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.
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AN EVALUATION OF ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE AND ITS IMPACT ON STAFF PRODUCTIVITY USING UBA PLC IN IKOT EKPENE AS A CASE STUDY
