1.1 BACKGROUNGD OF THE STUDY
Industrial harmony refers to a friendly and cooperative agreement on working relationships between employers and employees for their mutual benefit (Laden, 2012). According to Puttapalli and Vuram (2012), industrial harmony is concerned with the relationship between management and employees with respect to the terms and conditions of employment and the work place. In effect, it is a situation where employees and management cooperate willingly in pursuit of the organization’s aims and objectives.
In the words of Lester, “Industrial harmony involve attempts at arriving at solutions between the conflicting objectives and values; between the profit motive and social gain; between discipline and freedom, between authority and industrial democracy; between bargaining and co-operation; and between conflicting interests of the individual, the group and the organization.
The term ‘industrial harmony’ comprises of two terms; ‘industrial’ and ‘harmony’. Industrial refers to any productive activity in which an individual or a group of individuals is (are) engaged. ‘Harmony’ that means the peaceful co-existence within the industry between employee and management which stems directly or indirectly from union employer relationship. The relationships that arise at and out of the organizations are form to promote their respective interests at all levels. Industrial harmony also includes the processes through which these relationships are expresses (such as, collective bargaining, workers’ participation indecision making, and grievance and dispute settlement), and the management of conflict between employers and worker when it arises.
Individuals are part of an outgoing but independent social system. The behavior, actions and role of the individuals are shape by the cultures of the organization or society, the value system and other characteristics of the organization influence the process and determine the outcome or response of the individuals. J. P. Dunlop 1958. According to Dunlop, the industrial relations system comprises certain actors, certain contexts, and ideology, which binds them together and a body of rules created to govern the actors in the organization. The actors in the systems are the managers, the workers and representative.
The roles of employers in enhancing industrial harmony in organizations have received wide attention in the literature of industrial relations. This is because many organizations in Nigeria are bedeviled with a myriad of industrial challenges caused by inefficient and ineffective management style or strained relationship between management and labour unions (Osamwonyi and Ugiagbe, 2013). Consequently, productivity in most organizations as comparatively been hampered due to frequent industrial conflict. Industrial harmony implies a healthy and cooperative working relationship between employers and employees. It is against this background that the researcher sees the subject matter: Industrial harmony and its impact on organizational performance in Nigeria Bottling Company Plc Kaduna.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
In recent times, while most workers are on job, they do not produce more simply because of the un-healthy relationship they have with their fellow colleagues and employers. A recent study conducted by Blyton (2008) revealed that employees do not put up their best performances at workplaces when they are un-happy with management, government, or even their fellow colleagues. Bad employee-employer relationship results in strike actions and lockouts. All these actions taken by employees to display their grievances only do the organization harms than good, as productivity will be reduce drastically.
However, the pure state of harmony scarcely exists in organizations, as grievance between employees and management which erodes the set objectives of the organizations thus making productivity in the organizations comparatively hampered due to frequent industrial conflict and it intended negative consequences such as down toll, which will affect sales, patronage and profit margin.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The central objective of the study is to examine industrial harmony and its impact on organizational performance in Refiners Technical support (RTS) Limited, Ekpan, Delta state, Nigeria.
The specific objectives are as follows:
1. To identify the factors that strengthens industrial harmony and its impact on performance in Refiners Technical support (RTS) Limited, Ekpan, Delta state, Nigeria.
2. To examine the strategies/methods employed by management to enhance industrial harmony in Refiners Technical support (RTS) Limited, Ekpan, Delta state, Nigeria.
3. To identify various employee relations practices, and its effect on the productivity in Refiners Technical support (RTS) Limited, Ekpan, Delta state, Nigeria.
4. To analyze ways of enhancing healthy relationship between employees and employers in Refiners Technical support (RTS) Limited, Ekpan, Delta state, Nigeria.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The following questions are use to achieve the above objectives:
1. What are the factors that strengthen industrial harmony Refiners Technical support (RTS) Limited, Ekpan, Delta state, Nigeria?
2. What are the strategies/methods employed by management to enhance industrial harmony in Refiners Technical support (RTS) Limited, Ekpan, Delta state, Nigeria?
3. What are the various employee relations practices and how do they affect productivity in Refiners Technical support (RTS) Limited, Ekpan, Delta state, Nigeria?
4. To what extend can healthy relationship be enhance between employees and employers in Refiners Technical support (RTS) Limited, Ekpan, Delta state, Nigeria?
1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
A hypothesis is a tentative statement linking two or more variable in a correlation to establish a relationship that, further subjection to test will confirm such relationship as either positive or negative. The following are the two hypotheses that are to be tested.
1. Ho: Industrial harmony does not have any significance impact on performance in Refiners Technical support (RTS) Limited, Ekpan, Delta state, Nigeria.
Hi: Industrial harmony has significance impact on performance in Refiners Technical support (RTS) Limited, Ekpan, Delta state, Nigeria..
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The study examines the role of employers in enhancing industrial harmony in Refiners Technical support (RTS) Limited, Ekpan, Delta state, Nigeria.. The paper posits that conflict is inevitable in all organizations and, as such, the employer who has the responsibility of making major organizational policies to achieve corporate objectives must play a dominant role in ensuring industrial harmony. It further exposes some of the factors that strengthen an organization; as well as help to close conflict loopholes that hinder industrial harmony.
Most importantly, the study will go a long way in putting unnecessary unrest in the corporate and will enhance productivity, peaceful co-existence between management and employee, which will have positive impact on sales, profit, motivation and maximum enhancement of labour hours.
1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
To examine the performance of industrial harmony and it influence in Refiners Technical support (RTS) Limited, Ekpan, Delta state, Nigeria.. The study will equally identify the causes of conflict in achieving industrial harmony in Refiners Technical support (RTS) Limited, Ekpan, Delta state, Nigeria., and would offer solution to such problems. The study will cover a period from 2016-2018.
1.8 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
The study is limited to bias in respondent opinion about the subject matter as well as the use of a single study area and the uncertainly about the generalization of finding sequel to the use of a single research design as well as instrument. For the fact that only Refiners Technical support (RTS) Limited, Ekpan, Delta state, Nigeria. Was use as the sole area of study, it is not certain if the same result would be obtained in other organization.
Respondent bias and nonchalant attitude also constitute a greater limitation to this research. For the fact that questionnaire constitute the only instrument use to collect data and survey research design the sole design used for the study.
Some of these constraints are encountered are as follows:
a. FINANCIAL FACTOR: We are handicap financially due to recent increment of our tuition fee which make our parent /guardians to strive and see that we are able to register for the new session, so that it could not warrant us to spend the more in order to acquire more information for the compilation of the research work both in the area of study and necessary textbooks needed.
b. TIME FACTOR: We are actually constrained by time, because time allowed for the project is not adequate enough for us to obtain the required detail information for the research. because time allowed for project coincide with the area of study KRPC busy period likewise our semester test and assignment period also coincide with the time frame.
c. CONFIDENTIALITY FACTOR: Most importantly, some key information necessary for the project could not be at our reach due to confidentiality of such information to the organization.
1.9 DEFINITION OF TERMS
Industrial Harmony: It is the ideal state of peace where in workers engaged in production of goods and services feel content, thereby are propelled to give the best of their talents and talent potentials for the development and progress of the organization
Industrial Relations: It is the relation of individual or group of employee and employer for engaging themselves in a way to maximize the production activities.
Management: It is a process of planning, organizing and controlling activities of the sub-systems and relates them to the environment. It also refers to those individuals or groups who are responsible for promoting the goals of employers and their organizations
Collective Bargaining: It is machinery for setting conflict issues between employers (management representative) and employees (union). It examines and resolves differences between both parties in terms of benefits.
Productivity: It is the measure of the achievement of an enterprise when compared to its purpose, goals and objectives within a specified period. In economics, it is also define as a measure of the relationship between the output and the input in the production process.
INDUSTRIAL HARMONY AND IT IMPACT ON ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE (A CASE STUDY OF NIGERIAN BOTTLING COMPANY KADUNA)
