- BACKGROUND TO
THE STUDY
It
is a common knowledge that in public establishments government work is no man’s
work and government work can never finish, hence workers handled their jobs in
slippery manner. They demonstrate these by showing little or no seriousness in
performing their jobs. Such general
believe lead to poor attitude to work which can affect the performance of
public organization thereby leading to their inefficiency and low productivity.
Productivity, is a measure of the
efficiency of a person, machine, system, in converting inputs into useful
output.(www.businessdictionary.com). It can be expressed as the ratio of output
to input used in the production process. When all outputs are included in the
productivity measure it is called total productivity. However for workers to
fully put in his best he need to be satisfy on the job his is doing. According
to Victor Harold Vroom (work and motivation 1964), assert that the more a
worker is satisfied with the type of job he does, the more energy he exert on
its performance and willingness to remain on the job.
Human beings are not like machines;
therefore, adequate attention should be given to them to encourage them to make
them happy. The rise in the interest and moral of workers produces efficiency.
Effective performance on the part of employee is essential for the success of
any organization. An understanding of what motivate the individual is needed to
reveal how abilities and skills are activated including their potentials.
The term low productivity refers to
the inability of our public organization to produce up to installed capacity.
It is when the organization produces up to installed capacity or something
nearer that one can say that such public organization is doing well. Nigeria is
blessed with fiscal and human resources necessary for industrial development
and buoyant economy. It has a large expanding market as well as an emerging and
aggressive group capable of exploiting opportunities in both domestic and
foreign market.
But
it is a pity that low productivity in our public organizations dominate discussion
in many circles in Nigeria today. They have continued to witness increase in
low productivity in recent time. Nigeria public organizations have failed to
achieve their over-all objectives and targets as organizations. In Nigeria
there seems to be high level of lackadaisical attitude among government
employees and corruption is also very high.
Governments have introduced various reforms aimed at improving the
performance of public organization in Nigeria, but to no avail.
The Nigeria Institute for Oil Palm Research
(NIFOR) is a government owned research center primarily dealing with palm trees
and also research in other economic crops mostly coconut for farmers in Nigeria
and other countries. Despite federal government support to this institute, the
performances still remain very low. But it is a pity that Low productivity in
our Public organization dominates discussion in many circles in Nigeria today.
They have continue to witness increase low productivity in recent time. Nigeria
public organizations have failed to achieve their over-all objectives and
targets as organizations. In Nigeria there seems to be a high level of lacalaxical
attitude among government employees and corruption is also very high. Governments have introduced various reforms
aimed at improving the performance of public organization in Nigeria, but to no
avail.
Nevertheless,
the success of any organization depends upon the behavior and interest of
employees. The goal of any organization is achieved through the right direction
of human behavior in a desired manner. Where these are not properly managed can
lead to poor performance of workers in organization. For the past many decades,
Nigeria Government recorded and experienced poor attitude from both private and
public corporations. This sad experience took a mounting turn to nowadays.
Government has done a lot in their effort to revive this culture but all was to
no avail. There is a wide spread interest in improving the level of poor
attitude to work in organizations. Apart from the economic benefits of better
preparing workers for unprecedented demands of modern workplace, there are also
social benefits tied to improving performance and access for larger number of
workers to post-organizational learning, training and development opportunities
and laying stronger foundation to skills for life –long learning. Guerreror and
Sire,(2000) if the worker have negative attitude towards work, the consequence
can create problem in applying the prescribed job design, which means there
will be failure in accomplishing organizational goals. The good thing in raising
the level of attitude has led to a focus on identifying the range of causes
that shape poor attitude as well as understanding how these causes operate to
limit or enhance the performance of workers.
The
role of worker attitude is to lay the foundation for further performance and if
a good foundation is laid at workers level there is likely to be improvement at
other level. However different organizations at different times have passed the
blame of poor attitude in organization to the workers, because of their low
achievement, low motivation and the likes. DeSimione and Harris (1998)
concurred that the possible influences on worker’s behavior are internal
factors such as motivation, ability ,attitude, knowledge and skills. Morakinyo
(2003) stated that fallen level of workers performance is attributable to
owner’s none-use of supervisory strategies.
It
is obvious that if Nigeria society must survive, people must work. The working
culture however, varies from society to society and also from organization to
organization. Long et al.(2012) suggested that people are seeking many ways of
live that is meaningful and less complicated and this new lifestyle actually
has an impact on how employee must be motivated and managed. Due to importance
of work productivity, so many literatures have been written with regards to
different aspects of expectations from production. Workers no matter the
organization or establishment, have their expectation ranging from the issues
of getting adequate payment from whatever they are doing, being secured in
their place of work, being placed and recognized as significant in the
organization, equipped with necessary tools, skill and equipment for the
accomplishment of organization’s goals. While we see these conditions as vital
for every worker, some scholars tend to see them as necessary only for
managerial cadre of an organization. If the managers are well equipped with the
above factors, they will be able to run their organization successfully.
Consequence of this work stress, worker productivity will be affected and as we
know productivity is money, in order to avoid this unhealthy situation happen,
we should provide a comfortable and appropriate working environment facilities
that suits to humans needs ( Asmui et.al 2012).
Moreover, where the work is quite
difficult workers have their expectations in terms of reward, if this is not
met, the tendency for the workers to develop negative attitude to their work is
high. The general position here is that the socio-economic systems that are
operating in organizations today goes to a great extent to determining workers
attitude. The logic is that the system determines the working place environment
itself. Thus the workers response to his work is the definition of situation he
found himself. Employees today are dealing with more complicated work tasks,
often work long hours, and work in teams (Lee, 2004).
Therefore this
study focused on the performance of Nigeria Institute for Oil Palm Research
(NIFOR) Benin City Edo state, in realizing its over-all objectives.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE
PROBLEM
Base on the background, this study is to
examine the performance of Nigeria Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR), Benin
City in Edo state. Nigeria Institute For oil Palm Research has the mandate of
breeding high quality palm seedlings, considering the present economic
importance of the product to the country. It is very important to look at the
factors that militate against the low production of high quality palm seedlings
by Nigeria Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR) and suggest a way of
controlling them. In line with this analysis, the researcher proposed the following
research questions.
- What
are the factors responsible for low performance in Nigeria Institute for Oil
Palm Research, Benin City?
- Has
corruption led to inefficiency in Nigeria Institute for Oil Palm Benin City?
- How
does poor attitude of workers in Nigeria Institute for Oil Palm Research Benin
City affect its performance?
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The
general objective of this study is to examine the low performance of Nigeria
Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR) Benin City in Edo state Nigeria. While
the specific objectives are:
- To investigate factors responsible for
low performance in Nigeria Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR) Benin City
Edo state.
- To find out whether corruption is
responsible for Nigeria Institute for Oil Palm Research inefficiency.
- To examine the extent to which workers
attitude affects performance of Nigeria Institute for Oil Palm Research.
1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The study has both theoretical and
practical contribution. Theoretically, it will add to existing knowledge of
public administration and management. In other words it will improve the
existing literature and policies that can lead to high organizational
performance and efficiency. Also it will provide valuable information to
students doing research work on performance of public organization especially
on Nigeria Institute for Oil Palm Research, Benin City.
Among the practical significance of
this study, the findings of this study will help management of Nigeria
Institute for Oil Palm Research to be aware of the challenges responsible for
her low performance. Also it will help other stakeholders in management to
adhere to solution provided from this study on how to improve performance in
organization through motivations.
Finally, it is expected that when the findings are enforced the workers moral in organizations will increase and will improve their performance, high productivity and harmony among individual staff.
THE PERFORMANCE OF NIGERIA INSTITUTE FOR OIL PALM RESEARCH (NIFOR), BENIN CITY (1998-2005)
