MORALE AND OFFICE PROFESSIONAL’S PRODUCTIVITY (A STUDY OF KADUNA POLYTECHNIC COLLEGE OF ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES [CES])

MORALE AND OFFICE PROFESSIONAL’S PRODUCTIVITY (A STUDY OF KADUNA POLYTECHNIC COLLEGE OF ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES [CES])

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 The Background of the Study 

Identifying and implementing what would encourage office personnel is a big challenge for management. The growing complexity of industrialisation in society has made the topic of why people work a contentious one.

According to William (1984), keeping the rewards system successful and consistent is just as important as providing incentives and prizes to motivate staff.

The kind of incentives and rewards that are in place have a significant impact on the attitude and behaviour that goes into production, thus it has been standard practice for most organisations to offer prizes that are both widely sought after and used.

According to Porter and Lawler (1984), in order to establish an effective incentive strategy, organisations must first make sure that the awards offered are popular with office professionals in their day-to-day work.

This shows that different groups of office professionals within the same company may have different views on what constitutes a highly favourable reward and what the employer thinks to be an excellent fit.

The first stage in boosting and keeping employee morale up, according to Eugene (2007), is figuring out what drives each team member individually. (i.e., what motivates one teammate might just sap the motivation out of another).

So, while there are a lot of ways to find out what office workers want, asking them directly is the most effective strategy for boosting morale and productivity. Office workers are specialists in their own right, according to Mullins (1989).

Individuals, whether functioning alone or in a group, are an integral aspect of every behavioural scenario in response to organisational expectations, and the formal organisation is now dynamic and ever-changing due to the involvement of interested members.

How much you get out of a given quantity of input (human effort, machinery, and money) is called productivity. Productivity can be measured in various ways. The amount of time it takes to make a product is one way to assess productivity in a factory, whereas in the service industry it may be the money that employee brings in divided by their compensation.

One way to look at production efficiency is productivity. The term “productivity” refers to the relationship between output and input. The most common presentation of this ratio is an average, showing the output as a percentage of the intake. The output of a production process in relation to the input is known as productivity (Onasanya 1990).

A product is the end result of a productive process that begins with a variety of inputs, some of which are material and others of which are immaterial (such as plans or knowledge). Technology refers to the procedures used to combine manufacturing inputs in order to make output.

The mathematical representation of technology that shows the relation between input and output is the production function. When looking to compare different technologies, the production function is a good metric to utilise. Working as an office professional requires a high level of education and training in a particular area of study.

A member of the vacation club based on specialised educational training is an office professional. In a broader sense, the word might mean someone who works in a white-collar job or who does commercial work in an area where amateurs are more commonly seen.

A person with excellent first impressions in a given field may also be called an office professional. The secretary’s importance is immense and diverse. In this role, he or she acts as an office manager, coordinating the efforts of coworkers to maximise efficiency and effectiveness by the use of knowledge in areas like as human relations, supervision, creativity, and initiative.

According to Onasanya (1990), a secretary is responsible for handling the organization’s communication needs. To rephrase, the secretary plays a crucial role in every organisation since she oversees the dissemination of information among team members.

When it comes to facilitating organisational efficiency, an efficient secretary knows the value of effectively and appropriately expressing the intended message.

Human Relation is one of the fundamental duties of an organization’s secretary, according to Hornby (1995). A secretary’s moral obligation is to demonstrate the function of Human Relations in a way that inspires diligence and cooperation with grace and wisdom. According to Melvin (1990), an organization’s secretary may be called upon to fill in for an ailing boss and provide general oversight when needed.

The efficient handling of correspondences is absolutely unnecessary for a merchant. The necessity for paperwork, nevertheless, becomes apparent when a company grows.

There would be a need to compose, receive, store, process, and distribute letters to the relevant areas for consumption. Proper preservation is of the utmost importance because these records can be required for future references.

According to Nwosu (1997), filing is the act of organising papers or correspondences into suitable folders for simple retrieval. As long as bugs and dust don’t get a chance to ruin or confuse the papers, this method is fine.

However, modern file systems have been developed to ensure the documents are preserved for the long term, which allows secretaries to work more efficiently and effectively. This means that the secretary’s work adds depth to the organization’s history and present with the material she collects.

The secretarial functions have greatly improved the organisational administration operation, which is worth noting as well. According to Whitehead (2001), a secretary is now the “throne” of power in many executive contexts. Put simply, an efficient administration is never complete without a first-rate secretary.

1.2.1 Statement Of The Problem

Experimental evidence suggests that the majority of management practices, whether praiseworthy or despicable, fail to inspire and motivate office workers, which in turn reduces their efficiency and effectiveness.

The reason behind this is that employers have failed to consider the aspects that contribute to increased efficiency and effective performance, which may otherwise lead to higher productivity in the organisation.

The evident negative impressions, such as a fear of the reward system, have a devastating effect on the morale of office professionals and their ability to achieve organisational goals.

Office workers’ morale and output have taken a nosedive because some bosses just don’t get it when it comes to investing in their employees’ well-being and providing competitive pay and benefits.

To add insult to injury, some bosses have the mistaken notion that threatening office workers with dismissal will motivate them to do a better job. Despite the fact that this aspect may provide “good” results in the near term, office professionals will likely consider staying or leaving in the long run.

Workers’ perceptions of their own productivity on the job are often disregarded by management, leading to issues such as tardiness, absenteeism, truancy, theft, and so on. Poor attitudes towards work or performance have resulted from all of these reasons.

1.3 Objectives of the Study 

The study’s overarching goal is to determine how employee morale affects office workers’ output, and its more narrowly focused objectives are as follows:

1. To learn how different types of leadership influence the spirits of office workers.

The second objective is to catalogue the methods utilised to raise the spirits and output of office workers.

2. To learn how a positive work environment affects the morale and output of office workers.

3. To learn how to boost morale and productivity among office workers through good communication.

1.4 Research Questions

To aid in the discovery of solutions to the issues being studied, the following research questions have been developed.

1. How do various leadership styles impact the efficiency of office workers?

2. What methods can be employed to enhance the morale and efficiency of office professionals within an organisation?

3. How does an organization’s work environment affect the morale and productivity of office professionals?

4. How does good communication affect the morale and productivity of a company’s employees?

1.5 The Significance of the Research

Office workers, the company, and any researchers interested in this topic in the future will all profit greatly from this study’s conclusions.

Office workers will be able to find what drives them in this study, which means they will be more likely to give their all and produce better results for their employer.

In addition to being of tremendous use to employees, the study will provide light on the tasks that employers must complete, when they must be completed, and how they must be executed if they want to attract and retain talented office professionals.

Furthermore, the study will undoubtedly be extremely valuable to the organisation (i.e., management) because it will help them determine what elements can improve employee morale on the job. Future academics that are interested in writing about or studying a related topic can use this study as a reference piece.

1.6 The Scope of the Study

The purpose of this research is to identify elements that have the potential to improve morale in the workplace. Consequently, this study would encompass the following areas: the effects of leadership styles on employee morale and productivity; the functions of good communication; the effects of an organization’s working environment on employee morale and productivity; and the effects of motivating employees in the workplace.

1.7 Limitations of The Study

An issue arose because the researcher had to resort to sampling the study group rather than using the complete population. The issue of funding also posed a significant obstacle to this investigation.

The project’s transportation costs to different organisational units and departments several times to administer and collect the questionnaire, as well as the costs of developing, typing, photocopying, and binding the questionnaire, were quite high. Some respondents were not willing to cooperate at all, which was a major issue with their attitude.

The top brass were just too far away. The few that did show up turned their backs on the researcher and advocated for a new subject because, in their opinion, the current one is unsuitable for research. Some people only wanted the researcher to return after they were absent or apologised, so they scheduled a later date.

We were unable to contact some of the respondents because they were on vacation. Lastly, time was a significant constraint. Due to its inclusion alongside regular academic work, the allotted time was quite generous.

1.8 Definition of Terms

When seen through the lens of this study alone, a few unfamiliar phrases were employed throughout:

An someone who appears competent in a specific task is described as an office professional.

Productivity is a way to examine how well production is done. The term “productivity” refers to the relationship between output and input.

Staff members of a specific company are referred to as employees.

“Morale” refers to the act of uplifting one’s inner emotions or state of mind.

Motivation is a driving force that aims to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of an organization’s office staff.

Group of businesses that get together with a certain goal in mind is called an organisation.