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