CHAPTER ONE
1.1
THE BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The
organization development is a vital exercise that must be carried out with a
successful conclusion if technological bondage is to be avoided in the nation.
In our society today there is need for adopting a creative approach for our
technological take off. The reason is to encouraged employees to cultivate the
ability of making maximum use of resource available to them, develop new ways
of resources utilization that may come in the course of their job.
Since
Nigeria independence, the nation has gone through a gradual rise in the level
of industrialization and the evolution of both small and complex organization.
An organization as defined by Griffin (1984:86) is a combination of people, or
human efforts, working in pursuit of certain common purposes called
organization goals. It is any group of two or more people working to achieve
a goal or goals.
Organization
range from the small business units to the very large and complex corporate
bodies. There are two groups the formal and informal groups.
The formal
group come into being as a result of organizational hierarchy which defines
expected relationships among its workers in most cases, a group of people come
together and discuss about the problems of the company, individual problems and
how the problems should be handled. Also, talk about those with different
opinion from other and how such people should be treated or handled.
Furthermore, this kind of group will usually have its mission or area of
activity spelled out.
Informal
groups, on the other hand, Michael
(1985:1990).develop in response to the needs of the people making up the group.
As a result they do not have an explicitly stated set of goals nor are there
institutionally defined in and position of authority. These aspects of an
informal group develop as a result of group of individual with the same
objectives. Hence, informal groups are not set up by the management of the
organization but arise as a result of people with similar interest interacting
and also as a result of friendship association. Most cases, group of people
come together and discuss about the company’s problems, some individual
problems and how they should be dealt with, does who have contrary opinion from
others would be convinced, are forced to accept the opinion spell out by other
members of the groups.
The
above comment succinctly shows the existence of informal groups in an
organization. These groups although not
created by the management of the organization are very powerful and have
considerable influence on individual members. Members are observed to be often
committed to the achievement of the group objectives. These objectives of the
informal groups sometimes go contrary with organizations objectives.
Therefore it is very important for the
management to be aware of the existence of these groups and understand how they
work. Some managers fail to realize the fact that informal groups work under
certain conditions which dominate the formal organization and neglect the efforts
of management.
Moreover,
they can be pervasive with some managers themselves belonging to the informal
groups. Depending on whether they are favourable
or unfavourable, this may result to the increase or decrease in the
productivity of the organization. Improper management of the informal groups
may also lead to dissatisfaction of workers, absenteeism, personal turnovers,
grievances and conflicts and these may adversely affect the stability of an
organization.
As
a matter of fact, there are potential benefits to be tapped from the existence
and activities of the informal groups. The management can only tap the benefits
when it is willing to work with them effectively without engaging in measures
to suppress the informal organization.
1.2
The Statement of Problem
Management of organizations have
been trying to improve individual productivity through researches and product
development, employment of high skilled and experienced workers. Despite these
efforts, productivity is declining in a organization who is to
be blamed is still declining or has remained low and unimpressive.
What is actually responsible for
the continuous decline in productivity despite serious efforts by the
management, who have control over these group is
yet to be achieved from the above assertions, it become imperative or necessary
to research and conduct an assessment on the influence of informal groups on
organizational productivity.
Do
informal group activities influence organization decision-making?
To provide answers to this
problem motivated the researcher to carry out this project.
It become imperative or necessary
to research and conduct an assessment on the influence of informal groups on
organizational productivity.
1.3 The Objective of Study
The
objectives of this research are:
1.
To determine the effects of informal group activities
on organization productivity.
2.
To find out the actual relationship between the
informal groups and management in the
organization.
3.
To discover the concern and contribution of informal
groups towards the realization of the organizations objectives.
1.4
Research Questions
The researcher formulated
under listed questions to provide a guide in the course of this research.
1.
To what extent do informal
group activities affects organizational productivity?
2.
What is the actual relationship between informal groups and
management in the organization?
3.
To
what extent informal group influence the organizational productivity?
4.
To what extent do informal
group activities contribute to the realization of the organizational
objectives?
1.5 Significance of the Study
The
existence of informal groups in organizations have negative or positive
influence which may pronounced or silent but vital to the achievement of
organizational objectives.
Understanding and controlling the
informal group activities might become possible when an empirical
study has been conducted and some facts about the relationship existing between
these factors informal groups, formal groups and the management within an
organization are revealed the identification of the needs of the individual
workers will help the management to motivate the workers better for improved
productivity.
Thus, the research would be useful to
organizations, academia and consultants to organizations. If also provide a
platform for further work on the topic by other scholars.
1.6
Limitation of Study
Research works are subject to one form
of limitation or the other especially during a period of economic meltdown.
Thus the researcher was financially constrained to elaborately, thus this
research was limited to University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu.
During the course
of the study, the respondents got a lot of information concealments.
Equally
time constraints affected the research considerably as the period was too short
for submission of this research.
1.
Scope
of The Study
The
scope of this study was limited to cover type of groups, reasons for joining
groups, activities of informal groups informal group leadership roles, problems
of informal groups and the effects on the productivity in the organization.
2.
Definition
of Special Terms
For
easy understanding of this work the following technical terms are necessary to
be interpreted by the researcher:
UNTH:
University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital
WAEC:
West African Examination Council
HND: Higher
National Diploma
OND: Ordinary
National Diploma
BSc: Bachelor Degree of Science