ASSESSMENT ON THE EFFECT OF EMPLOYER-EMPLOYEE OFFICE RELATIONSHIP ON THE PRODUCTIVITY OF AN ORGANIZATION.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.0 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Employers do not only hire workers but also start of a new relationship.Thus managing relationship becomes a salient factor which determines performance and productivity in such working environment.

Although the goal of every organization is to make profit and maximize productivity, the type of relations built in the organization can affect organizational goals either positively or negatively. While strong employee-employer relationship drives high performance, employee’s happiness and increase productivity, weak relation leads to poor performance, creates unhealthy tensions and conflicts, leads to inefficiency and unproductivity.

Employees are among an organization's most important resources and coined as most valuable assets. The nature and amount of work performed by them have a direct impact on the productivity of an organization. So maintaining healthy employee relations in an organization is a pre-requisite for any organization in order to achieve growth and success (Abushawish, 2013).

Employee-Employer relationship is a broad term that incorporates many issues from collective bargaining, negotiations, employment legislation to more recent considerations such as work-life balance, equal opportunities and managing diversity (Armstrong & Stephens, 2016). It comprises the practice or initiatives for ensuring that Employees are happy and are productive. Employee Relations offers assistance in a variety of ways including employee recognition, policy development and interpretation, and all types of problem solving and dispute resolution. It involves handling the pay–work bargain, dealing with employment practices, terms and conditions of employment, issues arising from employment, providing employees with a voice and communicating with employees (Frank & Jeffrey, 2010). Employee relations is concerned with maintaining employee-employer relation, which contributes to satisfactory productivity, increase in employee morale and motivation (Ahmad & Shahzad, 2011). According to Onyango (2014), employee relations can be seen primarily as a skill-set or a philosophy, rather than as a management function or well-defined area of activity. Employee-Employer relationship skills and competencies are still seen by employers as critical to achieving performance benefits through a focus on employee involvement, commitment and engagement (Tepper, Moss, Lockhart, & Carr, 2017).

In order to increase performance, the dynamics of employee-employer relationship must be at the core of management practices.However business owners must understand the human aspect of their businesses so ensure a healthy relationship in the work environment which would in turn enhance productivity.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

To survive and grow in today’s highly and demanding global market, it is pertinent for business owners to learn the how to motivate the employees in their business cycle. Strong Employee-Employers relationships build s trust, coordination and often leads to job satisfaction which in turn increases productivity.though relationships are complex in nature but it can be managed. Thus it is imperative for organizations to focus on how to enhance employee-employers relationships as well as relationships with other businesses, to share risk, best practices and resources than can give them an edge.However most business owners do no see the importance of these relationship because they feel they can force employees to work in line with their goals as the boss of the business. Either ways there is no need for relationship as “just get the job done as your are paid for it and bossy”mindset is the only prevalent scenario in most organization, hence against this backdrop, this study is set to assess the effect of employee-employer office relationship on the productivity of an organization.

1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The study in general seek to assess the effect of employee-employer office relationship on the productivity of an organization. Specifically it is geared:

1. To examine the importance of employee-employer relationship

2. To determine the extent at which employee-employer relationship improves organizational productivity

3. To assess if there is any significant effect of employee-employers office relationship on the productivity of an organization

1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The scope of the study is to assess the effect of employee-employer office relationship on the productivity of an organization using BUA company, Ibadan Oyo State.

1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

H0: Employee-Employer relationship does not improve organizational productivity

H0: There is no significant effect of employee-employer office relationship on the productivity of an organization

1.6 Significance of the Study

The intention of this study is to investigate the employee relations and its effect on employee productivity. The study will benefit both employees and employers. It will benefit the employees in the sense that each employee will be given an opportunity to state their individual perceptions toward employee relations and its effect on employee productivity, and make recommendations as to what they feel the firms should do to improve employee relations. The management will benefit from the study too, as the findings will be presented to them with recommendations from the respondents. It will also serve to make them understand the benefits of good employee relations and it influence on employee productivity.

It will enlighten management of various organization of the effects of relationship practices between employers and employees. It will also bring out specifically, the employee relations practices which the companies have been able to make available to their employees. It will enable students and academicians to understand the causes, consequences and solution of poor employee relations. The study assists the management of BUA company with their efforts and endeavours toward productivity improvement which are engagement survey, leadership development, workplace health and safety and outplacement. It will also highlight factors related to employee relations and the impact of employee relations on employee productivity.

1.7 LIMITATION OF STUDY
Financial constraint- Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
Time constraint- The researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work. This consequently will cut down on the time devoted for the research work.

1.8 OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS:

Employer: An employer is a person or institution that hires employees. Employers offer wages or a salary to the workers in exchange for the worker's work or labor.

Employee:An employee is an individual who was hired by an employer to do a specific job.

Office Relationship: This is  relationship between people who interact because of their work ;also it a level of cooperation sufficient to allow work to be done and progress to be made

Organization: An organization is an entity – such as a company, an institution, or an association – comprising one or more people and having a particular purpose.

Productivity: This is commonly defined as a ratio between the output volume and the volume of inputs. In other words, it measures how efficiently production inputs, such as labour and capital, are being used in an economy to produce a given level of output.

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