CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background of the Study
Change is
unavoidable in organizations today and is of paramount importance to study how
change factors affect staff
productivity. Change is what presses us out of our comfort zone and it
is inevitable (Sidikova, 2011). Kitur (2015) is of the view that change comes
in an organization in many forms: merger, acquisition, joint venture, new
leadership, technology implementation, organizational restructuring, and change
in products or regulatory compliance. The change may be planned years in
advance or may be forced upon an organization because of a shift in the
environment. Organizational change can be radical and alter the way an
organization operates, or it may be incremental and slowly change the way
things are done. Change management can be defined as a style of management that
aims at encouraging organizations and individuals to deal effectively with the
changes taking place in their work. (Green, 2007). For change management to be
successful and its impact positive, managers or supervisors in the organizations
need to understand what motivates their team and enroll employee participation.
In fact separating managers from leadership in terms of style is difficult
because every manager needs to have leadership skills to get activities done
and every leader should have managerial skills to induce workers to change
directions. This is especially important in organizations or institutions which
are going through change since constant motivation and guidelines are needed
for effectiveness of employee performance (McLagan, 2002). In the global market
economy, technology introductions, aging boomer population, and less than
honest world competition have all had an impact of change management. With the
sudden financial shock in late 2008, many employers rushed to downsize their
organizations to capture possible profits. In today’s business environment,
it’s becoming obvious that nothing remains still (Olubayo 2014). He emphasizes
that the rate of change which business organizations face have continued to
increase more and more in the last five decades. This is as a result of
advances in information and communication technology increasing democratization
of economies and liberalization of economies across the globe.
In order to
compete globally, organizations have embraced change management factors such as
culture, technology, leadership and structure which affects both employee and
organizational performance. In other to remain competitive universities have
adopted cultural systems known to every employee which are add value to their
performance, for instance we value quality education. Leadership changes may
influence employee performance. The leader as a person in charge or as a change
agent can manage an organization or the process of organizational change more
effectively and successfully if he/she is capable and competent. (Asghar,
2010). He noted that rapid technological advancements, high expectations of
customers, and ever changing market situations have compelled organizations to
incessantly reassess and reevaluate how they work and to understand, adopt and
implement changes in their business model in response of changing trends.
Organizational change is a demand of the day, and needed for them to survive.
On the other hand organizational structure changes are thought to influence
employees’ performance. A structure is an arrangement of task or activities
being performed in an organization.
Staff productivity
is important for an organization to achieve its objectives and goals. Employees
are an important asset to an organization that may affect it either positively
or negatively. Due to unavoidable environmental changes, organizations today
have been challenged to advocate for changes that influence employees’
productivity. Therefore the top management has to ensure that factors that
influence staff productivity are taken into consideration. Management can be
defined as a creative and systematic flow of knowledge that can be applied to
achieve quality results by using human as well as other resources in an effective
way (Drucker, 2003). The importance of management in organizations today has
increased multifold. Strategic outcomes depend on ways of management in
organization, therefore key management functions that include learning to
delegate, planning, organizing, communicating clearly, motivating employees,
adapting to change and constantly generating innovative ideas are crucial.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Organizations are
continually faced with challenges in other to compete effectively with the
global environments; so changes in the structure, processes and individuals
within the workplace are planned, strategized and implemented to successfully
meet up with the global demands. Some of these change programs succeed while
others do not because some employees’ resist organizational change due to fear
of losing their jobs, distress and anger when it is not properly managed. The
success of any organization therefore, lies in fostering an effective method in
which employees’ can be prepared to accept change as they are the central
implementers of the change programs and which in turn bring about productivity
of staff in the organization. Most staff exhibit low levels of commitment to
their duties and researchers believe that when management is aware of employee
attitudes towards organizational tasks and place priority on effective
mechanisms to prepare staff for organizational change, staff will have high
level of commitment to their duties and enhance productivity of the
organization.
1.3
Objectives of the Study
The following are
the objectives of the study:
- To examine the roles of organizational
change on staff productivity in an organization.
- To examine the organizational change
strategies that impact on staff productivity.
AN
EVALUATION OF ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE AND ITS IMPACT ON STAFF PRODUCTIVITY USING
UBA PLC IN IKOT EKPENE AS A CASE STUDY
