KELECHI E N Y I N N A UGWU

The main objective of this study is to examine the relationship between performance appraisal and employee productivity. In this research, the descriptive research method was employed; the survey study approach was adopted. However, for the sake of time constraint the population of the study comprises was selected from senior and junior staff of ten (10) commercial banks in Port Harcourt, Rivers State while the random sampling method was employed to select one hundred and twenty one respondents (121) respondents. The data for this study was collected with the use of structured questionnaire. The chi-square analytical tool of SPSS version 20.00 was used to analyze the data electronically. From the analysis, the study finds out that the dimensions of performance appraisal significant influence and enhances employee productivity in the selected manufacturing firms. The study therefore concludes that organizations should establish and adopt performance appraisal systems that would enable effectively appraisal of the employees; that firms should adopt behavioral performance appraisal system and management by objectives as the appraisal systems were found to be statistically significant in influencing employee's relationship and improving employee's productivity.

Purpose: The general objective of the study is to examine factors influencing adoption of technology and competitive advantage in Nigeria. The specific objective is so ascertain the influence of demographic factors on firm's innovativeness. Design/Methodology/Approach: The study adopted correlational survey approach and questionnaire as instrument for data collection. Primary data were sourced from a sample of 257 people. The population of the study is made up of postgraduate (Postgraduate Diploma, Master's and Doctorate) students in eight faculties at Federal University of Technology Owerri, FUTO for 2018/2019 academic session. Simple random probability sampling method was adopted in the distribution of the questionnaire. Data were analyzed using Pearson Correlation to test the relationship between the variables.Findings/Originality: Findings revealed that demographic factors (educational level, income and internet experience) were found to have significant positive influence on organizational innovativeness. The authors recommend the followings; Federal Ministry of Education is advised to create a technology-enriched curriculum to provide equal learning opportunities to working citizen to enable them to enrol in schooling. Government should prioritize investment in classroom technology as well as teachers training in tertiary institutions in the country. Previous studies did not investigate the influence of demographic factors on firms competitiveness in Federal University of Technology. This study contributes to existing knowledge by identifying research gap in the literature and recommends area for further studies.

The restructuring exercises undertaken by banks in Awka metropolis, in particular, have negatively influenced the psychological well-being of their workers. The broad objective of the study is to investigate the relationship between psychological contract and employee retention in commercial banks in Awka metropolis. The specific objectives seek

This research examines the relationship between manpower training and employee development using a case study of Access Bank Plc in Obioakpor Local Government Area, Port Harcourt Metropolis Rivers State, Nigeria. A correlation survey design was adopted, data were sourced from 700 employees through a self-administered questionnaire, and the sample size was determined using the Taro Yamane method and calculated as 399. The judgmental non-probability sampling method was adopted in the distribution of the questionnaire. The correlation method was used to test the hypotheses to achieve the study objective. The findings revealed that job training has a significant positive relationship with employability skills, coaching has a significant positive relationship with employee competency. This study provides sufficient guidelines for human resources to integrate training programs into their mission statement to ensure employees are acquainted with job knowledge and skills. Future researchers are encouraged to explore this study using different industries and large sample sizes to generalize findings.

This study examines the relationship between higher education and career advancement of female managers in Nigeria. The study adopted a correlational research design to achieve a study objective. The study was sought using a complete enumeration method. The target population of the study is made up of employees of four investment banks. The study covered 20 branches in South East Nigeria. Overall 756 surveys were administered to the participants, 724 were successfully returned, while 32 were not returned and utilized for the psychoanalysis. The instrument was subjected to statistical test and analyzed with the aid of ordinary least square method to produce a result. Findings showed that lifelong learning relates with employee experience of top female managers. The researchers recommend organizations to create opportunities for training for female practitioners to enable them attain professional height.

This study examined work-life conflict (WLC) and its impact on the commitment of workers of Imo State Civil Service Commission Board, Nigeria. Through a purposive sampling method a total of seventy-one (71) copies of questionnaire were distributed, but sixty-one (61) copies were duly completed and returned, recording 87% success rate. The followings were the objectives of the study: to determine the effect of familyto-work interference on affective commitment; to examine the effect of family-to-work interference on normative commitment and finally to determine the effect of family-to-work interference on continuance commitment. Data were analyzed using SPSS 23.0. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages were applied to examine the research questions. The hypotheses were tested using the Pearson Correlation Coefficient (r) to find the relationship between WLC variables and employees' commitment.The result revealed a high rate of work-life conflict among the study population. Equally, there was negative relation between worklife conflict and employees' commitment variables which was responsible for the overall low commitment observed. Therefore, the study recommends that adequate work-life balance initiatives should be established to enhance workers well-being in order to increase the commitment needed for optimal performance in the organisation. There should be workshops and seminars organized by the commission to help their workers reduce WLC and to know how best they should handle their WLC as to enhance their commitment and productivity.

Article History Keywords Change management Leadership change Organizational performance Competitiveness Reengineering. JEL Classification: Firm Performance (L.25). This study examined the influence of change management on firm performance of deposit money banks in Owerri, Imo State. Descriptive survey design and the questionnaire were used in data collection. The total population comprised of 124 staff of Fidelity Bank, Access Bank, Eco-Bank and United Bank for Africa Plc. Out of 124 copies of the questionnaire administered to the participants, 116 were responded and used for the analysis, while, the remaining 6 were not returned and utilized. The research hypothesis was tested and analyzed using simple regression method to generate the result. The null hypothesis was rejected at 5 % level of significance. The study found that change management variable (leadership change) exerts a significant positive influence on firm performance (competitiveness) of banks in Owerri, Nigeria. The study recommends the followings; organizational leaders are advised to train their members in form of; coaching, counselling of other psychological support to encourage members to enforce change in the workplace. Again, managers are encouraged to communicate to all stakeholders effectively during corporate restructuring or redesigning of business process to enable them to see the necessity of change. Contribution/Originality: This study is one of very few studies which have investigated the influence of leadership change on firm competitiveness in selected money deposit bank in Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria.

Changes in the workplace as a result of globalization of markets, technology and business restructuring have affected relationships in the workplace. This has challenged the erstwhile trust relationship between employers and employees. The traditional psychological contract that allowed for trust and loyalty leading to job security and stability of the job holder has given way to situations where employees now have the responsibility for their career advancement. The construction industry is one of the industries where the effect of this being felt due to the labour-intensive nature and the use of various flexible job arrangements. The study thus investigated the relationship between psychological contract
and employee performance in the construction industry in South-East Nigeria. The study adopted a survey method using self-structured questionnaire. A total of 274 copies of questionnaire were distributed to employees of the construction companies studied and 220 were validly completed and returned. The validity of the survey instrument was done and reliability conducted using Cronbach alpha. The data
collected were analyzed using the Pearson correlation coefficient. Pearson correlation coefficient result showed r = 0.031. This means that the relationship between the variables is not significant.

Logistics has been identified as a very significant factor that triggers business and the economy. Study investigates impact of logistics outsourcing on third party logistics (3PL). Increase in globalization and international competition, use of information communication technology (ICT) have triggered most firms to outsource their none competence to third party logistics so that they can focus only on their core competence with the purpose of achieving cost reduction, economics of scale production, quality improvement, maintain flexibility among others. Study was conducted using secondary data sourced from; journals, books, archival data among others to achieve study objective. Again, this paper attempts to explain reasons for outsourcing logistics services to 3PLs and conclude by pointing critical success factors necessary for outsourcing. Study found that critical success factor for outsourcing should focus on the following; customer establishing operating standards and monitoring performance against those standards; knowing the payback period, benefits expected by the firm, and the means to achieve those benefits. Factors, like being aware that outsourcing may require a longer term of service than the firm is used to and building information systems that will allow the firm to make ongoing cost/value comparisons, are also critical. Finally, primary business focus of outsourcing is also based on service, rather than cost. Based on conclusion, the author recommends further study to consider problems and prospect of outsourcing logistics services to third party logistics. It is also important for future researchers and practitioners to consider possible ways of managing logistics complexities with 3PLs. Again, young researchers can replicate this study using alternative research approach to see if similar or different result will obtained. Finally, the research approach adopted were mainly secondary data, based on this, study is limited to this.

Study investigates effect of government expenditure on economic growth of the Nigeria economy between the periods of (1961-2013). The authors adopt quantitative research methodology using Augmented Dicky-Fuller to test for the stationarity of the variables. Research materials are sourced from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Statistical Bulletin and UNCTAD Statistical Bulletin. Study found that government expenditure on (capital administration, recurrent social and community services, and recurrent economic services) contributes positively to economic growth; while, economic expenditure, capital transfers, recurrent administration expenditure and recurrent transfers contributes negatively to economic growth in Nigeria. The authors reject the null hypothesis and conclude that there is significant relationship between federal government public expenditure and economic growth. Study recommends that the government should continuously increase expenditures (like, capital administration, recurrent social and community services, and recurrent economic services) that accelerates economic growth, while, increasing expenditures on economic services, capital transfers, recurrent administration and recurrent transfers to enhance economic growth. The researchers also recommend government to strengthen its core functions by creating strong macroeconomic and structural policies to checkmate corrupt top government officials from embezzling government fund in the name of providing jumbo projects and white elephant project that resulted in fund misappropriation which cannot translate positively to economic development of Nigeria. Finally, the authors recommend further studies on government expenditure on ministries establishment and parastatals (MEP) and its impact on the Nigerian economic growth.

This paper investigates the relationship between entrepreneurship development and poverty reduction in rural communities in Edo State Nigeria. Taro Yamani"s statistical technique was used to calculate the sample size of the population. Stratified random sampling was used to distribute the survey questionnaires, out of the 215 questions distributed to the respondents, only 211 were completed and returned back for data analysis. SPSS version 20 software were employed using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) to analyze the data and compare different population of mean existing within the groups and between the groups at five point-likert scale of strongly agreed, agree, undecided, disagree and strongly disagree. The result of analysis revealed that F-calculated (1270.644) is greater than F-tabulated (2.53) thereby rejecting the null hypothesis and accepts the alternative hypothesis that, there is significant relationship between entrepreneurship development initiative and poverty reduction in the rural areas in Edo State, Nigeria. The result of study also showed that entrepreneurship initiative has translated positively towards poverty reduction in rural communities through jobs creation, development of rural areas, establishment of small and medium size enterprises, youth empowerment through soft loan provided by federal government of President Good Luck Jonathan"s You-Win Program among others. The following recommendations were made; government of Nigeria should strengthen macroeconomic policies such as judiciary to prosecute corrupt government officials that loot government treasury. Secondly, government abandoned project should be recycled and resuscitated to avoid huge waste of resources and time wasted. Thirdly, there should be need for both government and private sector partnership through Private-Partnership Project (PPP) to complete most abandoned government projects such as skills and acquisition centres. This will help to achieve greater sustainability and economic growth in the country.

This study examined the impact of work-family conflict on career advancement of female professionals in Commercial Banks of Ebonyi State, Nigeria. This study adopted correlation survey design to test the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. The total population of study comprised of 84 female staff of the following organizations: First Bank, United Bank for Africa, Access Bank and Fidelity Bank. The target population of the study comprised of female workers of the selected organizations. The study hypothesis was statistically tested and analyzed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation. Findings showed that, there exists a significant positive relationship between work-family conflict (family obligation) and career advancement of female professionals. The following recommendations are made; banks are advised to introduce career breaks to support women with family responsibilities balance work and family roles; organizations need to introduce flexible working environment to nursing mothers to enable them manage effectively family responsibilities and career roles.

Background: The construction industry is known to adopt several flexible work arrangements ranging from causualization, contracting, temporary work arrangements, subcontracting, and so on which is assumed to affect the level of commitment of employees in the industry. The study investigated the relationship between fairness and organisational commitment of the employees of construction industry in South East Nigeria. Methods: The study surveyed 220 employees of 14 construction companies handling federal government projects in South East Nigeria using a self structured questionnaire. Multivariable linear regression was used to analyze quantitative data at 0.05 confidence level using SPSS 22. Different dimensions of organisational justice scales were used to proxy fairness as the independent variable. Results: The findings showed statistically significant relationship between dimensions of organisational fairness and employee commitment. Procedural justice and interactional justice dimension showed statistically significant relationship with organisational commitment at p-value less than 0.05 while distributive justice was not statistically significant with p-value 0.093. The model has R0.341 and R20.118. The output shows the contribution of procedural justice to the model is positive at 0.318 and 0.114 for distributive justice. Interactional justice is negative at-0.235. Conclusion: Dimensions of organisational justice showed statistically significant relations with organisational justice. On the other hand, dimension of organisational fairness (distributive) also showed insignificant relationship with employee commitment.

This study explored the relationship between Intellectual Capital
Management and Career Development of Female Managers in Private
sector Anambra State, Nigeria. The correlation survey design was used
to test the relationship between the independent and dependent
variables. The total population of study comprised of 120 female
staff of the selected private sector (First Bank, United Bank for Africa,
Access Bank and Fidelity Bank). The target population of the study
comprised of lower and middle-level female managers of the selected
organizations. The hypotheses were tested and analyzed using
Pearson Product Moment Correlation. The results showed that there
exists a significant negative relationship between Intellectual Capital
variable (employee knowledge) and Career Development (gender
stereotyping) of female managers. It is therefore, recommended
that organizations need to introduce diversity gender programme to
educate employees about the dangers of workplace discrimination
and the importance of accommodating people from different background
(gender and race). We, advocate that human resources’ managers
need to introduce family support programmes to help women with
family responsibilities balance between work and family matters.

This study investigated the extent of the relationship between participative decision making and employee performance in selected hotels in Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria. The specific objective determined the relationship between leader behavior and employee commitment. Descriptive survey and questionnaire was adopted as instrument for data collection. The total population of the study comprised of 92 people. Simple random technique was adopted in distributing the questionnaire to the target audience. The hypotheses were tested and analyzed using Pearson Product Moment Coefficient to test the relationship between leader behavior and employee commitment. Findings showed that there is a positive relationship between leader behavior and employee commitment in the selected hotels in Owerri, Imo State. The following recommendations were made. It is advisable for organizations to integrate management by objective (MBO) at every level of the organization to promote high productivity in the workplace. Finally, organizations are encouraged to increase the frequency and level of worker participation in decision making between manager and subordinates.

This study examined the impact of work-family conflict on career advancement of female professionals in Commercial Banks of Ebonyi State, Nigeria. This study adopted correlation survey design to test the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. The total population of study comprised of 84 female staff of the following organizations: First Bank, United Bank for Africa, Access Bank and Fidelity Bank. The target population of the study comprised of female workers of the selected organizations. The study hypothesis was statistically tested and analyzed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation. Findings showed that, there exists a significant positive relationship between work-family conflict (family obligation) and career advancement of female professionals. The following recommendations are made; banks are advised to introduce career breaks to support women with family responsibilities balance work and family roles; organizations need to introduce flexible working environment to nursing mothers to enable them manage effectively family responsibilities and career roles.

Objective of research focus to investigate the impact of organizational politics on employees’ performance in the private sectors. Qualitative study was chosen using Zenith Bank Plc and Alcon Plc, Nigeria. The = choice of methodology reflects explorative purpose of this research. The data were mainly primary, collected during faceto-face interviews with managers and subordinates of the two firms. Study adopts data categorization approach for the analysis of empirical findings to see the connection between theory and practice. Research found that bad political behavior affects negatively employees’ performance and lowers organizational productivity; while good political behavior affects positively employees’ performance and increases organizational productivity. Reflecting on the problems identified in this study, the authors recommend that every political maneuvering should be managed within reasonable bounds. Again, the authors hereby recommends seven approaches as follows; screen out exceedingly any political individuals during recruitment exercise; create an open-book
management system to keep track of employee’s behavior; periodic financial and accounting statements for all employees should not be politicized; establish formal conflict resolution and grievance processes; openly identify and reward staff who get real results without political games; disciplinary committee should be set up and defaulters should be apprehended to serve as a deterrent for others to follow; organization should adopt sensitive analysis approach to track and monitor any strange behavior of workers in the work environment. Reflecting on the outcome of this research, firstly, one of the problems encountered in carrying out this research was due to difficulty getting enough people to answer interview questions due to tight schedules of the participant; this has implications on the sample size and is considered as one of the study limitations. Based on this, the author recommends future researchers to consider large sample size when replicating study or use alternative research methodology to see if the same result will be replicated.

This study examined the impact of work-family conflict on career
advancement of female professionals in Commercial Banks of Ebonyi State, Nigeria. This study adopted correlation survey design to test the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. The total population of study comprised of 84 female staff of the following organizations: First Bank, United Bank for Africa, Access Bank and Fidelity Bank. The target population of the study comprised of female workers of the selected organizations. The study hypothesis was statistically tested and analyzed using Pearson Product Moment
Correlation. Findings showed that, there exists a significant positive relationship between work-family conflict (family obligation) and career advancement of female professionals. The following recommendations are made; banks are advised to introduce career breaks to support women with family responsibilities balance work and family roles; organizations need to introduce flexible working environment to nursing mothers to enable them manage effectively family responsibilities and career roles.

— This study investigates the impact of corporate identity and its communication to investors' relation. Qualitative research methodology was chosen using a case study of 'Sociedad Quimicay Minera de Chile S.A.' The Company's representatives were interviewed to get empirical result. Study also found that, corporate identity is becoming relatively important in communicating organizational uniqueness for investment decisions through its webcast, financial reports, and investor relations department. Although, study also observed that, wrong messages may be communication to investors in a wrong way through the company's websites and online forum especially on market stock price. This paper also found that, the company's values include the following; respect, transparency, collaboration, improvement, innovation, austerity, responsibility and among others. Study conclude that corporate identity and its communication plays a crucial role in building investors relationship, by providing clear information, confidence and security that investors needed for investment decision but also just-in-time (JIT). Based on findings and conclusion, the authors recommend further study to focus on the challenges of uncontrolled communication to investors. Apart from that, future researchers should also explore impact of both controlled and uncontrolled communication to potential investors. Finally, study did not generalize its finding because single case study was adopted to achieve study purpose and answer research questions. Other researchers should look at these problems from different perspective using more than single case to be able to generalize findings or replicate same study to see if similar result can be achieved as compared to previous study.