CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background to the Study
Contemporary organizations are striving to stay in business in the face of threats as a result of globalization and internationalization of business environment. As a result, a lot of organizations today are faced with various planning challenges that will enhance organizational productivity. Thus, this has led to the call for organizations to continuously scan their environments and review of their strategies, goals, and policies so as to ensure that the right set of resources are available when and where they are needed, in order to aid organizational productivity and overall performance of an organization.
In the United State, there is the growing challenges linked with carrying out businesses in the ever changing business environment; as a result, organizations are faced with numerous pressures and challenges (Meyer & Allen, 2017). In this present era of Covid, a lot of businesses were faced with financial challenge in paying their employees. Some organizations have slashed their employees’ salaries, while some have still maintained same salaries. Thus, many organizations are faced with the challenge of keeping employees motivated and satisfied with their job towards productivity. And thus, low remuneration to employees could make them dissatisfied with the job and thus lead to a decline in productivity. There is therefore a challenge for modern day organizations and business managers to effectively manage and cope with these various challenges in order to ensure the survival of the organization and to achieve organizational productivity (Cole, 2018).
In Africa, for instance in Zambia, Shafighi (2017) noted that productivity had turned out to be a huge challenge as a result of the presence and representation of many cultures in the modern working environment in Zambia. According to Kuvaas and Dysvik (2019), 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, the issue of productivity of Nigerian workers has long attracted the attention of management experts who desire to improve the performance in the organization. Generally, the complaints have been that the Nigerian employees perform far less than counter parts in the western world (Olusanya, Awotungase, & Ohadebere, 2019). Research findings have shown that employees or Nigerian managers have as much intelligence, ability,. As their productivity (Eze, 2015). Aluko (2017) opined that, the concern for productivity in the organization is premised on the effectiveness of corporate planning which seek to make adequate provision of human and their resources, for the various unit of the whole organization with the purpose of achieving efficiency. Managers therefore have a major responsibility to mobilize available organizational resources and to combine these resources in the right proportion to be able to achieve the pre-determined goals of the enterprise. When corporate planning exercise is being carried out quarterly to source for the needed resources that would enable employees carryout their expected functions or tasks assigned to them in the most efficient way to guarantee the organizational productivity attainment. Corporate planning is a sine-qua-non to increase productivity in any organization. This is guaranteed if only it is well carried out with the appropriate individuals for the task and in the right environment.
The issue of corporate planning on small scale medium business has not been given adequate attention, which is a gap to be examined in this present study. In all organizations, planning is the most important managerial tool for performance. For an organization to perform effectively it must ensure that its resources are well utilized and its customers well served. Olusanya, Awotungase, and Ohadebere (2019) stated that, due to the rapid technological advancement and rapid environmental changes have been identified as principle factor impeding effective planning. These changes include technological, political, social and economic capabilities in the nation. And these changes vary based on industries. Managerial incompetence’s on the part of the planning may as well effect planning.
Grey (2019) posited that a number of managers are unwitting to spend time forecasting, analyzing, and evaluating plans and rather prefer to invoke on existing plans to handle contingencies. This gesture tends to rob the organizations from deriving the various benefits associated with forecasting and environmental analysis etc. It is also important to note that the delegation of corporate planning, which is a sensitive responsibility to inexperienced subordinate who lack the skills and capabilities required to handle such strategic organizational task. Aluko, Odegbesorm, Obademasi, and Ogubagwu (2016) highlighted the following barriers or issues of corporate planning to include, bureaucratic organizational structure, lack of commitment of enough resources needed to finance and execute plans, poor and ineffective information system, which obstructs communications among the component part of the organization, lack of regular review and evaluation of long range planning to reflect new situation, among others. All these factors have the tendency to pose problems or issues to corporate planners, in their pursuit of corporate excellence.
However, present-day managers increasingly recognize that wisdom and intuition alone are not parameters to guide the destinies of many organizations in today’s ever changing environment (Inyang, 2018). Uncertainty, instability and changing environment became the rule rather than the exception; managers are faced with increased inflation, increased foreign competition, and technological obsolescence and changing market environment, because these changes are occurring so frequently, there is increased pressure on top management (Gray, 2019). In order to respond more accurately with timely schedule, with a direction or course of action in mind; managers are increasingly turning to the use of corporate planning in order to enhance organizational productivity and overall performance. In business, corporate planning provides overall direction for specific units such as financial focuses, projects, human resources and marketing, but when corporate planning is not effectively planned and executed, it could have an adverse effect on the organizational performance.
However, there are several constraints to successful corporate planning in achieving organizational productivity. The factors that impinge on the organization in attainment of the desired productivity level are changes in the environment, failure to allocate adequate resources, bureaucratic organizational structure, absence of plan review, planner’s incompetence, among others. All these have impacted negatively on the attainment of desired productivity level in many organizations. To this end, according to Maugans (2015), a lot of organizations spend most of their time realizing and reacting to unexpected changes and problems instead of anticipating and preparing for them while many more spend a lot of time and energy playing “catch up” by using up their energy to cope with immediate problems with little energy left for anticipating and preparing for the future challenges. In addition, the problem of inadequate information during planning on the strengths and weakness of the organization, faulty definitions of organizational goals, poor plan implementation, control and review have made many organizations in Nigeria not to live up to expectation.
Thus, from the above findings, planning in any organization cannot be overemphasized. Every organization has at its disposal, a collection of both human and materials resources. The success and failure of an organization is determined by the ability of an organization to effectively manage these resources. When the resources of an organization are successfully planned out, the result is that activities carried out in the organization will be more efficient, and the organization will stand a better chance of attaining productivity and profitability. This implies that, corporate planning is an essential component of organizational management.
Flowing from the above, and to provide a more robust conclusion, it is against this backdrop that this present study seeks to investigate the effect of corporate planning on organizational productivity of selected banks in Lagos State, Nigeria.
1.2. Statement of the Problem
Studies have been conducted on corporate planning and organization productivity, performance in different countries and organizations (Alev, M. & Karabulut, A. (2017) success or failure of small business in the world relies so much on the formulated corporate plans and how well these plans are implemented. Corporate planning aids the attainment of the organization’s desired level of productivity by adequately providing the right amount of resources to each departmental unit for them to effectively carryout their assigned tasks. However, despite the importance of corporate planning on organizational productivity, no study has been conducted with special reference to small medium business, which is a gap this present study seeks to bridge.
Arome (2020) examined the impact of strategic objective on the performance of small and medium-sized businesses in Nigeria. The study employs the use of mixed method research design to collect primary data using both questionnaires and semi-structured interviews consisting of 136 and 20 respondents respectively. The findings highlight the low adoption of corporate objectives practices within SMEs in Nigeria. The study attributes this to social factors, the findings however concludes that although the adoption level is low, the impact of corporate objective practices has a positive impact on performance. The gap identified is that, the study focused mainly on corporate objectives and SMEs performance and also analysis technique adopted was not mentioned, which gave rise to this present study objective, which is to assess the effect of organizational goals on organizational efficiency.
Nkemchor, Ekaezuwa, Ezeanolue, & Ekwutosi (2021) investigated the effect of strategic management on organizational performance in tertiary institution in Delta State, Nigeria. The aim of the study is to examine the effect of environmental scanning, strategy formulation, strategy implementation, strategy implementation, strategic evaluation on organizational performance. The study employs the use of descriptive survey for the study, the population 1480 selected employees from tertiary institutions, from which 343 were selected for the study. Descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis was used in the analysis of the data generated, the study was grounded on two theories, resourced-based theory and contingency theory. At the end of the study, it was discovered that the variables listed in the objective had a significant and positive effect on organizational performance of tertiary institutions in Delta State, Nigeria. The study also indicates that strategic management development has a positive as well as significant effect on organizational performance. The study focused specifically on the effect of strategic management on organizational performance in tertiary institution in Delta State, Nigeria, however the gap identified was that, organizational performance was a constant variable examined in the study, which is a limitation to the study, while strategic management had the following sub-variables, environmental scanning, strategy formulation, strategy implementation, strategy implementation, and strategic evaluation. Thus, this necessitates the following objectives for the present study which are: to determine the effect of environmental scanning on leadership effectiveness; to assess the effect of strategic formulation on organizational growth; examine the effect of implementation on organizational income; and to examine the effect of evaluation on employee productivity.
Based on the findings above, the following are the gaps identified; there is no study specifically conducted on the effect of corporate planning on organizational productivity on selected small medium scale business in Abuja, Nigeria. In addition, most of the sub-variables adopted for the study are not really examined in past studies, which present a gap to be filled. Thus, these are the gaps this present study will seek to bridge, by examining the effect of corporate planning on organizational productivity on selected small medium scale business in Abuja, Nigeria. In order to produce more robust findings, the study will adopt the use of regression and ANOVA techniques in analysis the data gathered from the respondents.
1.3. Objective of the Study
The main objective of this study is to assess the effect of corporate planning on organizational productivity on selected small medium scale business in Abuja, Nigeria. In order to achieve the main objective, the following specific objectives are to:
- assess the effect of organizational goals on organizational efficiency;
- determine the effect of environmental scanning on leadership effectiveness;
- assess the effect of strategic formulation on organizational growth;
- examine the effect of implementation on organizational income;
- Examine the effect of evaluation on employee productivity
- Determine the effect of corporate planning on organization productivity.
1.4. Research Questions
The following research questions for the study are:
- What is the effect of organizational goals on organizational efficiency?
- What is the effect of environmental scanning on leadership effectiveness?
- What is the effect of strategic formulation on organizational growth?
- What is the effect of implementation on organizational income?
- What is the effect of evaluation on employee productivity?
- What is the effect of corporate planning on organization productivity?
1.5. Research Hypotheses
The research hypotheses for this study are formulated in their null form.
Ho1: Organizational goals has no significant effect on organizational efficiency
Ho2: Environmental scanning has no significant effect on leadership effectiveness
Ho3: Strategic formulation has no significant effect on organizational growth
Ho4: Implementation has no significant effect on organizational income
Ho5: Evaluation has no significant effect on employee productivity
Ho6: Corporate planning has no significant effect on organization productivity
1.6. Operationalization of the Variables
The dependent variable is organizational productivity, represented by Organizational Efficiency (OE), Leadership Effectiveness (LE), Organizational Growth (OG), Organizational Income (OI) and Employee Productivity (EP). While, corporate planning, being the independent variable, is proxied by Organizational Goal(OG), Environmental Scanning (ES), Strategic Formulation (SF), Implementation (IM), and Evaluation (EV).
Where Y= Dependent variable
X= Independent variable
Y= f(X)
X= Corporate Planning
X = f(x1, x2, x3)
x1= Organizational Goal (OG)
x2= Environmental Scanning (ES)
x3= Strategic Formulation (SF)
x4= Implementation (IM)
x5= Evaluation (EV)
Y= Organizational Productivity
Y= f(y1, y2, y3, y4)
y1 = Organizational Efficiency (OE)
y2 = Leadership Effectiveness (LE)
y3 = Organizational Growth (OG)
y4 = Organizational Income (OI)
y5 = Employee Productivity (EP)
The three specific objectives are operationally expressed as:
To assess the effect of organizational goals on organizational efficiency.
Y1 = f (x1)
Y1 = b0 + b1x1 + u
To determine the effect of environmental scanning on leadership effectiveness
Y2 = f (x2)
Y2 = b0 + b1x2 + u
To assess the effect of strategic formulation on organizational growth
Y3 = f (x3)
Y3 = b0 + b1x3 + u
To examine the effect of implementation on organizational income
Y4 = f (x4)
Y4 = b0 + b1x4 + u
To examine the effect of evaluation on employee productivity
Y5 = f (x5)
Y5 = b0 + b1x4 + u
1.7. Scope of the Study
The study examined the effect of corporate planning on organizational productivity of selected small medium scale businesses in Abuja, Nigeria. Small and medium scale business play a crucial role in the sustainable development of a nation, therefore it is important to study this sector and find out how corporate planning affects the productivity of the small medium scale business. The study is carried out among selected small medium scale businesses in Abuja, Nigeria. The choice of this study is because being Small companies, it is important to find out how corporate planning affects their productivity and if at all they practice corporate planning in their establishment. As most studies have always focused on small media scale business. The geographical location for this study is in Abuja Nigeria. The time frame for the study is business owners and employees working in the selected small medium scale businesses in Abuja.
1.8. Significance of the Study
The findings of this study will be of importance to organization management in the sense that it will provide management with the information necessary to carry out a successful corporate planning.
In addition, it will help management in designing and putting in place the right measures that will aid effective planning and implementation of plans in the organization. As a result of these findings they can learn and improve in areas where weaknesses were revealed. It will be a source of knowledge and can be used by managers as a guide in implementing strategic planning in their organizations
The findings of this study will add to the wealth of information presently available on the effect of corporate planning on organizational productivity. In addition, the results of the study are expected to contribute to closing the gap in literature with respect to understanding the significance of corporate planning in enhancing organizational productivity.
The study will be of tremendous significance to future researchers that may want to make use of this project work for their research as a reference point or literature review.
1.9. Definition of Operational Terms
Corporate Planning: refer to the process of identifying, choosing and implementing activities that will enhance the long term performance of an organization by setting directions and by creating an ongoing compatibility between the internal skills and resources of an organization and the changing external environment in which it operates.(Hitesh Bhasin 2019)
Organizational Growth: is the process through which the structure of a multicenter system organization increases the number of its roles and links.
Leadership Effectiveness: is the ability of a leader to effectively influence followers and other organizational stakeholders to reach the goals of the organization.
Strategic Formulation: refers to the process by which an organization chooses the most appropriate courses of action to achieve its defined goals.
Environmental Scanning: is a process that systematically surveys and interprets relevant data to identify external opportunities and threats that could influence future decisions.
Organizational Productivity: is an assessment of the efficiency of the organization in terms of product outputs
Organizational Efficiency: refers to an organization doing the right things or occupying oneself with the right things towards task accomplishment. Onu, C.A., Akinlabi, B. & Egbuta, O. (2020).
Organizational Goals: refers to the set out goals and objectives an organization planned to achieve.
Organizational Income: refers to the financial income an organization make from sales
Implementation: refers to the process of carrying out, execution, or practice of a plan in order to make something actually happen.
Evaluation: refer to the systematic determination of a project success and effectiveness and how a project will be monitored and accessed.
Employee productivity: refer to the amount of work or output produced by an employee in a specific period of time (Hadian, (2019).
