NEXUS OF CHANGE MANAGEMENT ON ORGANISATIONAL PERFORMANCE AND SURVIVAL IN NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES (A CASE STUDY OF UNIVERSITY OF ILORIN) (Published)
Most business managers have seen change becoming a regular aspect of organizational life and they must constantly monitor and respond to these changes appropriately. The overriding goal is to optimize the output of the people involved in this process and reduce the risk of failure in achieving the desired change. Change management is usually seen from an organizational context and refers to the process of developing a planned approach to change in an organization. Business environment has become much more turbulent, uncertain and demanding change is inevitable in an organisation. Business operates in a dynamic environment and organisation that fails to recognise the inevitability of change is doomed to fail. This paper is designed to examine the nexus of change management on organisational performance and survival in Nigerian universities using University of Ilorin as a case study. Both primary and secondary sources of data constitute the main source of data gathering. Random sampling technique was used in selecting the sample size. Regression analysis was used to analyse the data obtained and the testing of one hypothesis formulated. The results obtained reveal a strong negative relationship between changes introduced through Computer Based Test in the University.This research recommends that before embarking on any change, the university should attempt to maintain useful customs and informal relationship, build trust, encourage participation, provide information in advance, make only necessary changes, guarantee against loss, provide counselling, allow for negotiation between the University Management and the staff and students.
Keywords: Change Management, Computer Based Test, Counselling, Negotiation., Participation, Transformation
Leadership Styles as Recipes for Transformation (Published)
The success of any organization depends on the leader and the leadership style use in driving the organizational processes. This makes leadership studies or researches a recurrent exercise. This study therefore attempt to ascertain the leadership styles used by the commissioner in National Insurance Commission, Abuja-Nigeria to motivate and empowers the staff in the commission as well as explore the leadership-change behaviour exhibited by him in introducing change and managing the resistance thereof in the commission. To achieve this, the study relies solely on interview to generate the necessary information that will help in addressing the objectives since the study is a pilot personality-based research. A 15-item structured open-ended interview questions which derive its content from the objectives were used. Since only the commissioner participated in the study, his responses to the questions were taken as the findings of the study. From his responses, it was found that, he used both the transformational and transactional leadership styles in driving the transformation processes in the commission. His unique skills such as visionary, good listener, initiator, communicator, delegator, mediator and a manager was observed to be instrumental in helping him achieve effectiveness in the commission. It was also observed that, participation, delegation, conducive working environment and competitive remuneration package used by the commissioner empowers and motivate the staff in the commission. Again, strategies such as change needs identification, employee participation, communication, training of change agents and the use of palliatives aided the commissioner in successful change implementation. The associated resistance was managed through vigorous publicity of the need for change, feedback mechanism and coaching among others. The study therefore concludes that the success of any organization depends on the leader and his leadership style or styles
Keywords: Change, Leadership, Motivation, Qualities, Transformation, styles