THE IMPACT OF EMPLOYEE PARTICIPATION IN DECISION-MAKING AND ORGANIZATIONAL PRODUCTIVITY

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

It should be recanted that a decision is a choice where by a person forms a conclusion about a situation. Costello, and zalkind, (1963:334), confined the term decision making, to a choice process, choosing one from among several possibilities.

However, decision theory in Costello, et al (1963: 387) largely considers decision making as the process of making a single choice among course of action at a particular point in time, this depicts a course of behavior about what must be done or vice versa. Decision is however, the point at which plans, policies and objectives are translated into concrete actions. Planning engenders decisions guided by company policies and objectives, procedures and programmes. The aim of decision making is to channel human behavior towards a future goal.

Decision-making is however, one of the most germane activities of management. It has been the preoccupation of all the management of multifarious organization ranging from small-scale organization to multinational corporations.

Decision in an organization involves the process of taking action by some official person or body to approve, modify or reject a preferred position on an issue or group of issues. This could in the form of enactments of legislation or an issuance of an executive order in an organization. This process involves the art of day -to -day decisions that are applied in the running of an organization.

For decision to be assumed to be effective there must exist competing alternatives. Before effective  decisions are taken some proposals will be rejected, others accepted,   still others modified. The differences will be narrowed: bargains will be struck until ultimately, in some instances, the decision will be only a formality. In other words, the question will be in doubt until the votes are counted or the decision is announced.

Managers many at times consider decision making to be the heart of their job in that they must always choose what is to be done, who will do it, when, where and most of the time how it will be done.

Traditionally, managers influence the ordinary employees and specifically, their immediate subordinates in the organization. This has resulted in managers making unnatural decision even in areas effecting their subordinates.

In Germany, around 1951, a law enacted which provides for code termination and requires labour membership in the supervisory board and executive committee of certain large corporations. However the participation of labour in decision making process resulted to relatively and peaceful labour management relations.

Additionally, the Japanese management uses decision making by consensus in which lower-level employees initiate the idea and submit it to the next higher-level unit it reaches the desk of the top executive. If the proposal is approved, it is returned to the initiator for implementation.

It is in this context, that the researcher wishes to assess the impact of employees participation in decision making on organizational productivity in Nigerian public sector organizations, using ANAMMCO Ltd as a case study.

1.2   STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM.

There has been lots of controversy as to whether an employee should participate in managerial decision making or not. Some writers argued that employees should contribute in making decision more especially where it affects them or their jobs. It is expected that such participation will serve as training and testing ground for future members of upper management.

In Nigeria, experts that refuted the above assertion see the arrangement as a symptom of mal- organization. They maintained that, qualified, reasonably, honest and company oriented individuals are not available at these lower organizational levels. But, the big question is, are qualified individuals really available? All these underlay the need for an investigation study.

1.3   OBJECTIVE/PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The general purpose of this empirical study is to assess the impact of employees participation in managerial decision making in public sector organization in Nigeria with reference to ANAMMCO Ltd.

The specific objectives are:-

To assess the impact of employee participation in management decision – making of ANAMMCO Ltd.

To ascertain the impact of employee participation or non-participation in management decision on productivity of the organization.

To make recommendations based on the research findings.