CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background to the Study
Employee performance is the evaluation of the efficiency and effectiveness of an employee or group of employees. Employees can be said to be the most valuable asset to any organization, and therefore, the performance of employees is crucial to the survival and growth of an organization. Employees’ performance can be measured in terms of the output of an employee in a specific period of time.
In Europe, the effectiveness and success of an organization relies on the mangers ability to provide a motivating and enabling environment for its employees (Armstrong, 2015). The challenge for corporate management today is to keep the staff motivated, which will enhance their commitment and overall performance in the workplace. By understanding the employees' needs, a manager will be in the right position to understand what pattern of motivational factors to use to keep them motivated and stay satisfied in their job (Dale, 2018).
In the UK, many companies have recognized the importance of engaging employees in decision making towards achieving organizational objectives, (Management Study Guide, MSG, 2016). It was observed that companies that employ participative management approach have recorded dramatic breakthrough in the area of operational cost, high profit margin and work productivity. Through the engagement of employee in decision making, individuals are offers the chance carry job responsibility and partake in joint decision making for the whole welfare of the firm (Management Study Guide, MSG, 2016). In a number of companies, the power of formulating decision depends on the magnitude of confidence gains into a certain jobs. This provides the opportunity for employees to make recommendations and contributions needed to achieve organizational performance (Jones, Kalmi, & Kauhanen, 2017).
In the USA, the success of an organization relies on involving the workforce’s entire capacity to generate new ideas and ways of working to outsmart their competitors (Beardwell & Claydon, 2017). Employees must be engaged if they are to understand the need for creativity and employees must be involved if they are to be committed to changing their behaviours in work, in new and improved ways (Helms, 2019). The engagement of employees in organization activities serves to create a sense of belonging among the employees as well as a congenial environment in which both the management and the employees voluntarily contribute to healthy industrial relations, (Noah, 2018). A contemporary business organization looking to achieve profitability, productivity and overall performance will not keep its employees in the dark about vital decisions affecting them, (Helms, 2019).
In China, with the level of competition in the business environment around the world, it is important that organizations ensure that their employees are able to give their best performances to help the organization gain an edge over their competitors (Chen, 2018). In the manufacturing industry, employees’ performance is considered very germane in sense that it is an industry that cut across the world. As such the level of employee performance is critical to organizational sustainability in Chain.
In Africa, recent developments in the way employees are managed in organizations have brought about the need to seriously consider employees as major stakeholders in organizations (Tchapchet, Iwu, & Allen-Ile, 2020). At a time when employees in other parts of the world are regarded as the main source of competitive advantage, South Africa is still enmeshed in a labor crises typified by industrial actions. Voss and Gruber (2018) asserted that in order for public health education institutions to provide services of good quality, the employees should be knowledgeable, well-organized, encouraging, helpful, approachable, experienced, friendly and should have good communication skills. Rendering services of good quality will help improve the productivity of public health education.
In Ghana, organizations are facing issues of casual employment amongst indigenous employees, unrealistic target given to new employees, personality differences, adapting to changing environment such as globalization and technology, challenge of different faith and culture, challenge faced in handling difficult people and situation etc. These often resulted in employees’ turnover, dissatisfaction, among others, and thus ultimately affecting employee work quality (Campbell, Ganco, Franco & Agarwal, 2019). In Zambia, Shafighi (2013) noted that the performance of employees had become a huge challenge due to the presence and representation of many cultures in the modern working environment in Zambia. According to Kuvaas and Dysvik (2017), most working environments in Zambia are diverse and multicultural as a result many employees have a variety of personalities which make them unique. However, this as well implies that, they have differing needs that propels them to give their best performance at work each day.
In Nigeria, Rubyutsa (2015) posited that participatory management does not exist and cannot exist as a result of underdevelopment, inexperience in democratic process and economic instability caused by frequent changes in economic policy by the federal government. In the opinion of Ojokuku and Sajuyigbe (2018), they stated that participative decision making can be well practiced only in a stable economic environment because it is time consuming in nature and investment in training to enable workers have a contributing capacity. Ezennaya (2020) stated that employees participation in the multinational companies, on the other hand has at best remained elusive. Most of these companies are controlled by and rely on their parent bodies abroad for policies and decision. Among the indigenous organizations, especially the small and medium sized organizations, their attitude to employees is paternalistic and based on authoritarianism, (Ezennaya, 2020). Their activities are often shrouded on secrecy. They are suspicious of the employees and therefore cannot afford to share information and decision with them.
Therefore, understanding the organizational factors that affects employee performance is germane for this study. Thus, this study seeks to examine organizational factors and employee performance of flour mills in Lagos State, Nigeria.
1.2. Statement of the Problem
Organizational factors are considered as the drivers of an organization towards achieving the goals and objectives of a business. In spite of the major role, the significance and contribution of organizational factors to a business, many of these factors have not resulted into positive outcome, and thus this bring about the problem statement of the study, which is to find out how organizational factors impacts employees performance.
Sunia (2020) stated that, in every contemporary organization, a powerful and positive organizational culture is likely to enhance the productivity of an average employee and achieve exceptionally. On the other hand, a weak and negative organizational culture is likely to make an exceptional employee to lose interest in their work by underperforming and as a result end up not accomplishing their set goals. Therefore, organizational culture has a direct and lively task in performance management. The study by Kochan et al. (2019) revealed that most modern-day organizations find it very uneasy to create standardized policies that will accommodate employees’ in the organizational culture, thus affect the innovative process of the organization. However, the various empirical findings showed mixed findings. Therefore, the gap will address the first research objective, which is to determine the interaction of organizational culture on employee creativity and innovation of flour mills in Lagos State, Nigeria.
Muhammad, Nadeem, and Huzaifah (2014) examined the impact of technological advancement on employee performance in banking sector. Total of 140 questionnaires was distributed among different banks and out of which 100 were get completed and returned. It was found that technological advancements has significant impact on motivation and training of employees. Moreover as the concerned for technological advancement and employee performance, there is significant relationship among them. Similarly, Shathees, Sze, Beh, and Nomahaza (2020) examined technology adoption and employee’s job performance: an empirical investigation. The findings indicated that technology adoption was found to be statistically insignificant. It is envisaged that these findings will provide incremental insights into the existing body of knowledge while providing some directions to the organization in determining the right set of drivers inculcating technology adoption for improved job performance. However, the various empirical findings showed mixed results. In addition, the empirical reviewed did not specifically focused on technological factors and employee service delivery. Therefore, this study gap will address the second research objective, which is to investigate the relationship of technological factors on employee service delivery of flour mills in Lagos State, Nigeria.
Andi and Fariaty (2019) examined the effect of the organizational communication climate and work enthusiasm on employee performance. The study revealed that the organizational communication climate and work enthusiasm affect work satisfaction at Economics Faculty in Private Islamic Universities in Makassar. It is also found that organizational communication climate and work enthusiasm affect employee performance at Economics Faculty in Private Islamic Universities in Makassar. Furthermore, it is shown that job satisfaction affects employee performance at Economics Faculty in Private Islamic Universities in Makassa. Furthermore, Weldeghebriel (2020) examined organizational communication and employee performance in selected large manufacturing businesses in Eritrea. The study findings showed that there is statistically significant relationship between communication patterns and employee performance, communication structure and employee performance, communication medium and employee performance, as well as communication climate and employee performance. However, the various empirical findings were not conducted specifically on organizational communication and employee service quality. Therefore, this study gap will address the third research objective, which is to examine the influence of organizational communication on employee service quality of flour mills in Lagos State, Nigeria.
Based on the above, it is important that a study of this nature is conducted to examine organizational factors and entrepreneurial performance of selected SMEs in Abuja.
1.3. Objective of the study
The general objective of this study is to investigate the interaction of organizational factors on employee performance of flour mills in Lagos State, Nigeria.
The specific objectives of the study are to;
- Determine the interaction of organizational culture on employee creativity & innovation of flour mills in Lagos state, Nigeria.
- Investigate the relationship of technological factors on employee service delivery of flour mills in Lagos state, Nigeria.
- Examine the influence of organizational communication on employee service quality of flour mills in Lagos state, Nigeria.
1.4. Research Questions
- What interaction does organizational culture have with employee creativity & innovation of flour mills in Lagos state, Nigeria?
- What relationship exists between technological factors and employee service delivery of flour mills in Lagos state, Nigeria?
- What influence does organizational communication have on employee service quality of flour mills in Lagos state, Nigeria?
1.5. Research Hypothesis
: Organizational culture has no significant effect onemployeecreativity & innovation of flour mills in Lagos State, Nigeria.
: Technological factors have no significant relationship with employee service delivery of flour mills in Lagos State, Nigeria.
: Organizational communication has no significant influence on employee service quality of flour mills in Lagos State, Nigeria.
1.6 . Operationalization of variables
The variables for this study are operationalized as:
Y = f(X) where Y = dependent variable and X = independent variable.
Further, we have Y = Employee performance and X = Organizational factors
Y = (y1, y2, y3)
Where;
y1 = employee creativity & innovation
y2 =employee service delivery
y3 =employee service quality
X = (x1, x2, x3)
Where;
x1 = organizational culture
x2 = technological factors
x3 = organizational communication
In relations to the hypothesis formulated the econometric equation are stated below
y1 = f(x1)
y1 = ----------------------------------------- eq 1
y2 = f(x2)
y2 = ----------------------------------------- eq 2
y3 = f(x3)
y3 = ------------------------------------------ eq 3
Y= f(X)
Y = ------------------ eq 4
1.7. Scope of the Study
This study focuses on the interaction of organizational factors on employee performance in flour mills in Lagos state, Nigeria. The variables to evaluate in this study include the independent variable organizational factors (organizational culture, technological factors, organizational communication) while the dependent variable is employee performance (creativity & innovation, good time management, attention to details). The flour mills of the study are golden penny plc, Dangote flour mills plc and Honeywell flour mill all located in Lagos state, Nigeria. The geographical location of this study will be on head quarter branch of each company, for golden penny (2, old Dock Road, Apapa Lagos, Nigeria), for Dangote (shed 20, Terminal E Administrative building, Apapa, Lagos, Nigeria), for Honeywell (Plot YABB Mobolaji Johnson Avenue, Alausa Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria) The data for this study will be collected using a well- structured questionnaire, and simple random sampling will be used. These flour mills were selected because they are some of the leading flour mills in Nigeria. Head quarter branches have been selected for this study to increase chances of getting raw data for the main origin.
1.8. Significance of the Study
This study is likely to benefit greatly managers, government, researchers, society and other industries. The goal of this study is to provide information that would help understanding the relationship between organizational factors and employee performance. This study will help managers know how to manipulate organizational factors to get desired performance, for the government it will help ensure proper environment for successful work processes, which is beneficial to the economy. This research will add to the body of knowledge as a small branch of human resource management and will be of great use to manufacturing industries. The academic significance of this work is that it adds to existing studies on organizational factors, serves as a reference for people working on similar research and opens a door for more research.
1.9. Operational Definition of Terms
Organizational Factors: encompasses all those elements that influenced the way that the organization, and everybody within it, behaved.(French, n.d.), The factors affecting the willingness of the faculty members to share knowledge are broadly classified as “organizational factors” (Javaid et al., 2020)
Organizational Culture: is the collective effect of the common beliefs, behaviors, and values of the people within a company (Brown, Melian, Solow, Chheng & Parker, 2015).
Technological Factors: refer to the ways new practices and equipment can affect businesses.
Organizational Communication: is described as the routes and types of communication that organization such as businesses, non-profits, and government agencies use, encompassing both internal and external communications between an organization and its stakeholders (Kreps, 1986).
Employee Creativity: as the ability to generate novel associations that are adaptive in some way (Ward, Thompson‐Lake, Ely, & Kaminski, 2008).
Innovation: is the multi-stage process whereby organizations transform ideas into new/improved products, service or processes, in order to advance, compete and differentiate themselves successfully in their marketplace (Baregheh, Rowley, & Sambrook, 2009).
Employee Service Delivery: may be described as any interaction with the public in which customers, citizens, residents, or businesses seek or supply data, manage their affairs, or carry out their responsibilities (Nick, 2021),
Employee Service Quality: refers to a customer's assessment of service expectations in relation to a company's performance.
