WASTEFUL ORGANIZATIONAL PRACTICES IN MANUFACTURING BUSINESS ORGANIZATIONS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

It has been discovered that apart from environmental factors, there are internal factors that contribute to ineffectiveness in organizations and there is evidence to suggest that serious gaps and defects in manufacturing business 0rganisa.tion.s mostly in the areas of production, 4% inventory management, sales, accounting and administration as a result of some wasteful practices and a study of some companies shows that human factors mostly deriving from management shortcomings account for the general ineffectiveness (Drucker 1964). Two basic areas of wastes have been identified by Hicks and Gullet (1981) L. Wastes related to organizational r&tipliers 2. Wastes related to Bureaucracy. Multiplication of work and subordinates belong to the first category while the bureaucracy-related wastes include: - Avoiding responsibility - Red tapping - Hoarding authority - Delayed decision making - Spreading accountability - Empire building - Bureaucratic sabotage - Stalemate - Formalism and ritualism. Making resources productive is the specific job of management. Resources can be made productive in the individual plant or enterprise, individual store, the individual office, port or research laboratory. These resources are made productive - or deprived of productivity - by individual managers within their own individual sphere of responsibility. Continuous and purposeful increase of productivity through management has been discovered by Fredrick W. Taylor. To be able to survive and achieve the goals for which it has been set up an organisation carries out a number of activities such as those designed to ensure the availability of resources (Raw Materials, human resources, plants and fixture, ideational resources and the market) and the workflow activities which comprise all that is done to create and distribute the output of the organisation. Productivities in our manufacturing business organisations as well as profit motives have been neglected. Some managers believe that productivities would take care of themselves but nothing is as dangerous as a decrease in productivity. It makes a shrinking of the economy inevitable. It creates inflationary pressures, social conflict and mutual suspicion. Since the ultimate end of management is the accomplishment of set objectives through the efficient use of resources (both human and material), it then follows that where commitment of resources is not achieving set objectives, there is need to re-examine the management practice for its congruity with the environment. To reverse the trend in productivities therefore is a major managerial task. It is the single most important contribution managers of business organisations could make towards calming the turbulence in our economy. Also, for our manufacturing business organizations to survive let alone prosper, managers need to work continuously at improving productivities. The fight for survival has already begun in some companies and the search for better ways of doing things begins with the realization that there is a problem to be solved. Too many of our manufacturing organisations have gone to the wall because they lacked effective management. They lacked managers capable of understanding what is required of them in terms of leadership and the ability to formulate and implement a survival strategy. It is based on this premise that this topic "Wasteful Organizational Practices in Manufacturing Business Organisations in Enugu State was conceived. Wasteful organizational practices are those practices within organizations which were intended to increase efficiency towards the accomplishment of organizational objectives but instead used in ways contrary to the organizational efficiency thereby failing to accomplish the organizational objectives.