Performance

Effect of Road Assets Management on Performance of Road Agencies in Kenya (Published)

The study sought to analyse the effect of road asset management (RAM) on performance of road agencies in Kenya. The study was guided by stakeholder theory and it posited a conceptual framework in which road assets management was the independent variable, road agency performance the dependent variable. A correlation survey design was employed to find out the relationships between the study variables.A purposive sampling technique was used to select the respondents for the study and data was collected using structured questionnaire. Results showed that RAM was a positive and significant predictor of road agency performance in Kenya and it accounted for 81.7% of variance in performance of the road agencies in Kenya.The study concluded that RAM contribute significantly to road agency performance and recommends that RAM should be integrated in the policies of road agencies in Kenya in order to realize better condition of roads in Kenya in the long run.

Keywords: Management, Performance, Road Agency, Road assets

Influence of Leadership as Strategy Implementation Practice on Performance of Postal Corporation in Kakamega County, Kenya (Published)

Organizations across the world have recognized the importance of strategy formulation in improving service delivery. Good practices in strategy formulation and implementation are among the key pillars of competitive advantage and organizational sustainability. Studies indicate that most managers rightly make effort to formulate strategies, but little investment is made to implement those strategies properly. Therefore, the study explored the effects of strategy implementation practices on performance of Postal Corporation in Kakamega County (Kenya). Based on the study, this paper presents and discusses the research findings on leadership as one of the strategy implementation practices on organizational performance. The researcher anchored the study on cross sectional survey research design which emphasized on collection of data at a particular point in time rather than over a period of time. The target population of the study was one hundred and thirty two (132) top and middle-level management staff of Postal Corporation drawn from Kakamega, Lugari, Khwisero and Khayega branches. Stratified sampling method was used to sample ninety-nine (99) respondents. Structured questionnaires were then used to collect the data from the sampled managers to which only seventy-six (76) responded. The received questionnaires were sorted, classified; data was then coded and analysed by descriptive statistics (percentages, mean and standard deviation). Inferential analysis was done by multi regression analysis where the result of R square was 0.476 indicating that 47.6% of the performance could be predicted from the study variables. The study found that leadership significantly affected the performance of Postal Corporation in Kakamega County as indicated by a p value of 0.043, which was within p<0.05 level of significance. In light of the findings, the researchers recommended that a related study be conducted in a wider spectrum of both public and private institutions to determine the consistency of the results.

Keywords: Kakamega, Kenya, Leadership, Performance, Postal Corporation, Strategy Implementation

Impact of Safety Management Strategy on the Performance of Employees in Ashakacem Plc, Nafada-Bajoga, Gombe State-Nigeria (Published)

This study examines the impact of safety management strategy on the performance of employees in Ashakacem PLC. The main objective is to determine how safety management strategy of Ashakacem impact on employee’s performance. The study employs the use of both primary and secondary sources of data from different cadres of employees (managers, middle level, low level) and contract staff including distributors and customers of the company. The data were analyzed using Simple Percentages and Chi-square to test the formulated hypotheses which reveals that, “effective safety management strategy impact positively on the performance of employees”, particularly in the areas of the provisions  of personal protective safety equipment and enforcement of safety laws such as the provision of fire extinguishers, first aid facilities, hand gloves, mouth and Norse guard, dielectric safety boot and thermal socks, head gear kits, dielectric hard hat, high and medium energy goggle, Lab Coat etc. These have the most significant impact on employee’s performance while the establishment of factory Clinic for staff and seminar/safety talks and enforcement of ground safety rules has the least impact. Some recommendations were made; among which is the need for effective monitoring and evaluation of all safety measures in line with the ground safety rules to ensure safe and healthy working environment for effective performance. The study concludes that the company’s protective wears are of certified international standards made to be comfortable-to-wear, permanently flame-resistant and arc-rated material protecting workers against the thermal effects of both electrical arc flash and toxic materials arising from the factory production processes and procedures which is dependent on company’s strategic safety management policy and formation combined with excellent decision-making exercise that help in reducing employee’s risks conditions to the barest minimum level.

Keywords: Ashakacem Plc, Nigeria, Performance, Strategy, safety management

Performance Improvement Strategy of Sumsel Babel Bank (Published)

Sumsel Babel Bank (BSB) is a regional bank that is demanded to be Bank Regional Champion (BRC) in its own region. The tight competition in the bank industry caused BSB to have the proper strategy to face and win the competition. This study aims to identify performance of BSB, analyze internal and external factors that affect the performance, and formulate the strategy to improve performance of BSB to be a BRC in the region using descriptive method, Internal Factor Evaluation (IFE) Matrix, External Factor Evaluation (EFE) Matrix, SWOT Matrix and Architecture Strategy. There were 12 alternative strategies chosen as BSB’s performance improvement strategy based on the result of SWOT Matrix. Based on Architecture Strategic results, the sequence of strategies for the next five years starting from improving the quality of human resources and IPO for additional capital. This strategy is expected to improve BSB performance.

Keywords: Architecture Strategy, Bank of Sumsel Babel, EFE, IFE Matrixs, Performance, SWOT Matrix

Assessing Financial Motivation and Its Influence on Performance of Teachers in Government Senior High Schools in Ghana (Published)

The study looked at financial motivation and its influence on performance of teachers in Government Senior High Schools in Ghana. The sample of the study consisted of 207 public senior high schools drawn from a population of 535. A total of 621 questionnaires were distributed to teachers working in various public senior high schools out of which 520 representing 83.74% were retrieved. The respondents that constituted the sample were drawn using convenience sampling. The researchers used Chi Square to assess the independence between financial motivation and performance of teachers which was measured using the pass rate of students at the West Africa Examination Council. From the Chi Square test statistic and analyzes of questionnaires retrieved from respondents, it was realized that there is association between financial motivation (Single Spine) and performance of teachers at public senior high schools. The study concluded by advising that for financial motivation to continue to serve as motivators in the long run, it is crucial to manage other variables that are associated with it.

Keywords: Financial Motivation, Ghana, Performance, Senior High Schools, Teachers

TRAINING AS A MEASURE NOT A SOLUTION TO WORKER’S PERFORMANCE IN NIGERIA (Published)

The prevailing rate of work performance among workers in most organizations in developing countries, particularly in Nigeria gingered our impetus or concern in carrying out the research as titled here of. However, the meaning of training, types of training, human resource training functions was critically addressed. Methodologically, the researcher made use of secondary source to generate theoretical data, which interestingly led the researcher into concluding after central thesis of the work, that training is a measure rather than a solution to worker’s performance vis-à-vis productivity in Nigeria.

Keywords: Output, Performance, Training, Worker, input.

AN ANALYSIS OF COMMUNICATION APPROACHES USED BY SMES IN ZIMBABWE (Published)

Literature highlights the importance of communication in the formulation and implementation of strategies. The level of communication has been seen to positively correlate with the overall performance of organisations. Unfortunately the level of communication in SMEs in Zimbabwe has not received much research neither have studies revelled the communication processes used by SMEs. This study sought to establish the communication approaches used by these SMEs and their contribution to the overall performance of these organisations. This was a qualitative study using the multiple case study approach involving eight organisations. In depth interviews and non-participant observations were used to collect data from owner/managers. The major findings were that SMEs used informal communication channels to share information with employees particularly the grapevine to gather organisational information. This tended to create organisational disharmony with each employee striving for favours from the owner. Employees were also given information on a need to know basis and this adversely affected overall organisation performance due to inadequate or delayed information

Keywords: Performance, SMEs, Strategy Implementation, communication

The Structure, Conduct and Performance of Commercial Banks in Ghana (Published)

This paper analyses the structure, conduct, and performance of commercial banks in Ghana. The empirical investigation uses two different measures of concentration to represent market structure and a market share variable to capture the effect of Market conduct on bank performance, and two accounting measures: return data on Return on Assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE) to represent banks’ performance. Annual time series data ROA, ROE and other ratios were collected from nineteen commercial banks over the period 2007 -2012. The results indicated that market concentration and market share significantly determines profitability in Ghana, signifying the strong acceptance of the SCP hypothesis. Consequently, the research suggests the need for improvement in bank capitalization, bank size, service product innovation and effective liquidity management for the Ghanaian banking industry

Keywords: Assets, Concentration, Conduct, Deposits, Market Share, Performance, Structure

Investigation of Some Factors Affecting Manufacturing Workers Performance In Industries In Anambra State Of Nigeria (Published)

The poor Company’s output is directly related to the poor performance of the production workers, which is a function of how effective are those factors influencing production is maintained in the manufacturing workers. Therefore a survey of the factors affecting manufacturing workers in industries in Anambra State was carried out to ascertain whether there is any effect of the factors on the productivity of workers, and by what degree is the effect, and what improvement to be made in the problems arising in manufacturing due to the factors. Experiments were designed to investigate those identified specific factors that have effect on operators of machines in manufacturing shops to generate data needed in the analyses. Results obtained from the various statistical analyses performed were studied and interpreted. The multi linear regression of correlation coefficients, R and coefficient of determination, R2 of the chosen factors: Power/Energy, safety, Maintenance, Training, and Technology were respectively calculated to justify the data. Other information were presented in graphs and tables validating the claims over the results, whether any of the factors affecting or not affecting the performance of manufacturing workers in Industries in Anambra State. Results obtained show that some of the identified factors affect the performance of manufacturing workers in the manufacturing industries. Finally, there is no co-linearity among the factors.

Keywords: Factorial Indices, Industry, Manufacturing Workers, Performance, Regression Coefficients and Co-linearity