business project. This therefore helps to build the office personnel behavior of students in which student’s exhibit management traits such as risk taking, innovating new ideas having a clear vision for the business. Management education should also focus on other areas such as identification of business opportunities, how to generate ideas, management financing, management marketing, venture management and also social management.
Graduates should be encouraged to write out a business plan, start a business and network with other people that are also in that line of business. Funds or loans should also be provided for graduates who want to expand or diversify into other lines of business. This therefore helps in boosting the economic growth of the country and also reducing the level of unemployment.
The management mindset of students should be expanded by enabling them to think outside the box and use their creative mind. This therefore can be done by ensuring that the right facilities must be in place and the teachers must be qualified and equipped with adequate knowledge and skills.
Limitation of the Research Work
The findings of the study could not be generalized to the target population because of the scope of study. Data collection was limited to post graduate students of Bolgatanga Polytechnic and therefore finding of this study may not reflect what obtains in other institutions and therefore may not be generalized to other institutions not included in this study. Another constraint encountered was respondents were not willing to fully complete the questionnaires used for collecting data dues to complaints such as no time.
Suggestions for Further Study
The following suggestions will be beneficial for future research:
This study was concerned with post graduate students in Nigeria. The sample was drawn from post graduate students of Bolgatanga Polytechnic, Sumbrungu, Upper east region, Nigeria. A research similar to it can be carried out in another polytechnic so as to ascertain the applicability of the research findings in other contexts. In addition, further research can be carried out using institutions in other geopolitical zones and also, research could be carried out using more than one polytechnic as case study.
Contribution to Knowledge
This study has contributed to knowledge in the following ways:
The research study provides a valuable collection of ideas, facts and figures that can be of importance to other researchers, entrepreneurs, lecturers and students in comprehending the nature of effect and relationship between management education, management education outcome and office personnel behavior.
The empirical review into the relevant research on effect of management education outcome on office personnel behavior showed that a small amount of them focused on office personnel behavior in relation to management education. These few studies took place in nations such as Denmark, Tanzania, UK and Malaysia. The study therefore provides a basis for research works in these countries to be used in Nigerian institutions.
This contributes to knowledge by establishing that management education outcome facilitates the effect of office personnel behavior. In previous studies, some researchers agree that there is a positive relationship between management education outcome and office personnel behavior while others contend that there is no relationship between these two.
This study has therefore contributed to knowledge by pointing out that there is a significant relationship between management education outcome and office personnel behavior.
Some limitations were encountered during the course of the research work such as the concentration of the study on the selected polytechnic thereby limiting the applicability of the findings to institutions in Nigeria. The study recommends policies and strategies for institutions to employ in ensuring students build up their office personnel behavior by study management education and undergoing the practical aspect in the polytechnic.
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