ABSTRACT
This study investigated the impact of workforce engagement on performance of Manufacturing Firms in Akwa Ibom State. The study sought to ascertain the ascertain the impact of job security on employee job satisfaction of Manufacturing Firms in Akwa Ibom State, assess the effect of rewards and recognition on employee output of Manufacturing Firms in Akwa Ibom State, examine the influence of involvement and participation on effectiveness of Manufacturing Firms in Akwa Ibom State and analyze the factors affecting workforce engagement on performance of Manufacturing Firms in Akwa Ibom State. This research adopted a survey design. This study adopted two sources of data collection which are primary data and secondary data. The population of the study was 237 staff. Thus, the sample size was 149 which were distributed to the respondents in the study area. One hundred and thirty nine (139) were returned while ten (10) were rejected. The researcher used a simple random sampling technique. ANOVA, correlation coefficient and regression model was used to test hypotheses of the study. The study found out that Job security has a significant effect on employee job satisfaction of Selected Manufacturing Firms in Akwa Ibom State. Rewards and recognition has a significant impact on employee output of Selected Manufacturing Firms in Akwa Ibom State. Involvement and participation has a significant effect on effectiveness of Selected Manufacturing Firms in Akwa Ibom State. The study concluded that Ineffective communication and inefficiency at work are the challenges affecting workforce engagement on performance of Selected Manufacturing Firms in Akwa Ibom State. The study recommended that organization should hold to high esteem effective communication and job security as a satisfactory form of appreciation that will stop employee thinking about other opportunities from other organization.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Cover Page i
Title
Page ii
Declaration iii
Certification iv
Dedication v
Acknowledgements vi
List
of Tables vii
Abstract viii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study 1
1.2 Statement of the Problem 4
1.3 Objectives of the Study 6
1.4 Research Questions 6
1.5 Research Hypotheses 6
1.6 Significance of the Study 7
1.7 Scope of the Study 7
1.8 Limitations of the Study 8
1.9 Operational Definition of Terms 8
1.10 Brief
History of the Organization Under Studied 9
CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
2.1 Conceptual Framework 11
2.1.1 Workforce engagement 11
2.1.2 Types of employee engagement 14
2.1.3 Importance of employee engagement 15
2.1.4 Employee
engagement strategies 16
2.1.5 Salaries
and promotion 19
2.1.6 Rewards
and job security 22
2.1.7 Empowerment and participation on employee
commitment 24
2.1.8 Participation 25
2.1.9 Communications
and employee participation 27
2.1.10 Methods
of employee participation 29
2.1.11 Employee commitment and in relation to retention 31
2.1.12
Work-Life balance and it impact in retention 34
2.1.13 Challenges of employees’
retention 39
2.1.14 Employee
engagement and organizational performance 43
2.1.15 Relationship between employees’ retention and organizational 45
Performance
2.1.16 Organizational
performance 47
2.2 Theoretical
Framework 49
2.2.1 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory (Abraham Maslow, 1943) 49
2.2.2 Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory (Frederick Herzberg, 1959) 51
2.2.3 Equity Theory (John Stacey Adam, 1963) 52
2.3 Empirical Review 53
2.4 Gap in Literature 57
2.5 Summary of Reviewed Related Literature 58
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
3.1 Research Design 59
3.2 Sources of Data 59
3.3 Population of the Study 59
3.4 Sample Size Determination 60
3.5 Sampling Technique 60
3.6 Description of the Research Instrument 61
3.7 Validity of the Research Instrument 61
3.8 Reliability of the Research Instrument 62
3.9 Method of Data Analysis 62
3.9.1 Model Specifications 62
CHAPTER 4: DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
4.1 Return of Questionnaire 65
4.2 Data Presentation 68
4.3 Test of Hypotheses 72
4.4 Discussion of Results 76
CHAPTER 5: SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Summary of Findings 78
5.2 Conclusion 78
5.3 Recommendations 79
5.4 Areas of Further Studies 79
5.5 Contributions to Knowledge 79
References
Questionnaire
Appendices
LIST OF TABLES
3.1 Population
Distribution Table 59
3.2: Sample
Size Table 61
4.1: Return
of Questionnaire 65
4.2: Gender
of the respondents 65
4.3: Gender
of the respondents 66
4.4: Experience
of the respondents 66
4.5: Management
Cadre of the respondents 66
4.6: Educational
Background 68
4.7: Ascertain
the impact of job security on employee job 69
satisfaction of Manufacturing
Firms in Akwa Ibom State.
4.8: Assess
the effect of rewards and recognition on employee output 70
of Manufacturing Firms in Akwa
Ibom State
4.9: Examine
the influence of involvement and participation on effectiveness 71
of Selected Manufacturing Firms in
Akwa Ibom State.
4.10: Analyze
the challenges affecting workforce engagement
on organizational 72
performance of Selected
Manufacturing Firms in Akwa Ibom State.
4.11: Regression test on Job security on employee job
satisfaction 73
4.12: Regression
test on Rewards and recognition on employee performance 74
4.13: Regression
test on Involvement and participation on effectiveness 75
4.14: Multiple
regression, on Ineffective
communication and inefficiency 76
at work on workforce engagement
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Workforce
engagement are some of the important issues within organizations that aimed to
gain a competitive edge in the global market. Normally it is in a firm’s best
interest to put its effort to engage and to avoid losing of the talented
employees that they have, and not recruiting anyone (Branham, 2005).
Organizations all over the world are giving more attention and importance to
this issue as they know that high level employees’ engagement affects the
performance of the employees’ as well as organization (Chung, & Sue-Ting,
2009). Company benefits, employee attitude and job performance play an
important role in organizations to engage their workforce. In addition,
offering workforce benefit such as reasonable flexibility with work life
balance, performance reviews and performance based salary increase along with
traditional benefits such as paid holidays and travelling allowance aid firms
to be able to manage their workforce engagement. Therefore, when companies
analyze the cost of replacing workers can be high, the problems associated with
finding and training new employees cannot be considerable, and the specific
workplace-acquired skills and knowledge people walk away with what can take
years to replace, they will be forced to put all the necessary things in place
just to retain and engage their competent workforce (Sarah, 2009).
Furthermore,
managers now recognize new paradigms that can save cost and maximize profit
there is the need to successfully engage high talent employees who survive
organizational restructuring, downsizing, consolidation, reorganizing or
re-engineering initiatives (Storey, 2005). More specifically, employees have
been linked to increased productivity, good customer service, greater
profitability and overall organizational survival. To achieve such link, management
must not only face current issues of employee but ensure that they put in place
mechanisms and equipment’s that will engage its workers (Fox, 2009). Organizations
face a lot of challenges when they have a high turnover rate as a result of
employees leaving the organization for reasons such as job dissatisfaction,
poor working conditions, non-payment of salary and lack of career development.
However, high loss of staff leads to low performance in the organization
therefore, organizations enacted policies and practices on engaging workers so
as to ensure that workers stay in the organization for a longer period of time (Rawat,
2013). Managers understand that having the right workforce in the right place
at the right time to maximize sales volume which has become the most important
factor in ensuring ongoing organizational success. Thus, managing workforce
effectively is obviously significant, on the indications of acquisition,
allocation, development, retention and succession that is even more important
since value adding to worker can best create competitive advantage to firms in
the competitive market (Milkovich & Newman, 2004).
Engagement
of workforce can be a vital source of competitive advantage for any
organization since workers are the active factors who work to bring about
certain ends in organizations. However, many organizations are faced with the
difficult task of engaging their work force as well as making sure that their workers
remain loyal and committed to their organizations. Workers engagement is
primarily concerned with reasons why employees prefer to remain with their
current organizations (Ejiofor & Mbachu, 2001). Globally, firms are
recognizing the value of investing in their workforce now more than ever.
However, firms understand that to stay on top in the global economy, they need
to strategize on developing engaging their workforce towards gaining
competitive advantage (Carnegie, 2001).
In
view of these developments, it is therefore important for firms to beat
competition through the engagement of its workforce. Also due to the
intrinsically close ties between employees and clients, losing those workers
completely can mean loss of valuable customer relationship. Organization is inability
to engage workforce brings about workforce turnover and thus, high worker
turnover is costly to the organization and the society in particular (Ramlall,
2003). It is therefore imperative for organizations to adopt appropriate engagement
strategies to engage competent workforce because organizations performance is
often dependent on the knowledge and skills of its workers. Engaging competent
workforce should be a matter of concern to managers since “their leaving creates
a loss to the organization of its intellectual capital or intangible assets” (Chew,
& Chan, 2008).
Workforce
engagement is one of the key issues within competitive organizations today as workers
are the most valuable assets in any organization. Normally it is in a company’s
best interest to put its effort in engaging the talented workers that they
have, and not recruiting anyone new (Branham, 2005). Organizations rely on the
expertise, knowledge, skills, capital resource and capacity development of
their workforce in order to compete favorably and indeed gain competitive
advantage in the international market. However, engagement of highly skilled
employees has become a difficult task for managers, as these categories of
employees are being attracted by more than one organization at a time with
various kinds of incentives (Powell, & Lubitsh, 2007). This behooved on
management to create an enabling and sustainable critical culture and
strategies to work out engagement systems and structures for their workers
working in these contemporary organizations (Nwokocha, 2012).
The
top priority for any organization should be the attraction, engaging of
competent workforce. Even the most proficient companies can be seriously
damaged because of failing to implement good workforce engagement strategies. A
considerable investment in both time and money is required in order to find the
right people. Thus, in order to increase employee’s performance, it is critical
for organizations to ensure that they create and adopt workforce engagement strategies.
A high turnover rate is a serious problem that most organizations are now
facing and this is due to reasons such as poor working conditions, no career
advancements, job dissatisfaction as well as lack of salary package.
Furthermore, workers are either under engaged or disengaged in the
organization, this in turn leads to low employee performance and as a result
organization have to come up with strategies to keep worker in the
organizations (Waldman, 2008).
However,
engagement of workers are not only important because of the costs incurred to
recruit and train. It is important because it helps organization to retain
their most talented employees from being poached. When a worker leaves an
organization, they take with them information that is very valuable about the
organization, the current projects, customers as well as past history about the
competitors to their new organization. Therefore, a good employer should be
able to know how to attract, engage his workforce (Sandhya & Kumar, 2011).
In order to accomplish an organizations goals and objectives, the engagement of
employees has proven to be a very significant factor. For any organization to
be able to gain the desired competitive advantage, they need to be able to engage
their workers first (Vellani, 2012). Workforce engagement strategies refers to
the plans, means or set of decision-making behavior that is set in place by
organizations in order to effectively retain their competitive workforce to
improve employee performance. Most researchers have found that employees will
remain and work in order to ensure the achievement of organization goals is
successful only when there is adoption and implementation of appropriate
employee engagement (Griffeth, & Hom,
2001). Workforce engagement influences both firms and their workers; firms have
to incur the expenses on recruiting and training of new employees, and as well
increases the benefits of the workers to keep them in the organization.
However, incoming employees on the other hand may be more highly skilled and
better educated when recruited and while exiting employees in the organization might
like their job which motivates them to stay in the organization. Therefore, workforce
engagement may increase organizational performance, and also provide
opportunity which has fascinated the growth of the organization (Sarah, 2007). This
study seeks to examine the impact of workforce engagement on performance of
Manufacturing Firms in Akwa Ibom State.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Interestingly,
while today's organizations are indeed different, the challenge of engagement is
growing. It is quite sad that businesses today are not adopting some of the
strategies used in the past to ensure that more workers are engaged. Moreover,
most organizations in Nigeria are not being creative in devising strategies to
keep their workforce. Firms today are not creating an environment which
encourages their workers to remain loyal to the organization. Engagement challenge
is due to greater movement in global learning society. As the world is moving
towards more industrialization, employment opportunities are also keeping pace
with this development hence workforce engagement has gained the attention as a
major issue in the development of organizational competence. Management can no longer
influence the decision of employees, whether to leave or to stay. Workforce
engagement has become a critical factor of influence for performance of the
larger organizations.
The
key problem to workers engagement is that the organization loses the most
experienced and skilled staff that the organization had invested heavily in
training on various organization job task functions as a result of unsafe
working conditions, noisy work environment, dissatisfaction, low level of
motivation and satisfaction, poor salary scale, status, job insecurity, poor
performance appraisal, supervision favoritism and harsh company policy. On the
other hand,
There
is no involvement and participation of workers on the decision making of the
firm, workers no longer feel the impact of decision happening in the firm,
since they do not participate in such decision. Furthermore, as result of
increased level of employees’ retention rates, many organizations are found
wanting of various forms of workers communication, delay of employees’ benefits,
decreased remuneration and offering of various employees’ rewards, recognitions
and awards, not even a warm handshake for a job well done. Also, some managers
find it very hard to say thank you to workers best performance, this however
has led to decreased organization performance and a decline in sales volume or
quality service delivery.
Managers
no longer consider the amount of workload given
to an employee, these heavy workloads among employees have reduced their
commitment and loyalty and also causes staff absenteeism, lateness, turnover,
which almost in most cases leads to the death of the employee. When employee
moods reduce, it cripples employee retention, when an employee is less engaged
it reduces job performance of the employee. Furthermore, poor supervision,
fringe benefits, contingent rewards, operating procedures, co-workers, working
environment, ineffective communication, work experience, age, and sex
differences, salary, efficiency at work, fringe supervision, and co-worker
relation are the most important factors contributing to employee commitment and
engagement, which affects market share of the organization. Managers fail to
understand the different response of transformation leadership, organization
culture and job satisfaction to supervisors. Thus, if employees are not well
motivated through, fair promotions and justifiable salary differences, they
will be less committed to work less. There is a dearth on training and
development, empowerment and participation, job safety and security and rewards
and recognitions, all these indicators keep employees committed and engaged to
work. The challenge most managers face today is the formulation of effective workforce
engagement that will help in retaining workers that are considered critical in
attaining organizational goals. Workforce who are highly motivated, committed
and engaged are more likely to stay longer on the job than those who are bored
and dejected. It is against this backdrop that this study seeks to examine the
impact of workforce engagement on performance of Manufacturing Firms in Akwa
Ibom State.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The
main objective of this study is to examine the impact of
workforce engagement on performance of Manufacturing Firms in Akwa Ibom State. The specific objectives are to:
i.
ascertain the impact of job
security on employee job satisfaction of Manufacturing Firms in Akwa Ibom
State.
ii.
assess the effect of rewards
and recognition on employee output of Manufacturing Firms in Akwa Ibom State.
iii.
examine the influence of involvement
and participation on effectiveness of Manufacturing Firms in Akwa Ibom State.
iv.
analyze the factors affecting workforce
engagement on performance of Manufacturing Firms in Akwa Ibom State.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
i.
What is the impact of job
security on employee job satisfaction of Manufacturing Firms in Akwa Ibom State?
ii.
What is the effect of rewards
and recognition on employee output of Manufacturing Firms in Akwa Ibom State?
iii.
What is the influence of involvement
and participation on effectiveness of Manufacturing Firms in Akwa Ibom State?
iv.
What are the factors affecting workforce
engagement on performance of Manufacturing Firms in Akwa Ibom State?
1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
The
hypotheses were stated in a null form
Ho1: Job security has no significant effect on employee job
satisfaction of Manufacturing Firms in Akwa Ibom State.
Ho2: Rewards and recognition has no significant impact on employee output
of Selected Manufacturing Firms in Akwa Ibom State.
Ho3: Involvement and participation has no significant effect on effectiveness
of Selected Manufacturing Firms in Akwa Ibom State.
Ho4: Ineffective communication and inefficiency at work are not the factors
affecting workforce retention and engagement on performance of Manufacturing
Firms in Akwa Ibom State.
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The
beneficiaries of the study include: Management, Workers,
Academicians/Researchers, Government, Policy Makers
Management: The
study would provide information to assist HR managers to strengthen the
relationship and communication between management and subordinates thereby
enhancing organizational performance.
Workers: This
study would help workers to do better and to raise self-esteem and motivation,
resulting in job satisfaction, involvement and participation.
Academicians/Researchers:
The study would be source of reference
material for future researchers on other related topics; it also helped other
academicians who undertake the same topic in their studies.
Government: This
study would help in coming up with policies and also come up with decision
making and implementation processes of the policies related to workers
retention and engagement.
Policy Makers: This
study would help in enlightening the major stakeholders concerning the
influence of workers retention and engagement on organizational performance and
this aided toward policy formulation.
1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This scope of the study is discussed from
three perspectives; the content scope, unit scope and geographical scope.
Unit Scope: This
involve all the employees of Jubilee Syringe Manufacturing Co. Ltd,
Alphastar Paints & Industries Ltd and Pristol Products.
Content Scope: The study examined the Impact of Workforce
Engagement on Performance of Manufacturing Firms in Akwa Ibom State. The study was design to ascertain the impact of job security on employee job satisfaction of
Manufacturing Firms in Akwa Ibom State, assess the effect of rewards and recognition
employee output of Manufacturing Firms in Akwa Ibom State, examine the
influence of involvement and participation on effectiveness of Manufacturing
Firms in Akwa Ibom State and analyze the factors affecting workforce engagement
on performance of Manufacturing Firms in Akwa Ibom State.
Geographical scope:
The location of Alphastar Paint Industrial Limited is located in Block 3, Asari
Store, Ada Shopping Complex Essienta, Calabar Municipal, Nigeria. Pristol
Products Plot 53b, Ewet Housing Estate, Sandtex Paint, Car Wash, Maitama, Uyo Akwa Ibom,
Nigeria. Jubilee Syringe Manufacturing Company Limited is at No:1 Jubilee Close
off Jubilee Road, Awa, Onna L.G.A. Akwa Ibom State.
1.8 LIMITATIONS OF THE
STUDY
Dearth of Information
The
attitudinal issues with the staff who were present in the firm were biased to
give information some even gave out false information about the study, which
brings a dearth of information.
Inadequate
Information/Attitude of Respondents
The
challenges encountered by the researcher where mostly from the selected firms
where respondents are not always around in their respective departments to give
information about the study.
Questionnaire collection
However,
the information used for this study was the little questionnaire filled
correctly by the respondents met on ground. The voids questionnaires were
discarded.
1.9 OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS OF TERMS
Communication
is the act of developing meaning among entities or groups through the use of
sufficiently mutually understood signs, symbols, and semiotic conventions.
Employee
Engagement is a fundamental concept in the effort to
understand and describe, both qualitatively and quantitatively, the nature of
the relationship between an organization and its employees.
Job
Security is the probability that an individual
will keep their job; a job with a high level of security is such that a person
with the job would have a small chance of losing it.
Motivation: Motivation is
defined as a psychological force that determines the direction of a person's
behavior in an organization, a person's level of effort and a person's level of
persistence.
Organizational
Performance: Involves analyzing a
company’s performance against its objectives and goals. In other
words, organizational performance comprises real results or outputs
compared with intended outputs.
Rewards
and Recognition is a system where people are
acknowledged for their performance in intrinsic or extrinsic ways.
Retention Strategies:
Are policies and plans that organizations follow to reduce employee turnover
and attrition and ensure employees are engaged and productive long-term.
Salary: A
fixed regular payment, typically paid on a monthly basis but often expressed as
an annual sum, made by an employer to an employee, especially a professional or
white-collar worker.
1.10 BRIEF HISTORY OF THE
ORGANIZATION UNDER STUDIED
Jubilee
Syringe Manufacturing Company Limited
Jubilee
syringe manufacturing company limited was established in 2017 for the purpose
of producing disposable syringes in Nigeria. JSM syringes are made from the
highest quality, medical grade raw materials with state of the art technology.
Our 2-part luer slip type syringes come in 3 sizes (2ml, 5ml, 10ml). our
factory is located in Onna Local Government Area, Akwa-Ibom State. it covers
8,000m2 of indoor space and 42,000m2 of outdoor space.
Mission
JSM
is the largest factory in Africa with an annual production capacity of 350
million and is set to be the leader in the syringe manufacturing sector in
Africa. Jubilee syringe manufacturing company ensures that its customers are
provided with the highest quality disposable syringes, thereby helping people
of Africa live healthy lives. We aim to deliver superior growth and
profitability to our shareholders by continuously improving productivity and
lowering costs. JSM and its employees shall abide by applicable laws and
regulations and have the utmost respect for mother nature, for our community
and for each other at all times.
Vision
We
envision an Africa where our products improve healthcare services and patient
safety. we will earn our customers’ trust and strive to exceed their
expectations by never compromising from our quality and our integrity. we aim
to be an African leader in the production of disposable syringes.
Pristol
Products
We
are well known for production of personal hygiene products and toiletries. We
produce high quality air-freshner, liquid soap, izal, disinfecting liquid,
olive oil to meet industrial standard. We also offer business continuity and
development support. We are committed to entrepreneurship development by
offering training on various products,some of them are listed earlier. Plot
53b, Ewet Housing Estate, Sandtex Paint, Car Wash, Maitama, , Uyo, Akwa Ibom, Nigeria
Alphastar
Paints Industries LTD
The
company initially started business as Celebrity Paints Limited in Port
Harcourt, Nigeria in 2005 and later expanded its business to the best standard
with the incorporation of Alphastar Paints Limited in 2010. Alphastar Paints
Industries Limited is positioned to manufacture high quality paints products
that will match international standards. The company was incorporated in 2010
with its head office and factory at 10 Elebele Light Industrial Layout Yenagoa,
Bayelsa State, Nigeria. The company is one of the leading paints manufacturers
in the southern part of Nigeria with an array of product lines, which include
Emulsion, Texcoat, Gloss, Industrial, Automotive, Marine Paints, Wood Finish
and Putty of different kinds. The quality policy of the company is well defined
in such a way as to cover the framework for establishing and reviewing the
products quality from time to time. The company is on course of being ISO
9001:2008 certified.
Alphastar
Paint Industrial Limited is located in Block 3, Asari Store, Ada Shopping
Complex Essienta, Calabar Municipal, Nigeria. Company is working in Marine
Services business activities. Block 3, Asari Store, Ada Shopping Complex
Essienta, Calabar Municipal, Cross River.
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