ABSTRACT

The study is on the role of Management in increasing productivity in Ayala Hospitality Organisation in Yenegoa, Bayelsa State, Nigeria. The objectives of the study are: to ascertain the extent to which planning, organising, directing and controlling affect organisational productivity in Ayala Hospitality Organisation; to assess how training affect employees’ productivity; to determine the role of performance appraisal on organisational productivity in Ayala Hospitality Organisation and to identify how motivation affects employees productivity in Ayala Hospitality Organisation . The study used the random sampling technique to realize a sample size of 150. The instruments for data collection were structured questionnaire and interview. The questionnaire was structured on five -point Likert scale in line with the objectives of the study. The instrument was checked for reliability using Cronbach’s Alpha statistical tool. An Alpha of 0.98 and an inter-item (standardised) coefficient of 0.99 were obtained. The study employed survey research design. The questionnaire was administered to senior and junior staff of Ayala Hospitality Organisation. The total number of questionnaire distributed for the study was one hundred and fifty (150) copies while one hundred and twenty nine (129) representing 86% were completed and returned. The findings show that: planning, organising, directing and controlling enable organisations meet goals and objectives in the most effective and efficient manner; training removes performance deficiencies and improves employees’ skills and proficiency; performance appraisal identifies individual strengths to be built and areas of weaknesses to be overcome which will in turn lead to productivity improvement; productivity improves when an employee has responsibility, personal growth and achievement and also recognised. The study recommends that; management should make employee satisfaction a strategic corporate goal in order to make the organization have improved productivity; recognition as a motivational tool should be given enough attention in Ayala Hospitality Organisation; the employees should be communicated and clearly explained the purpose as well as the process of appraisal. Workers should be trained and retrained from time to time in order to update their knowledge for performance of their tasks.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Every organisation is judged by its performance. For more than a decade, organisational environments have experienced radical changes. As a result of greater competition in the global marketplace, the majority of organisations have greatly streamlined their operations (Collis and Montgomery, 1995). Every moment presents a diverse set of challenges and obstacles: laws and regulations are evolving, the economy is altering, and most importantly, no one is aware of what problems or obstacles will arise. Other environmental factors, both external and internal are there for organisations to grapple with. To remain competitive in such an environment, an organisation needs to get the most out of its assets, especially the human assets. To achieve this, proper management of the performance of an organisation’s resources have to be given serious attention.

Effective management of workers within an organisation has become a business imperative over the years. The collective focus and effort towards achieving desired goals, and the ability to deliver and manage effectively, is necessary to drive business results on an on-going basis. Employees play a vital role in organisational success. Their performance has been shown to have a significant positive effect on organisational performance as well as sustained and increasing productivity (Collis and Montgomery, 1995). One of the major pitfalls in an organisation occurs when managers believe their organisations are constantly in operation at the highest level of efficiency, or that they do not require input from their employees (Foot and Hook, 1999).

The principal influence on an organisation’s performance is the quality of the workforce at all levels of the organisation. The function that human resources can play in gaining a competitive advantage for an organisation is empirically well documented (Brewster et al, 2003). For organisations to accomplish their goals, they must continually look for better ways to organise and manage their work as well as workforce. There is a growing recognition that the primary source of competitive advantage is derived from organisation’s human resources. This was not always the case, as human resources were traditionally seen as a cost (Brewster, et al., 2003).

The importance of proper management has been pushed to the fore due to the realisation that people are the most valuable assets in an organisation, (Bartlett and Ghoshal, 1995). The complexity of managing organisations today requires managers to view performance in several areas simultaneously.

Managing performance is an integral part of effective human resource management and development strategy. It is an on-going and joint process where the employee, with the assistance of the employer, “strives to improve the employee’s individual performance and contributions to the organisation’s wider objectives” (Hellriegel et al, 2004:135).

A successful management system is one that requires full participation between the employees and the managers through effective communication and goal agreement, resulting in complete common understanding and not unfounded expectations (Cambell et al, 1993). A well-executed management system is a medium for managers and employees to develop an understanding of what tasks the mission of the organisation requires, the manner in which these tasks should be accomplished, and to what extent it has been achieved. Employees should be empowered and receive support from their manager without removing any of the employee’s responsibility (Armstrong and Baron, 1998).

Management helps to link together individual goals, departmental purposes and organisational objectives is known to incorporate issues that are central to many other elements of human resource management such as appraisal, and employee development, performance-related pay and reward management, and individualism and employee relations. Indeed it has been argued that performance management is synonymous with the totality of day to day management activity because it is concerned with how work can be organised in order to achieve the best possible results in an organisation. Management is concerned with performance improvement in order to achieve organisational, team and individual effectiveness and productivity. Organisations, as stated by Lawson (2005:205), have ‘to get the right things done successfully’.

It can be seen that the individual’s performance has an impact on the organisation’s wider objectives, and it is thus imperative that every organisation should be properly managed. Given this background, it is therefore necessary to investigate how to manage performance as a means of achieving and increasing organisational objectives.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

In a world filled with challenges faced by every organisation in this 21st century, management must be carried out adequately in order to move the organisation towards the right direction. If an organisation is not properly managed, it will definitely not be able to measure results. If it cannot measure results, it will not be able to adequately demarcate between success and failure and thus cannot claim or reward success or avoid unintentionally rewarding failure. If an organization cannot recognize success, it will not be able to learn from it. If it can’t recognize failure, it cannot correct it. If it can’t measure it, it can neither manage it nor improve it.

If the organisation is not managed adequately, employees may become emotionally distant and have no interest in the successful running of the company. They will display passive behaviours, become uncooperative, work less or produce substandard results. They will lose faith and motivation and may consequently lose their confidence in the leadership team. The fallout of all these is that there will be low productivity. Low productivity in the workplace can severely hinder a business operation. The decrease in employee productivity clogs the entire system, harming relationships with customers and delaying the delivery of goods and services. This can also lead to general disorganisation among the staff, as the workers fail to complete routine tasks. Meetings can start late, run over the scheduled time or fail to address the true purpose for the discussion, communication between the employees is delayed, and deadlines or requests for assistance end up lost. Consequently, Organisational effectiveness will be hampered. Thus, the study focuses on the role of management in increasing productivity (organisational performance) in Ayala Hospitality Organisation in Yenogoa, Bayelsa State.