Influence of Job Challenges and Goal Ambiguity on the Psychological Well Being of Employees of Champions Breweries
Chapter One
Objective of the Study/Purpose
This study intends to investigate the influence of job challenge and goals ambiguity on the psychological well being of the employees in champion brewery in Uyo. Specifically, the study tends to:
- Examine the influence of job challenge on the psychological well-being of employees.
- Investigate the influence of lack of goal clarity on the psychological well being of employees.
- To see whether there is an interaction effect of employees between job challenge and goal ambiguity on the psychological wellbeing.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Job challenges
Argyris (1960) has stated that since the foremen realized the employees in this system will tend to produce optimally under passive leadership, especially with employees agreement, a relationship may be hypothesized to evolve between the employees and the foremen which might be called the „psychological work contract‟. In other words, the employee will maintain high production, low grievances etc if the foremen guarantee and respect the norms of the employees‟ informal culture. Levinson et al (1962) have defined it as a series of mutual expectations of which the parties to the relationship may not themselves be dimly aware but which nonetheless governs their relationship with each other.
Schein (1965) has explained that the notion of a psychological contact implies that there is an unwritten set of expectations operating at all times between every member of an organisation and the various managers and others in that organisation. The individual has a variety of expectations of the organisation and that the organisation has a variety of expectations of him. Both parties in the same organisation can have different views regarding specific terms because Job challenges represents how people interpret promises and commitments. Kotter (1973) has defined the term as an implicit contract between an individual and his organisation which specifies what each expects to give and receives from each other in the relationship.
According to Schein (1978), the expectations between the organisation and individual employee do not only cover how much work is to be performed for how much pay, but they cover a whole set of obligations, privileges and rights. Schein is of the view that Job challenges changes over time as the organisation‟s needs and employees‟ needs change. Coyle-Shapiro and Parzefal (2008) have opined that at the early development of the concept, conceptualisation of Job challenges was marked by differing emphases and absence of acknowledgement of how one conceptualisation relates to prior work.
Earlier definition of Argyris, Levinson et al and Schein consider it to include both the employee and the organisation‟s perspective. This was supported by Guest (2004) that the main focus of Job challenges is the employment relationship at the individual level, that is, between the employer and employee. On the other hand, the definition of Rousseau, Morrison and Robinson said that it is only employees, not the organisation, that can hold Job challenges (Conway & Briner, 2005).
Dimensions of Job challenges
The identification of Job challenges contents and dimensions has contributed significantly to the study in the area and helped in providing very good explanation and understanding of how and why employees respond to changes in the employment relationship
(Grammie, 2006). The content of the Job challenges refers broadly to an employee‟s perceptions of the contribution they promise to give to their employer and what they believe the organisation promises in return (Conway & Briner, 2005). For example, employee contributions may be in form of exhibiting higher level of skills and knowledge in the course of his work, loyalty and being committed to the organisation. On the other hand, the organisation, in return, may provide to the employee such thing as good pay and bonus, promotion, training and recognition. Therefore, the contents of Job challengess constitute not what the employee will give and what he will receive in exchange, but rather the contents are the implicit and explicit promise that surrounds the exchange (Conway & Briner, 2005). According to Conway and Briner (2005), the contents of Job challenges constitute two types of information. Information about what is exchanged, and information about how or the basis on which such exchange will take place.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Design
The research design that was used for this study is descriptive. Descriptive method is where data are collected for the purpose of describing and interpreting existing conditions, purposely to make discovery and explanation of events. Descriptive design was used in this study because it helps in giving accurate descriptions necessary for making policy decisions. This study assessed the situation within the manufacturing environment, thus descriptive research is necessary for this kind of research. Descriptive research is fitting for all types of research in assessing situations as a prerequisite to inference and generalisations (Osuala, 2005). This research is a cross-sectional survey in nature. Survey enables collection of data from a large sample at a certain period of time.
Population of the Study
The population of this study was employees of champion brewries insured as deposit money champion brewries in Nigeria by the National bottling company as at 31st December, 2013. Population size of the potential respondents was 89, 241, all staff of the champion brewries earlier selected as of the year 2013. The confidence level of 5% will be selected and at 95% confidence interval.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
Introduction
The main objective of this chapter is to provide the results of the research, which include data presentation, analysis and discussion of the outcome of the study. The chapter presents the results of the statistical analysis of the data. It begins with the features of the sample and descriptive statistics of the variables and report of reliability and validity of the measures used in this study. Results of factor analysis of the study are explained. Finally, the results of correlation and multiple regression analysis are also presented.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Summary
Employees are very important resources in any organisation because they are the foundation upon which organisations are built. Understanding the nature of workplace relationship is very important to both employers and employees, because their behaviors are central to providing quality products or services to customers. There is growing concern among the management and other stakeholders in the Nigerian champion brewries about the issue of the degree of labour turnover. Job challenges and goal ambiquity are two important constructs that have been established in the literature to affect psychological well being and turnover intentions. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to examine the influence of Job challenges and goal ambiquity in the Nigerian manufacturing industry.
Conclusion
The main objective of this study was to examine the influence of Job challenges and goal ambiquity on turnover intention. Based on the findings of this study, we conclude that the Nigerian manufacturing industry is faced with a number of challenges in terms of human resource development. These include issues related to meeting the expectations of employees.
Job challenges is negatively influencing psychological well being in Nigerian champion brewries.
Thus, in addition to possible factors related to an individual employee‟s personality traits and prior job experience, employees are influenced by their perception of the nature of Job challenges with their employers. Therefore, it could be concluded that if employees perceive career progression in their organisation, they are likely not to have turnover intention.
Goal ambiquity is part of the basic needs of employees. Employees want to be valued as humans not only as human capital of an organisation. Employees want their ideas to be considered as important. They also want to be educated on the rationale behind the decisions reached by management. Thus, it could be concluded that if a staff perceive fairness in procedures used by his organisation, he is likely to have lower turnover intention.
Recommendations
This research has made findings which will enable us to make inference on employees in the Nigerian manufacturing industry. Based on the findings, the following recommendations are made:
i). Champion brewries should continue in their efforts at maintaining very good personnel welfare and wellbeing.
ii). Despite the fact that the result indicates that transactional Job challenges does not correlate and influence turnover intention, it is a very important tool for enhancing the relationships between employer and employees. In terms of transactional Job challenges, employees indicate that they are exposed to well defined responsibilities. This should continue to be encouraged.
iii). managers should consider what they do to foster the development of positive perception with regards to career progression of their employees. This can be achieved through alignment of employees‟ perception that the Nigerian manufacturing industry encourages long-term career progression and external marketability.
iv). The findings also revealed that employees were very sensitive to the signals conveyed through their organizations‟ decision making processes. Therefore, the decision making process should incorporate more employees, such that they can perceive the whole process as being fair and just. Therefore, in order to achieve this, more open communication is needed especially before arriving at vital decisions.
v). Despite the fact that most employees perceived that what they received as outcome of their effort as being fair, there are many with contrary views. More open communication is needed to enhance the perception of more employees about what they receive as being fair and just compared to their contributions.
vi). Champion brewries should continue in their efforts at maintaining and encouraging very good interpersonal interactions among employees. Despite the fact that the findings in this study did indicate that issues of interpersonal relations are of less important in determining psychological well being intention, theoretically and practically it is still very important.
vii). Champion brewries should continue in their efforts at maintaining and encouraging timely communication of information about employees‟ tasks.
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