THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP AND PRODUCTIVITY IN AN ORGANIZATION (A CASE STUDY OF UNILEVER NIGERIA PLC, AGBARA OGUN STATE)

CHAPTER ONE

1.0 INTRODUCTION

        Before considering the relationship between effective leadership and productivity in an organization one  must take a vivid look at what an organization is. An organization is an entity. This is true of all business enterprises, churches, hospitals, or clubs. It can be seen as a process of coordinating individual effort toward the achievement of a common goal or objective an organization is a group of people bound together to provide unity of action for the achievement of a predetermined objective. The purpose of the organizing function is to make the best use of the organization’s resources by some appointed members known as leaders to achieve organization goal.

        For productivity to take place in an organization, all human and materials resources must be coordinated toward achieving the goals of the organization and the human resources available must be motivated, integrated, coordinated  by some people or a group of people who the subordinates will have return to do so as to compare performance with standard set, analyze the deviation and the reasons for the deviation.

        So as to take precautionary measure known as controlling and make sure that the targeted objective is attended.

        In any progressing organization there must be a pleasant and friendly relationship between the leaders and the subordinates. A wiling leader who wants success and want the subordinates to play their role on achieving the goals of the organization must adopt the appropriate styles, strategies and make proper utility of these and must never neglect the function and duties of leader.

        All organization either public or private never joke with management directives at all level. Starting from the top managing directive level to least line and supervising in the organization.

        There is always someone at the head of affairs of every level in the organization that the subordinates look up to some people at the top administrative level. From same time till now, other has been an increased global interest in the importance of leadership to organization being it social, business, or political. The increased interest may probably be due to the technological advancement which has impacted on human testes and fashion such that must succeed organization which is aimed at customer satisfaction must be flexible with changes in the environment. Due to these leadership itself worth consideration.

        Leadership is always after influencing and directing subordinate action towards the achievement of company’s objective. It is a process existing among the follower, the leader, and other situational variable. Thus, leadership involves the leader and his subordinate. The leader gives instruction on what his followers should do and how the followers should perform the specified duties.

        Essentially, leadership in his capability lacks the use of force. The leader uses the combination of his skills and intelligence quality of character and general acceptance by the followership to exert influence so that objectives are achieved.

        The capability of leaders to be followed by the subordinate largely depends on his poise and charisma to leads. It highly depends on his intellect, combination of skills, quality of character and general acceptance by the followership to exerts influence so that objectives are achieved. It is inevitable to state that all management function is depend on leadership. This is because the approach of the leader and his ability to ensure the subordinates flow with him, as he provides them to pursue. Assiduously efficient accomplishment of corporate goals. The fashion out of the planning process cannot but be affected by his perception of and the needs of those who are to work for him. It must however be pointed out that while it is generally believed that leadership is about persuasion and influence.

1.2 PURPOSE OF STUDY

        The reasons why this topic is considered for study is to shed light and educate all forms of organization be it a business oriented or non business organization on the importance of leadership in the management setup of an organization.

        To have a proper orientation about leadership. The style and ways they can adopt for the smooth and efficient running of the organization.

        More so, to know the contribution of leaders  to productivity in the organization how they supervises and motivate the subordinates, how they gear them towards the achievement of organizational goals of the organization which is sometimes based on the level of productivity.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

        There is a need for further research on motivation, therefore goals is to reveal what it is that motives all employees to perform at their best and achieve optimal business result at all time. The inherent problem I have identified is that many employers have attempted several different incentive programmed to motivate their employees, yet they have not worked for everyone in the company. This is a major problems faced by employers these days due to the fact that each employer’s company is founded on the strength of its employee’s performance.

        One of the traditional components of management along with planning, organizing and controlling is motivating. Many managers do different things for example: contest, performance appraisals, production, sales quotas and commission pay. All these systems are implemented in the belief that they drive performance. Some researchers think it does the opposite instead of trying to use extrinsic motivators (something outside of the work itself such as promised reward or incentives) to get higher levels of performance from people, management will be better served by studying the organization as a system. Employers demanded results. Without result the organization will not survive. Managing motivation is requirement for productivity.

1.3 SIGNIFICANT OF THE STUDY

        Leadership can be defined as a process by which one individual influence others toward the attainment of group or organizational goals. Three point about the definition of leadership should be emphasized first, leadership is the influence process. Leadership con not exist without a leader and one or more followers. Secondly, leadership elicits voluntary action on the part of followers. The voluntary nature of compliance separates leadership from other types of influence based on formal authority. Finally, leadership results in follower’s behavior that is purposeful and goals directed in some sort of organized setting. Many, although not all, studies of leadership focus on the nature of leadership in the workplace.

        Leadership is probably the most frequently studies topic in the organizational science. Thousands of leadership studies have been published and thousands of page on leadership have been written in academic books and journals, business- oriented publication, and general interest publications. Despite this, the precise nature of leadership and its relationship to key criterion variable such as subordinate satisfaction, commitment, and performance is still uncertain, to the point where fred Luthans, in his book organizational (behavior(2005),said that” it leadership) does remain pretty much of a ‘black box’ or unexplainable concept.              

1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

As indicated earlier, our major areas of concern necessitate the examination of effective leadership in the organization. In order to avoid going beyond the scope of this project, comprehensive technical issue such as the organization environment, motivation and supervision among others will not be presented in detail.

 1.5 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE CASE STUDY

Unilever Nigeria plc was established in 1923 as lever brother west Africa by Lord leverhuline, as a soap manufacturing company. After series of mergers and acquisition. The company diversified into manufacturing and marketing of foods and person care products. These mergers and acquisition and personal care products.

These mergers and acquisition brought in Lipton Nigeria limited in (1985) Cheesehigh industries limited in 1988 and Unilever Nigeria plc in 1996, the company change its name to unilever Nigeria Plc.in 2001, the company  was quoted on the Nigerian stock exchange in 1973. Unilever Nigeria plc corporate purpose  it meet the every day of people everywhere in Nigeria, with equity holdings of 50.04% Unilever. And 49.96% Nigerian investors, the company is a truly multi-local – multination  outfit with very outstanding international brands and local jewel brand in its portfolio.

These international brands include, close up, toothpaste, lux, beauty soap, fresh and vase line, petroleum jelly in the person care unit of the business. While blue band magarine, lipton yellow label tea and Royco cubes from the major brands in the foods unit. Omo blue detergent key laundry soap are the major players in the home care unit of the business. Among the local jewels are pears baby product rage. Home Cuptea, reward soap, and in washing powder. These brands manufactured in there factories in Aba, Agbara and Oregun have made Unilever a visible friend in every home through outstanding value delivery for consumers. The company has about 2000 direct employees.

The company has been undergoing restructuring in the last seven years under a code named project genesis. The vision of the project is to make unilever Nigeria plc the biggest and most profitable consumer products company in Nigeria  and then aimed at doubling its turnover in 2003, the guiding principles have been we; accepted by all the employees and other stakeholders of the company and the project is well on course.

The company subscribes to the highest standard of corporate behavior by being transparent in its dealings. Fair in completion and law abiding. Unilever Nigeria plc is a socially responsible organization which takes strategic actions for these improvements of the communities and environments in which it operate. The company is involved in the provision of assistance in the field’s of health, education and portable water as art of its social responsibility towards the Nigeria communities.

1.6 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

Despite our interest in this research work, our objective cannot all be attained due to some limitations over which we have no control of; from financial constraint, time factor, and inability to obtain necessary information, which is termed “confidential” by the organization. Based on the scientism of leaders and subordinates on information dissemination primary data are difficult to collect. However, such problem is encountered reliable secondary collection method will be employed.

1.7 RESEARCH QUESTION

This helps in the study to know more about the organization by asking the leaders and subordinates relevant questions to cover out information. Some of these are the questions to ask.

i.            Specifically what is the relationship between effective leadership and productivity in this organization?

ii.          What are the means adopted in supervising the level of productivity of the factory’s staff?

iii.        Does the supervision have any positive impact in productivity?

iv.         Are there any reactions from the workers when they are motivated to work?

v.           How do leaders react to ineffectiveness in his section?

vi.         Does some environment variable encourage employees?

vii.       Are there any impacts when employees are given additional reward?

viii.     How suitable is it for leaders to handle the motivation in his section?

ix.         Does the style adopted affects subordinates handling production activity?

1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS

a.     An organization is an entity comprising of a group of

people working together to provide unit of action for the achievement of a predetermined objective.

b.              Leadership is that part of management process,

which

seeks to ensure that workers carry out assigned responsibilities willingly and efficiency towards the optimum achievement of cooperate goal and objectives.

c. Leader is a person who leads a group of people especially the lead of a country, an organization etc toward the accomplishment to target goals.

d. Effective leadership is the integration and coordination of work force or people so as to achieves the desired goals successfully without deviation.

e. Productivity is the desired or targeted goals which an organization is aiming at.

f. Supervision is the process of monitoring workers or subordinates in ensuring that they works towards the targeted standard.

g. Environment is the physical conditions that affect behaviour and development of somebody.

h. Motivation is the process of giving a person a reason for doing the things you want him or her to do.

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