GOVERNMENT IN INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

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The practice of industrial relations cannot be left in the hands of the union activists and the management of organizations.  There is the need for government to come in as an umpire to regulate to regulate the activities of the two principal actors in industrial relations matters. 

NEED FOR GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION

The major actors in industrial matters are the unions and employers. The third actor which is government comes in as a regulatory agent. The need for regulation becomes apparent when one considers the divergence in the objectives and interests of unions in relation to those of employers.

Specific reasons for government intervention can be discussed thus:

a.       Government is the single largest employer of labour: it is believed that more than 70% of the working population is found in the public sector so government cannot be unconcerned industrial relations matters.

b.      It is the responsibility of the government to maintain law and order and to prevent unrest.

c.       Government is looked upon to regulate things by the articulate electorates. Regulatory rules on industrial relations thus becomes necessary.

d.      There is the need to avoid the resultant unemployment if all the wishes of workers are to be met. Only those in the system will be catered for and there would be no vacancy for others.

e.       The trend internationally is for government to intervene hence Nigeria cannot be an exception.

f.       For political reasons. To maintain stability and be in control and not be controlled.

g.      Leaving the labour market or industrial matters to the forces of demand and supply alone could lead to industrial instability and unrest. The economy itself could be pushed into a depressed state.

Government has the responsibility to make laws that will serve as reference points for all – both employers and employees.

GOVERNMENT INTERVENTIONIST STRATEGIES

The interventionist strategies of government can be discussed thus:

a.       Government makes law, regulations and fashion out guidelines for the control of industrial relations actors. Such laws on minimum wage, hours of work, safety requirements are contained in the Acts, Decree and Ethics by various governments. The International Labour Organization requires member unions to “encourage and promote the full development and utilization of machinery for voluntary negotiations of employment”, the Factories Act, 1956, the Workmen Compensation Acts, the Trade Disputes Act, 1976, etc.

b.      Education and Training Programmes: the establishment of the Michael Imoudu Institute for Labour Studies in Ilorin

c.       Investigative and Advisory Methods: the setting up of fact finding panels ad mediating panels

d.      Judicial Methods: The Industrial Arbitration Panel and the National Industrial Court

e.       Funding Unions: Through the use of the Check-off system which makes it the obligation of members to contribute to the unions

f.       Arrest of union leaders, prosecutions of the unions and appointment of administrators to manage the affairs of some of the unions.

BUDGETING AS AN INSTRUMENT OF INTERNAL CONTROL IN A MANUFACTURING ORGANIZATION (A CASE STUDY OF AMA BREWERIES ENUGU)

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background Of The Study

According to Enudu (1999), the business environment is characterized by a lot of uncertainties ranging from such factors as: Economic environment, political and legal factors, social environment, supply and demand forces, competition, consumers' attitude and technological changes.

A critical look at the performances of some of these manufacturing business organizations will reveal a lot of business failures as a result of lack of proper planning against these uncertainties.

According to Drury (2000), proper planning of business helps in reducing uncertainties thereby providing the management of these enterprises with a clear direction by determining their courses of actions in advance.

According to Pandey (2010), for any enterprise to achieve these goals and objectives, they must be managed effectively and efficiently. Management is efficient if it is able to accomplish the objectives of the enterprise and becomes effective when it accomplishes the objectives with minimum efforts and costs. One of the ways in which the management can achieve these objectives is though profit planning and control or budgeting.

 According to Nweze (2011), Budgeting in its true word is the design of the future state of an entity and the effective ways of bringing it about. Budgeting or planning involves the determination of the future course of actions for accomplishing the objectives of the enterprise.

According to Lucey (2002), the main purpose of budget planning is to provide the necessary guidelines for making decisions. With the proper budget planning, the enterprise can no longer be under the mercy of whims of Fickle economic and social forces thereby relying on the ability to sense what is required. (Nweze 2011).

A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF COMPUTERIZED ACCOUNTING SYSTEM AND MANUAL ACCOUNTING SYSTEM (A STUDY OF AMA BREWERIES PLC. EKE, UDI L.G.A AND AFRICA PETROLEUM PLC PRESIDENTIAL ROAD)

  CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1              Background Of The Study

Accounting system according to an Italian monk, Luca Pacioli (1491), is the   combination of personnel records and procedures that a business uses to meet its need for financial data. Financial accounting also encompasses the summary of information and presentation of periodic reports such as profit and loss statement and balance sheet. The historical firms of accounting were of different degree of sophistication according to the need and techniques of the time. This is why modern accounting is based on the double entry system and the recognition of the dual nature of each transaction and this gives a co-ordinate support for the control of all the transaction of a business.

Accounting system according to business dictionary is an organized set of manual and computerized accounting methods, procedures and controls established to gather, record, classify, analyze, summarize, interpret and present accurate and timely financial data for management decisions. In spite of this, there are policies for reporting on an organization performance and current conditions. These policies increase the usefulness of report including their reliability and comparability. The policy that makes up acceptable accounting practices are determined by many individuals and groups and those policies are referred to as generally accepted accounting principles

(GAAP). Since accounting is a service needs and not only on those of accountants. The financial Accounting standard Board (FASB) is another body or group that is seen as an independent group of seven full-time members with a large staff. This body has issued six statements of accounting concepts which help in guiding accounting standard setting. Many companies and organizations involve themselves in setting accounting rules/policies. They include investors, government agencies, politicians, unions, lenders and other business and non-business organizations.

PROMOTION MIX

Promotion of one of the basic elements of marketing mix. When a product is launch into the market, aggressive promotional efforts have to be embarked upon to create the awareness in potential customers.

WHAT IS PROMOTION IN MARKETING?

When a company develops a new product, changes an old one or simply wants to increase sales of an existing products or services, it must transmit its message to potential customers.

Communication is the basic element of promotion. It is defined as the passing of information from one person (sender) to another (receiver), or an exchange of information or ideas between two people.

Two categories of communication

a.       Explicit: the use of language to establish common understanding among the people

b.      Implicit: involves ‘intuitive interpretation’ of the relatively unconscious symbols of gesture and the unconscious assimilation of the ideas and behaviours of one’s own culture

OBJECTIVES OF PROMOTION

i.                    Behavior Modification

Promotion tends to change the idea already created about a product either positively or negatively. Promotion tries to convince the customers (Current and Potential) of the quality of the product and even the need to take such product. For instance, a promotion scheme aims at convincing consumers that Bournvita is better than Milo.

ii.                  Informing

Promotions are designed to inform, persuade, or remind the targets market about the firm’s offerings. Often a company will attempt to accomplish these simultaneously. It is necessary ingredient increasing primary demand. This is because people won’t typically purchase a good or service until they know it will do and how it will benefit them. 

EFFECTS OF PRIVATIZATION AND COMMERCIALIZATION OF GOVERNMENT OWNED ORGANIZATIONS.

  CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background Of The Study

Today, we are witnesses to sweeping changes that are taking place in the economies of both developed and developing countries. These changes relate to efforts to move away from government ownership, control or participation in the economy towards free enterprise and increased operation of market forces. On the whole, the changes ar3e making for the reduction in the role of government in the economy with a corresponding expansion in private sector ownership control and participation.

Despite the numerous measures in form of economic policies consisting of several incentives to promote industrial, agricultural, and other activities, the Nigerian economy for example still exhibits very prominent features of underdevelopment and such features includes poor managerial skill, heavy reliance on a single commodity oil, which has failed to provide the much needed capital in huge sums as expected for the conscious implementation of a single strategy of development.

Public business enterprises creates a solution in which national funds that would have been better spent to guarantee new economic activity and employment opportunities for the army of unemployed is being used to subsidize deadwood that would neither grow nor change. Public enterprises are enterprises that are controlled by the state, they are non-profit oriented enterprises.

The participation of the states in enterprises in Nigeria dated back to the colonial era. The task of providing infrastructural facilities such as railway, road, bridges, water, electricity and port facilities fell on the colonial government due to the absence of indigenous companies with the required capital as well as the inability or unwillingness of foreign trading companies to embark on this capital intensive projects.

THE IMPACT OF INFLATION ON THE MANUFACTURING SECTOR OF THE NIGERIAN ECONOMY (1981- 2011)

                                                 CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1.1        Background Of The Study

Inflation has remained a chronic problem for Nigerian economy for some time. Inflation is not a new wood in the world economy and not out rightly bad, but the case of Nigeria is severe and i t will destabilize the entire economic frame work if it is not properly checked. This problem has brought about reduction of purchasing power discouragement of real investment balance of payment disequilibrium and unemployment.

Inflation in Nigeria can be said to be a direct result of the policies of the country’s govern fast rate of economic growth and development since 1951when it was introduced. Inflation trend since independence shows to distinctive period. Until 1969 we had a single digit inflation and even a negative growth rate in 1963, 1967 and 1968. The year 1975, recorded 33-7 percent indicating the effect of 1974 Udojji salary

 

The Nigerian economy seemed to have experience moderate inflation prior to the advent of the structural Adjustment programme (SAP) in 1986. Inflation on it own is not bad as studies have shown that there exists a positive relationship between inflation and growth. But the problem lies on a country continuously having high inflation rates. It has been revealed that a close relationship exists between inflation and diminishing growth rate across a variety of inflation ranges. Average growth rates falls slightly as inflation rate across a variety rates more towards 20-25 percent. The growth rate declined more steeply as inflation rates approaches 25-30 percent and growth rates became increasingly negative at a higher rate of inflation (Ogwuma, P.A. 1986; Gains and pains of inflation in the manufacturing sector of the Nigerian  economy”

Manufacturing involves the conversion of law materials into finished consumer goods or intermediate or producers            goods  manufacturing  creates  avenues  for

employment, helps to boost agriculture, helps to diversify the economy while helping the nation to increase its foreign exchange earnings and enables local labour to acquire skills. The manufacturing sector in Nigeria has passed through four clear stages of development.

The first was the pre-independence era, when manufacturing was limited to primary processing of simple consumer items by foreign multinational corporations.

PUBLIC RELATIONS BY CORPORATE ORGANIZATIONS

AN EVALUATION OF THE USE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS BY CORPORATE ORGANIZATIONS IN OWERRI, IMO STATE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Public relations (PR) is a promotional tool for information, communication and persuasion. It deals with reputation management. The First World Assembly of Public Relations Associations in Mexico defined public relations as “the art and social science of analyzing trends, predicting their consequences, counseling organizational leaders, and implementing planned programmes of action which will serve both the organization and the public interest” (Newsom, Turk & Scott, 2000, p. 2).

In a document entitled “What is Public Relations?” quoted in Tench and Yeomans (2006) the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, London, defined PR as “the deliberate, planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organization and its publics” (p. 6).

Defining PR in terms of its effects on society, Maloney (2000) refers to it as “a category of persuasive communications done through the mass media or through private lobbying by groups to advance their material or ideological interest” (p. 65).

Commenting on the use of PR, Seitel (1987) says that “public relations may be used in the marketing plan to realize a number of objectives such as publicizing a company and its products, introducing new or improved products” (p. 242).

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THE IMPACT OF INTEREST RATE ON INVESTMENT DECISION

THE IMPACT OF INTEREST RATE ON INVESTMENT DECISION IN NIGERIA. AN ECONOMETRIC ANALYSIS (1981-2010)

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       Background of the Study

Investment is the change in capital stock during a period. Consequently, unlike capital, investment is a flow term and not a stock term. This means that capital is measured at a point in time, while investment can only be measure over a period of time.

Investment plays a very important and positive role for progress and prosperity of any country. Many countries rely on investment to solve their economic problem such as poverty, unemployment etc (Muhammad Haron and Mohammed Nasr (2004).

Interest rate on the other hand is the price paid for the use of money. It is the opportunity cost of borrowing money from a lender to finance investment project. It can also be seen as the return being paid to the provider of financial resources, for going the fund for future consumption. Interest rates are normally expressed as a percentage rate. The volatile nature of interest is determined by many factors, which include taxes, risk of investment, inflationary expectations, liquidity preference, market imperfections in an economy etc.

Banks are given the primary responsibility of financial intermediation in order to make fund available for economic agents. Banks as financial intermediaries move fund. Surplus sector/units of the economy to deficit sector/units by accepting deposits and channeling them into lending activities. The extent to which this could be done depend upon the rate of interest and level of development of financial sector as well as the saving habit of the people in the country.

FACTORS THAT REDUCE SAVINGS

FACTORS THAT REDUCE SAVINGS IN NIGERIA (1980-2010)

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Financial institution, market, regulator and instrument all comprises a set of complex and closely interconnected financial system, proving financial services in an economy, such services includes mobilization and allocation of resources, distribution of investment funds among firms, financial intermediation and foreign exchange transactions.

The Nigeria financial system can be categorized into two via: the formal or organized and informal or unorganized financial system, the banks and non banks financial institutions make up the organized financial system while the unorganized sector comprises of indigenous bankers local money lenders‟(ISUSU), shop-keepers or traders, merchants, landlords, saving associations, friends and relatives etc. the system is poorly developed, limited economics information, defective system of according are not integrated into the formal financial system, but very important to the Nigerian financial system. Capital formations, buying and selling of bonds and securities, creation of new assets and liabilities, executing monetary and credit policies of the central bank etc.

Are the roles and functions of financial system geared towards economic development of an economy? Patriotic researchers and policy makers have observed a declining savings rate in Nigeria over the past decades; this is due to the critical importance of saving for the maintenance of strong and sustainable growth in the world economy particularly in Nigeria.

A sound, healthy and reliable financial system relates to savings mobilization and efficient financial intermediation roles:

MATERIALS MANAGEMENT IN A MANUFACTURING COMPANY (A CASE STUDY OF 7UP BOTTLING COMPANY PLC, ILORIN PLANT, KWARA STATE)

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       Background to the Study

As a manager in a manufacturing company. It is more necessary than ever to improve the overall productivity of the operation while such improvement requires an integrated effort involving all functional areas of the facility, specific actions are required within each functional area one of the functional areas in a manufacturing operation that is critical to the overall productivity of the company is material management. The material management involves purchasing supplier management, material handling within the facility and extensive coordination among all functional areas of the facility in conjunction with material management sapiens, Jazayeri (1998).

Once the production process is under way the attention of the operations manager shifts to the daily activities of material management the daily composes materials purchasing, inventory control and work scheduling.

Material management has a philosophy close to that of a modern marketing. In marketing the organization and its staff has to think in a marketing oriented way for example how will customers react to product change? What will be the effect on sales if we alter the packaging? With material management the same principle apply the organization and its entire staff have to consider their decision in relation to how they will after it the material side of the business topics under material management include purchasing, control, transportation, material production, planning stores, inventory control Bret (2001).

Therefore, the main point of materials management is to satisfy the need to all operating system such as manufacturing production line, promotional activities and physical distributor times. It is the operation as the customer, manager must work around the system till everything his and needs are satisfied. The material manager organization and it entire staff should however consider their decision in relation to how they will affect the materials side of the business. It is in view of the above stated facts that this study is being carried out using 7up Bottling Company PLC Ilorin plant a manufacturing company to study the issue of material management.

THE IMPACT OF UNEMPLOYMENT ON ECONOMIC GROWTH IN NIGERIA. (1982-2010)

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION:

1.1  Background to the study

Unemployment is defined as an economic condition marked by the fact that individuals actively seeking jobs remain unhired. Unemployment is expressed as a percentage of the total available work force. It is seen as a macroeconomic and sociological problem which arises as a result of insufficient and non-availability of jobs to correspond with the growing population. Even those who are employed, sometimes live with the fear of retrenchment. The term unemployment could be used in relation to all the factors of production. But in reference to labour, there is unemployment if it is not possible to find jobs for all those who are eligible and able to work. Labour is said to be underemployed, if it is working below capacity or not utilized in production employment can either         be  ‘voluntary’  or  ‘involuntary.

Voluntary unemployment is a situation where somebody chooses not to work because they have means of support other than employment e.g. idle rich man. Voluntary unemployment is attributed to the individuals decision; it includes workers who reject low wage jobs, whereas involuntary unemployment exist because of socio-economic environment (including market structures, government intervention and the level of aggregate demand) in which individuals operate, involuntary unemployment include workers who are fired due to an economic crises, industrial decline, company bankruptcy or organization restructuring unemployment is seen as a worldwide economic problem and has been categorized as one of the serious impediments to social progress. Unemployment is a very serious issue in Africa (VandeMoortele, 1991 and Rama, 1998) and particularly in Nigeria (Oladeji, 1994, Umo, 1996). The need to avert the negative effects of unemployment has made the tacking of unemployment problem to feature very prominently in the development objective of many developing countries.

In the study of unemployment in Africa, Okonkwo (2005) identified three causes of unemployment; the educational system, the choice of technology which can be either be labour intensive or capital intensive and inadequate attention to agriculture. The use of machines to replace work done by labour and computerization has contributed to these social problem. Moreso, lack of enough education and skills to have access to credit and capital.

THE IMPACT OF MANAGEMENT INCENTIVE POLICIES ON WORKER’S PRODUCT (A CASE STUDY OF DANGOTE CEMENT FACTORY, OBAJANA, KOGI STATE.)

 

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the study  

An incentive is a form of financial encouragement recognizing a particular contribution made by the work force, in other words, it is a sum of money paid in addition to the basic rate which the organization pays to ensure that its most important production aspects are being optimized . For instance, a capital intensive company might have an incentive linked to machine utilization.

Performance incentives are payment made to an employee or group of employee based on amount of output. The use of performance incentive policies is premised on the belief that output can be measured and performance by workers, it used dated back to the era of the scientific management movement championed by Fedrick Winslow Taylor who argued passionately for the use of incentive wage system as a way of getting more output from the workers. It was also aimed at combating “solde”oringbo on doggling” which was a restriction of output by workers on the job as at that time. Taylor believe that workers could always exert greater efforts if they were to be paid a financial incentive based upon the number of units of work they were able to produce. He then developed the differential rate system which gives a worker a lesser piece rate e.g #1.0 per piece if he produced less than the standard amount of output required by so doing; individual workers are motivated to produce greater output.

In every organization, large or small private or public enterprises, human resources (employees) are always the pillar of the success of the organization. The human elements have their individual drives, desires, needs, wishes and similar forces which they intend to satisfy when they are coming into an organization. The satisfaction or non-satisfaction of these needs by the organization has an impact on the behaviour or performance of the employee and eventually on productivity.

CORPORATE PERFORMANCE AND TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT (A STUDY OF MILLENNIUM INDUSTRY LTD AWKA)

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Experience has shown that consumers of goods and  services are becoming more sensitive to product quality more than before and as a result, producers cannot afford to take for granted the issue of quality which itself is a function of good performance. Corporations produced to sell and make maximum profit irrespective of consumers taste and style. For instance, bank consumer expects efficient, quick and courteous service from his banker and readers of newspaper anticipates clarity of production, grammatical soundness and dept of news coverage from the editor. Likewise consumer of manufacturing products expects high reliability and effectiveness of the products manufactured from that industry.

It is therefore not enough to meet specification, but also meet all the quality the customer expects from the product. In this context therefore, quality means “Total or Complete quality”. That is a customer is able to get the right quality and quantity of goods and services at the right time. All these should be achieved at first attempt and not when patronage is repeated on several occasions.

Total Quality Management according to Nwachukwu C.C. (2006) are set of principles and practices whose core idea include understanding customer needs, doing things right the first time and striving for continuous improvement. It is a management approach which is aimed at incorporating awareness of quality in all organizational processes.

Many organization are striving for quality products and services that will meet or exceed customers expectations and as a result of this, they are searching for approaches to manage people and production system that will assure that transformation of inputs into quality output.