Employee Participation and Performance of Manufacturing Companies in Port Harcourt
CHAPTER ONE
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The objectives of the study are;
- To ascertain the relationship between employee involvement in decision making and work performance
- To ascertain the employee involvement in decision making has no significant impact on work performance
- To ascertain the relationship between employee participation and performance of manufacturing companies
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
INTRODUCTION
For a clear cut understanding of this study, the review of related literature will be made in this chapter which in turn will create a focus and better direction. In this light, the literature will discuss first the concept of participation, highlight of expressed views concerning employee participation will be made. Other segements of the literature as leadership style and degree of participation, conditions for participation, influences on participation, arguments for participation, arguments against participation and productivity improvement through participative management and others etc. will be discussed. Management, as defined by Mary Parker Folliet is the art of doing things through people to achieve an objective. A vital concept towards attaining objectives is decision making – making a choice out of alternatives. The choice should conceptually benefit the manager, of the business, the subordinates, the owners of the business and more importantly the public. Decisions made by management and implemented through people, that is, the subordinates. The question then is, should the one to implement the decision have a say in what he should implement.
CONCEPT OF PARTICIPATION
Several management strategies have been developed to enable organizations attain their objectives, one of which is participatory management. Adeola S. (1994, p. 23) defines participation as the active involvement of subordinates of followers in the making of decisions that directly affect them in the work place. Participation in decision making is generally regarded as a sign of enlightened and democratic management. It may be through of the giving and receiving of information, achieve and suggestion and the sharing of experience among members of an organization. In management, Murew (1967 p. 83) opined that “participation particularly applies to allowing the employees) to have a voice in shaping policies, procedures and processes that directly or indirectly affect”. It is therefore a process of sharing among managers and employees. Though the use of participation also, individual members are involved in a wide range of objective setting, problem solving, and decision-making activities of the organization. Davis (1981 p.156) stated that participation is a mental and emotional involvement of persons in group situations that encourage them to contribute to group goals and share responsibility for them.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design
The researcher used descriptive research survey design in building up this project work the choice of this research design was considered appropriate because of its advantages of identifying attributes of a large population from a group of individuals. The design was suitable for the study as the study sought employee participation and performance of manufacturing companies in Port Harcourt
Sources of data collection
Data were collected from two main sources namely:
(i)Primary source and
(ii)Secondary source
Primary source:
These are materials of statistical investigation which were collected by the research for a particular purpose. They can be obtained through a survey, observation questionnaire or as experiment; the researcher has adopted the questionnaire method for this study.
Secondary source:
These are data from textbook Journal handset etc. they arise as byproducts of the same other purposes. Example administration, various other unpublished works and write ups were also used.
Population of the study
Population of a study is a group of persons or aggregate items, things the researcher is interested in getting information employee participation and performance of manufacturing companies in Port Harcourt. 200 staff of Brightway Glove state was selected randomly by the researcher as the population of the study.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION OF DATA
Introduction
Efforts will be made at this stage to present, analyze and interpret the data collected during the field survey. This presentation will be based on the responses from the completed questionnaires. The result of this exercise will be summarized in tabular forms for easy references and analysis. It will also show answers to questions relating to the research questions for this research study. The researcher employed simple percentage in the analysis.
DATA ANALYSIS
The data collected from the respondents were analyzed in tabular form with simple percentage for easy understanding.
A total of 133(one hundred and thirty three) questionnaires were distributed and 133 questionnaires were returned.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Introduction
It is important to ascertain that the objective of this study was to ascertain Employee participation and performance of manufacturing companies in Port Harcourt. In the preceding chapter, the relevant data collected for this study were presented, critically analyzed and appropriate interpretation given. In this chapter, certain recommendations made which in the opinion of the researcher will be of benefits in addressing the challenge of Employee participation and performance of manufacturing companies in Port Harcourt.
Summary
This study was on Employee participation and performance of manufacturing companies in Port Harcourt. Three objectives were raised which included: To ascertain the relationship between employee involvement in decision making and work performance, to ascertain the employee involvement in decision making has no significant impact on work performance and to ascertain the relationship between employee participation and performance of manufacturing companies. In line with these objectives, two research hypotheses were formulated and two null hypotheses were posited. The total population for the study is 200 staff of Brightway Glove. The researcher used questionnaires as the instrument for the data collection. Descriptive Survey research design was adopted for this study. A total of 133 respondents made human processing engineers, electricians, senior staff and junior staff were used for the study. The data collected were presented in tables and analyzed using simple percentages and frequencies
Conclusion
Employee participation in decision making has been found to have favourable effects on employee attitude, commitment and productivity even also on the efficiency of the managers. Thus participative management should be seen as an inevitable tool in any organization both public and private. However before this could be done or undertaken, a thorough examination of the organization policy should be looked into and amended to affect this.
Recommendation
In this study, some recommendations have been made to increase the importance and benefits of employee’s participation in decision making and its recognition.
1) Managers should put more effort in encouraging their employees to come up with suggestions and useful decisions and endeavour to incorporate them into the organization’s decisions and policy.
2)Managers should increase the frequency and level of worker participation in decision making considering the fact that they are the people carrying out the main operative work as they are in the better position to know what goes on those areas.
3) Every organization should endeavour to create a clear-cut understanding and notion of the concept of participative decision making to avoid confusion and clashes of interest between the employees and the managers.
4)More importantly is that the main objective of any scheme for participation should be specific and exact in any organization that care to enable workers recognize the areas their suggestions and opinions are most needed.
REFERENCES
- Adeola S. (1994), Corporate Decision Making, “Must Workers have a Say” Corporate Diary, Financial Guardian, 4th April p. 23.
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- Burt N. Leaders’ New York Harper and Row.
- Davis K. (1981), Organizational Behaviour; McGraw Hill Books Ltd, New Delhi, P.156
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- Globe F. (1983), Getting and using the ideas of People” Industry Week Vol.239.
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