ABSTRACT
The study examined the effective human relations on organizational performance. The study was conducted in Abia State Environmental Protection Agency. The specific objectives were to determine the effect of employee interpersonal relations on ASEPA effectiveness in Abia State; to examine the effect of human relations management on organizational efficiency; to analyze the factors affecting effective human relations in Abia State Environmental Protection Agency; to ascertain the relationship between human relation practices and organizational performance. The study adopted survey research design and simple random sampling technique were also adopted. A population of 377 staff and management of Abia State Environmental Protection Agency were used for the study. Taro Yamme formula were used determine a sample of 194 from the population. However,180 questionnaire were recouped form the respondents which form the sample size of the study. Primary data sourced from distribution of questionnaire to staff and management of Abia State Environmental Protection Agency. A test-re-test were conducted to ensure validity and reliability of the data. The data were presented using 5 point Likert scale and tested using correlation coefficient model (SPSS). The empirical result revealed that employee interpersonal relations has positive and significant effect on ASEPA effectiveness in Umuahia, Abia State, human relations management has positive and significant effect on organizational efficiency, gender, mutual distrust, segregation and injustice, nature of job, leadership style, work environment were the factors affecting effective human relations in Abia State environmental protection Agency and there is a positive correlation relationship between human relation practices and organizational performance.. The study recommended that management of the studied organizations should apply human relation practices to achieve improved results in their employees’ effectiveness
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
Title Page i
Certification
ii
Declaration iii
Dedication iv
Acknowledgement v
Table of Content vi
List of Table ix
Abstract x
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study 1
1.2 Statement of
the Problem 2
1.3
Objectives of the Study 6
1.4
Research Questions 6
1.5.
Hypotheses of the Study 6
1.6
Significance of the Study 7
1.7 Scope
of the Study 8
1.8
Limitations of the Study 8
1.9
Profile of Abia State Environmental
Protection Agency 9
1.10. Operational Definition of Terms 10
CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
2.1
Conceptual Framework 11
2.1.1
Human relations 11
2.1.2 The importance of human relations in the workplace 12
2.1.3 Component of human relation management in an
organization 14
2.1.4 Human relations management process in an organization 16
2.1.5 Goals
of human relations management (ERM)
17
2.1.6 Effect of human relations on employees performance 18
2.1.7
Effect of human relations on
organizational effectiveness 20
2.1.8. Some controlled factors that promote effective
human relations 21
2.1.9 Strategies for effective human relations
management in an organization 22
2.1.10 Effect of human relations and knowledge sharing on employees’
performance 24
2.1.11 Relationship between unit
manager relationship and employee
commitment 25
2.1.12 Relationship between human
relation(trust
in senior management)
and organizational
performance 26
2.1.13 Assumptions of human relations 27
2.1.15 Challenges faced in effective human relations 29
2.2 Theoretical Framework 31
2.2.1. Elton
Mayo's theory of human relations 31
2.2.2
Equity theory 33
2.2.3 Empowerment theory 33
2.2.4 Functional
theory or efficiency theory 34
2.2.5 Self recognition theory 35
2.2.6 Work engagement flow theory 35
2.2.7 Human capital theory 36
2.2.8 Natural system theory 36
2.3 Empirical
Review 37
2.4 Summary
of Reviewed of Related Literature 41
2.5 Gap
in the Literature 42
CHAPTER
3: METHODOLOGY
3.1 Research
Design 43
3.2 Sources
of Data 43
3.3
Population of the Study 43
3.4. Sample
Size Determination 43
3.5 Sampling
Technique 44
3.6 Description
of Research Instrument 44
3.7
Validity of Research Instrument 44
3.8 Reliability
of Research
Instrument 45
3.9
Method of Data Analysis 45
CHAPTER 4: DATA PRESENTATION/RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1.
Rate of Return Questionnaires 47
4.1.1. Socio-economic characteristics of the staff and management of Abia
State environmental protection agency Nigeria 48
4.2
Data Presentation 50
4.3.
Test of hypotheses 53
4.3.1
Test of hypothesis 1 53
4.3.2.
Test of hypothesis 2 54
4.3.3
Test of hypothesis 3 54
4.3.4. Test of hypothesis 4 56
4.4
Discussion of Results 56
CHAPTER 5: SUMMARY OF
FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Summary
of Findings 58
5.2.
Conclusion 58
5.3.
Recommendations 59
5.4. Area
of Further Studies 59
References
Appendices
LIST OF TABLES
4.1: Return of distributed questionnaires
from the staff and management of
Abia State Environmental Protection Agency Nigeria 47
4.2. The socio-economic characteristics of the
respondents are discussed in
this section as follows 48
4.3: Effect of employee
interpersonal relations on ASEPA effectiveness in
Abia State 50
4.4: Examine the effect
of human relation management on
organizational
efficiency 51
4.5: Factor affecting
effective human relations in Abia State
Environmental
protection Agency? 51
4.6: Ascertain the
relationship between human relation practices and
organizational
performance 52
4.7: For hypothesis 1, we specify simple
regression, thus; 53
4.8: Simple Regression of effect of human
relations management on
organizational efficiency. 54
4.9: Result of Chi-square computation of
factors affecting effective human
relation
in Abia State Environmental Protection Agency 54
4.10: Correlation coefficient analysis between
human relation practices
and organizational performance. 56
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Historically,
human relations (HR) is normally thought of as having its roots in the
Hawthorne Studies conducted in the 1920s and 1930s at the Hawthorne works of
the Western Electric Company, near Chicago in the United States. These studies
have now taken on an almost mythological status within the study of
organization in order to understand the effect of inter-personal relations on
organizational effectiveness (Nicholas, 2015).
With
the dynamic and concurrent internationalization of economic development and the
continuous progress of science and technology, the development of enterprise
management start with management of equipment and technology followed by
management of staff. Hence, human relation is now the main issued in enterprise
management (Amin and Wan, 2014).
Employees is one the important asset of any organization.
The performance of employee has direct impact on the performance of a
particular firms in Nigeria. So
maintaining healthy employee relations in an organization is a pre-requisite
for any organization in order to achieve growth and success (Richards
and Jones, 2010).
The concept of Human relations(HR) is used to broaden the
relationship between an employees, an employers and customers by way of
maintaining long lasting relationship to both new and existing customers/client
to enhance the service and performance of the public sector particularly those
established, owned and manage by government of the country (Adekunle, 2014). HR assited
organization on building confidence on employee, trust and loyalty will help
the managements to realize the potential
of the skills and knowledge in the organization
Most of the
organisation mostly at the early stage normally pay close attention to human relations
and help organisation to retain outstanding talent through human resource
management, so that the employees can create a higher value for the enterprise
(RaiandPareek, 2012).
In
today’s dynamic business world organizations now employ the service of human relations
personnel /management (HRM) because they not only interact with employees and
employers but also stands as an agent connecting employees and employer with
the ability to choose best talented and performing employee that will
contribute positively to the growth of the firm (Bajaj et al., 2013).
Human
Relations is not seen as a technology or software product, but a notion that
focuses on new forms of communication within a company (Aedem, 2012). Like any
other new management concept, HR is viewed approach that offers mutual values for
employees and employers major values promised to employees are the greatest
possible satisfaction of their individual needs, while the increased
attraction, retention, motivation and performance of employees are values
promised to employers (Strohmeier, 2013).
In
addition, human relations refers to the communication between a management and
an enterprise as this kind of communication promote flexibility, commitment and
facilitates employees achievement of organizational objectives, minimizes
workplace conflict and increases trust (Bajaj et al., 2013). If the relationships is strong, then employees will
be more likely to be satisfied with their jobs and in turn work towards the
production of a greater productive (Daniel, 2013). Although, HR is a philosophy
used within the managerial arena that involves creating long lasting
relationship between employer, employee and customers in order to improve
organizational profitability and making such organization relevant in the long
run. HR is one of the leading modern business and management strategic concept
employ by firms in business world of today to create understanding among the
changing needs and expectations of customers to ensure retention of such
customers, which stands as the primary concern of every business establishment.
Richards
and Jones (2010) opined that employee relations is a set of business activities
supported by the alignment of both technology and process directed by strategy
and designed to enhance firm performance in an area of customer management.
More so, the importance of employee relations management to organizational
performance cannot be over emphasize as it enable staff better understand
themselves, management and even their customers to better render endless
service which will in turn affects positively productivity in the long run. Employee
relationship is concerned with upholding the relationship established between
the organization, its staff and the customer as such, organizations need to
satisfy its customer, motivate its staff and which may leads to greater
profitability (Oliver, 2015).
More
so, HR is not only important at the customer service point but at every point
in time. Management, however needs to take cognizance of employee relationships
management in their organization particularly Abia State Environmental
Protection Agency since its importance in rendering of service is highly over
rated. Proper HR may result in
lower
marketing costs, enhanced staff satisfaction,
customer loyalty and possibly increases organizational productivity (Bergeron,
2014).
Employee
relations is process of resolving problematic issues concerning individual that
might influence the working condition of employees in organisation. Strong employee relations depend upon healthy
and safe work environment, involvement and commitment of all employees, incentives
for employee motivation and effective communication system in the organization.
The important of human relation cannot be over emphasis. Human relation help
organisation in achieving career success. Any more organisation involve in pursue
of human relation the more the output the orgnisation will be. Knowing how
to get along with others, resolve workplace conflict, manage relationships,
communicate well, and make good decisions.
A study of human problems arising
from organizational and interpersonal relations, because it deals with relations
with or between people, particularly in a workplace or professional setting
(Richards and Jones, 2010). The human relation
skills are vital for success in most of the jobs. These skills become all the
more important in the cases of front end jobs like sales person, receptionist,
etc. as the employee has to meet different people as part of his job. Also, for
top executives, the HR skills are very important as they help them manage their
teams, and lead them effectively. Since, organizations cannot continuously
improve interdependent systems
and processes until they progressively perfect
interdependent,
interpersonal
relationships”.
It is the quality of the employee’s
workplace relationship that most impacts on the level of employee’s motivation
and subsequent performance, Richards and Jones (2010). How well they engage with the
organization, especially with their immediate environment that are in most
cases their colleagues, influences to a great extent their error rate, level of
innovation and collaboration with other employees, absenteeism and, ultimately,
how long they stay in the job(Amin and Wan, 2014).
Thus, harmonious relations between each higher education employer and
its employees are necessary to that endeavor. The determinant of good human
Relations in Nigeria is economic conditions. Fluctuations in economic conditions
may influence employee relations (Richards and Jones,
2010).
In era of economic
recessions, most of employers and the employees are always faced with one problem or other. The problem may be in
the area of poor salary structure and lack of
incentive that the employee may be expected from the employers. However
during boom the situation is different because the organization is in position
to meet the demands of the employees as it fall due. In effect, the study
examine the effect of effective human relations on organizational performance.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
One of the most important determinants
of work place effectiveness and efficiency is employee relations but, in Abia
State Environmental Protection Agency little interest has been channeled to employee relations which is harmful
to organizational performance. The aspect of employee-employee relations and
how it relates to performance has not been given the attention it deserves by
management of ASEPA. This is based on the fact that, employees in ASEPA are not
placed in the central point in the organization. Hence, ASEPA workplace
environment impacts a lot on whether the organization achieves its goals, this
is because happy employees are productive employees. An employee that is
complacent and does not really enjoy their work, but is simply there for a
paycheck usually does not produce at a high level, develops a bad attitude and
generally drags a team down.
The
dwindling performance in ASEPA today is less attributed
to many factors, the employer of labour in Abia State are in state of dilemma
as most newly employees have not or never acquired the necessary skill to be
effective in their respective job due to non-functional human relation system.
It is more worrisome that the great emphasis today is how to reduce staff cost,
however, reducing overhead by cutting staff training cost may never guarantee
maximum benefit to the organization and in the long run the organization may
suffer. In effective human relations has a direct link to poor services render
to customers and is a threat and can result to organizational ineffectiveness. ASEPA also
battle with the problem of incompetent staff as this as has tendency to affect
their goodwill negatively.
Despite the
importance of human relation on organization productivity, human relations
programs are not sufficiently supported by Abia State, Nigeria. They consider
the money they will spend on effective human relations programs as waste rather
than investment. They fail to foresee the desirability of continuous human
relations of their employees in order to promote the efficiency and
effectiveness of their organizations. However, as important as HR is, human
relation officers believe that, their responsibility ends with maintaining good
relationship with employer and employee, this makes them put in little or no effort
towards understanding the commitment of employee which leads to ineffective
human relations in ASEPA.
Another prevailing problem is the issue
of fund which still continues to be a major setback in ASEPA
as money invested in human resource motivation, training, welfare and goodwill
are embezzled by politicians and top level management; this invariably injected
negative implications on employee commitment and promote absenteeism,
segregation, injustice in resources allocation in Abia State Environmental
Protection Agency.
In
addition, it is assume that the general problem inherent in Abia State
Environmental Protection Agency by workers are low salaries, inadequate reward
packages, irregular promotional structure and lack of recognition of workers
achievements and poor motivation of staff. All these have negative effect on
workers morale and consequently affect their productivity. More so, managers
are also faced with the problem of how best to get employees committed to their
work and put in their best towards the accomplishment of organization’s goal as
a result of poor human relations in the organization. Hence, in recent times,
while most workers are on job, they do not produce effectively, simply because
of the un-healthy relationship they have with their fellow colleagues and
employers; and employees do not put up their best performances at workplaces
when they are unhappy with management, government or even their fellow colleagues,
as such effective human relation is a life wire to organizational performance.
More so, dubious employee-employer relationship results in strike actions and
lockouts. All these actions taken by employees display their grievances only do
the organization harm than good as productivity will be reduced drastically.
Notwithstanding, it has been perceived that there is great level
of dissatisfaction among staff of Abia State
Environmental Protection Agency as they have varying
experiences at the point of service delivery. The nature of the relationships
among organized labour, employers and the government with respect to ASEPA are
indicative of the overall status of industrial relations in a country or an
industry and the obverse is equally the case. An underdeveloped labour
relations system tends to be authoritarian, with rules dictated by an employer
without direct or indirect employee involvement except at the point of
accepting employment on the terms offered. Despite wide recognition of the
importance of human relations for effective organizational performance, there
is little understanding of the various elements of human relations in ASEPA,
and even less understanding of the ways in which human relation practices can
support employees conducive to knowledge transfer and sharing.
It is believed that, the usefulness or value of ASEPA system is
best considered in terms of how well it keeps its people healthy and how
swiftly clients are treated at least cost. These in turn, have affected
employee motivation and organizational commitment. Adjusting successfully to
relationship changes has had enormous implications in terms of efficiency and
effectiveness based on the ability to access and retain a committed skilled
workforce. Indeed best human relation management
practices are not practiced by management of ASEPA.
However, there is no documented evidence on how various human relation best
practices adopted by ASEPA influences
performance of the organization. This research endeavors to find out the factors affecting
organization performance that are related to human relations. This study
therefore examine the effect of effective human relations on organizational
performance (A study of Abia State Environmental Protection
Agency).
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE
STUDY
The broad objective
of the study is toexamine
the effect of effective human relations on organizational performance (A study
of Abia State Environmental Protection Agency). The
specific objectives are to;
i.
determine the effect of
employee interpersonal relations on ASEPA effectiveness in Abia State;
ii.
examine the effect of human
relations management on organizational efficiency;
iii.
analyze the factors
affecting effective human relations in Abia State Environmental Protection Agency;
iv.
ascertain the
relationship between human relation practices and organizational performance;
1.4
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1.
What are the effect of
employee interpersonal relations on ASEPA effectiveness in Abia State?
2.
What are the effect of
human relations management on organizational efficiency;
3.
What are the factors
affecting effective human relations in Abia State Environmental Protection Agency?
4.
Is there any significant
relationship between human relation practices and organizational performance?
1.5.
HYPOTHESES OF THE STUDY
The hypotheses of the study are
stated in a null form
H01:
Employee
interpersonal relations has no significant effect on ASEPA effectiveness in Abia State.
H02:
Human
relations management has no significant effect on organizational efficiency.
H03:
Gender,
mutual distrust, segregation and injustice, nature of job, leadership style, work environment are not the factors
affecting effective human relations in Abia State Environmental Protection Agency.
H04: There is no
significant relationship between human relation practices and organizational performance.
1.6
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The
study focuses on effective
human relations on organizational performance a study of Abia
State Environmental Protection Agency. At the completion of this study finding
and recommendations accrued will benefit the following set of people;
To the management of Abia
State Environmental Protection Agency,
it will help them to identify key constraints militating effective human relations which
could be addressed to bring improvement in employee inputs and also increase
organizational effectiveness. The study will also help management of the firms
to examine effective
human relations practices that exist in the company
and how to remedy these ineffective practices. The study will offer management
the opportunity to know whether effective human relations management
practices affect quality performance. This will enable management to come out
with strategies which will help improve effective human relations and
eventually lead to meeting standards at both the domestic and foreign fronts
thereby leading to employee job satisfaction and organizational performance.
More
so, the study results will enable the management to establish the effective employee
relations strategies on employee performance, hence identify the areas where
improvements can be done. It will also help the management in planning for the
development and implementation of effective and efficient effective human relations strategies
that will lead to improved performance of the Abia State Environmental Protection
Agency. This will in turn help in ensuring economic growth and stability of theAbia
State and Nigeria at large.
The
findings and recommendations of the study will throw more light on relationship
management practices as a determining factor for quality performance and public
organizational performance as a whole. The research will again, give impetus to
the quest for growth and development by enabling management to chart a course
for growth and development by eliminating the bottlenecks of human relations in
Abia State Environmental Protection Agency endeavours.
To policy makers: Furthermore,
the findings and recommendation will help policy maker in Abia State
Environmental Protection Agency in the aspect of policy formulations and
implementation as regard to human relation practices that will spiked the
performance level of the organization and maintain total environmental
cleanliness in Abia State.
To Academia’s/Researcher,
the study will contribute to already existing knowledge on the human relations
on organizational performance in Abia State Environmental Protection Agency,
Nigeria. Finally, it will go a long way in helping future researches and
student who have interest in studying human relations, relationship management
and organizational performance, so as to increase performance level and to
those in academics and business management researchers, the study will serve as
a springboard for further investigations.
1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The research
focused on the effective
human relations on organizational performance (A study of Abia
State Environmental Protection Agency). From the conceptual perspective, the
study the effect of employee interpersonal relations on organizational
effectiveness; the effect of human relations management on organizational
efficiency; the factor affecting effective human relations in Abia State
Environmental Protection Agency; various human relation practices and it effect
on organizational performance and the various constraints militating against
effective human relations in Abia State Environmental Protection Agency.
1.8
LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
During the
research processes, some issues came up as limiting forces although did not
have a significant effect on the result of the study;the limiting factors
include the following;
Insufficient
Materials:There were insufficient journals and
textbooks on human which led to insufficient information that subsequently
affected the literature review. However the researcher made use of the
available ones.
Limited
Time Duration: More so,time and duration of this
project work was too short and this adversely affected the research work, since
the researcher combine the research work course within the same period.
However, in order to attain academic success the researcher rationalized the
time effectively.
Finance:
The challenge of finance was also one of the limitation forces by the
researcher during the time of conducting this research work. Hence, the
researcher obtained grant from friends and family members in order to acquire
academic excellence.
Inadequate
cooperation by the respondents:Lastly another
major constraint was inadequate cooperation by the respondents which reduced
the amount of data collected.
1.9 PROFILE OF ABIA STATE
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
Abia
State Environmental Protection Agency (ASEPA) serves as the regulatory body to
protect and manage the environmental issues in the state. The functions of the
ASEPA include:
·
Enforcement of all
environmental legislations in the states
·
Minimization of impacts of
physical development on the ecosystem
·
Preservation, conservation and
restoration to pre-impact status of all ecological process essential for the
preservation of biological diversity.
·
Protection of air, water, land,
forest and wildlife within the state.
·
Pollution control and
environmental health in the state.
ASEPA,
Aba & Environs under the able leadership of Hon Rowland Nwakanma has stated
that henceforth all waste will have to be bagged in ASEPA biodegradable bags
before they are deposited into the waste receptacles.The biodegradable bags are
purchased at the rate of N50 at ASEPA administrative office, 29 Pound Round,
Aba; Ministry of works premises along IkotEkpene Road, opposite PHCN office;
Market Chairmen's offices and at the waste receptacles points. The ASEPA staff
at the waste receptacles points have been directed
to ensure strict compliance to this ASEPA DGM's directive. Defaulters
shall be made to face the dictates of the extant environmental laws.
The act
establishing the ASEPA places on it the responsibility of ensuring that all development
and industry activity, operations and emissions are within the limits
prescribed in the National Guidelines and Standards, and comply with relevant
regulations for environmental pollution management in Nigeria as may be
released by the Ministry. To fulfil this mandate a number of
regulations/instruments are available (See section on National Legal
Instruments on Environment), however for the main instruments in ensuring that
environmental and social issues are mainstreamed into development projects is
the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Act No. 86 of 1992 See Annex 1. With
this Act, the FMENV prohibits public and private sectors from embarking on
major prospects or activities without due consideration, at early stages, of
environmental and social impacts. The act makes an EIA mandatory for any
development project, and prescribes the procedures for conducting and reporting
EIA studies. As part of the effective utilization of the EIA tool, the Ministry
has produced Sectoral guidelines detailing the necessary requirements of the
EIA process from each Sector. One of these Sectoral Guidelines that apply to
the proposed project is the ‘Sectoral Guidelines on Infrastructure
Development.’ Procedurally, in Nigeria, it is worthy to note that before commencement
of an EIA, the FMENV issues a letter of intent on notification by the
proponent, approve the terms of reference, ensure public participation, review
and mediate. The possible technical activities expected for a proposed project
include screening, full or partial EIA Study, Review, Decision-making,
Monitoring Auditing and Decommissioning/ Remediation post-closure.
1.10.OPERATIONAL
DEFINITION OF TERMS
Human
Relations
Human relations is defined as a
relationship between employer or the representative manager and employee, aimed
towards maintaining commitment morale and trust so as to create productive and
secure workplace environment.
Human
Relation Practices
Human relation practices can be
defined as a crucial function of Human Resource Management which can bring
change status of HR in the organization as this function could be quantified
and resulted in statistical data to prove its importance in enhancing Human relations
status in the organization.
Trust
Trust is a critical variable
influencing the performance, effectiveness, and efficiency of the organization.
it serve as a bond between the employer and the employee.
Leadership
style
Leadership style, often called
‘management style’ is defined as the approach managers use to deal with people
in their teams.
Shared
values
Shared values is defined as the
extent to which partners have beliefs in common about what behaviors, goals,
and policies are important or unimportant, appropriate or inappropriate, and
right or wrong.
Commitment
Commitment as a desire to maintain
relationship a pledge of continuity between the parties.
Employment
relationship
Employment relationship can be
defined as an economic, social and political relationships in which employees
provide manual and mental labour in exchange for rewards by employers
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