CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Most organizations in developing countries experienced growing competition from multinationals (Karuhanga, 2010) and, with  this  trend,  organizations  were  called  upon  to  devise  ways  of  becoming   more  responsive  to customer  expectations  to  compete  favorably  in  the  global  village  (Halachmi,  2002),  as  cited  in Karuhanga  (2010).

Although  there  are  economically  developed nations  lagging behind  in  terms  of implementation  (Ohemeng,  2009),  active  performance  management  has  been  identified  by policy makers  in  many  developing  countries,  under  the  current  public  sector  modernization  rubric,  as  a  strategic tool in efforts to enhance individual and organizational effectiveness, and hence improve service quality.

Within the context of education upon which this study was anchored, the United Kingdom (UK) has the second strongest higher education system in the world and its future economic strength depends on the growth and competitiveness driven by the world-leading universities (Universities UK, 2010).

The strength of the UK higher education system has been underpinned by its flexibility and responsiveness within a fast-changing global environment, leading to innovation across all activities and ensuring effectiveness in operation and delivery.  It is also worth noting that the UK higher education has been highly successful to date in sustaining its global standing with significantly less investment (both public and private) than its competitor countries.

Within the context of a changing economic and funding environment across the UK, the focus on effectiveness, efficiency and value for money increases as it presents new challenges and opportunities for institutions (Universities UK, 2010).

In the United Kingdom white paper on strong and prosperous communities, it is suggested that alongside efficiency, service quality can be improved by using partnerships models’ boldly asserting a belief in significant opportunities to improve the quality and efficiency of shared services by joint work (UK Government, 2006).

Organizations need employees that are able to get the job done because employee performance is critical to the overall success of the organization. Jayne Thomson (1967) as cited by Kimberlee Leonard (2019) is of the opinion that organizations need to understand the benefits of employee performance so that they can develop consistent and objective methods for evaluating employees.  Doing so, helps determine strengths, weaknesses and potential managerial gaps in the organization.

In England, decisions made by the current government effect a radical change in the funding model for higher education. Within this changing environment, institutions are already reviewing their effectiveness and how more efficient operation can support this, but there is scope for greater progress to be made in order to deliver high-quality teaching and research, rather than simply to find mechanisms for short-term cost savings (Universities UK, 2010).

According to Churchill, Ford and Walker (1987: 147), as cited in Fauzilah et al (2011), the determinants of employee performance are personal, organizational, environmental, motivation, skill, level aptitudes and role perceptions.

To the University management, employee job performance is very important because it will reflect management performance by designing employee performance standards in order to measure the performance of the organization.  The quality of employees is the important influence on performance (Fuazilah et al, 2011) and it is believe that employees are the backbone of the organisation services with imperative role of ensuring that the University policies and programmes in the new era of national development are implemented effectively and efficiently.

Much as there is limited  research on  Performance Management  Indicators  (PMI)   in developing countries, with 95 per cent of empirical research focused on institutional theory in the developed world  compared  to  only  5 percent  in  the  developing  countries  in  the  past  two  decades  (De  Waal, 2007), the  application  of performance management  in  organizations  in  the  developing  countries  is steadily increasing, especially in Africa (Elzinga et al, 2009; De Waal, 2007).

At a time when employees in other parts of the world are regarded as the main source of competitive advantage, South Africa is still enmeshed in a labour crisis typified by industrial actions. Voss and Gruber (2006) asserted that in order for institutions to provide services of good quality to the students (who are the customers), the employees should be knowledgeable, proactive, well-organized, encouraging, helpful, caring to students’ needs, approachable, experienced, friendly and should have good communication skills.

Rendering services of good quality will help improve productivity.  In Malaysia, employee performance is considered as the measures of the quality of human capital which was held by the mechanisms for short-term cost savings (Universities UK, 2010).

Employee performance is a widely discussed concept in the field of performance management.  The importance accorded to performance management arises from the nature of the current business environment, which is marked by the need to achieve organizational goals as well as remain relevant in intensely competitive market through superior employee performance (Chen and Eldridge, 2012).

Within this context, various studies suggest that organizations can hardly control the behavior of their employees (Attorney, 2007).   The organization can, however, control how employees perform their jobs.  In addition, performance management research shows that a significant number of employees tend to have the desire to perform their jobs well as part of their individual goals as well as demonstration of loyalty towards the organization. (Wright & Cheung, 2007).

Arguably, the key to ensuring that employees perform well lies in the ability to provide them with the right working environment, such an environment generally includes fair treatment, effective communication and collaboration, commitment to their job and a good organizational culture.

In addition to that, employees are considered an important asset for good and effective performance in any organization. Guest (1997) as cited by Armstrong (2009), stated that, improved performance is achieved through the employees in the organization. Until the 1980s, performance was usually interpreted as the output of a combination of ability and motivation, given appropriate resources and hence motivating people became a key component of most management work (Torrington et al, 2008).

In this respect, when the full potential of human resource (HR) is unlocked, an organization can achieve unlimited output, efficiency and effectiveness.  It is important, however, to note that not all employees are equal in their working; as they have different modes of working. Some employees have the highest capability regardless of the incentive, while others may have an occasional jump-start.   Nonetheless, if all employees are handled effectively, the results can be greater productivity and increased employee morale (Truong, 2012).

In Kenya, most companies have started adopting the use of the BSC (Balanced Score Card) as a way of improving employee performance (Malinga, 2004). In Ethiopia, there is growing interest in the use of the BSC in more firms with support from   government    (Tessema, 2005).

In   Cameroon, and the Higher Education system, the BSC and its related concepts are used as the foundation to identify the measures of performance.  They have also faced significant employee performance challenges during recent years (SUP INFOS 2010a).

These institutions have found themselves in an increasingly competitive environment where there are fewer traditional students available to attend them (SUP INFOS, September 2011 p.10).  However, these concerns do not erase the fact that Higher Education has begun to see the increasing need for planning in order to maintain its responsiveness to a rapidly changing environment (Kriemadis, 1997).

In Nigeria, employee performance of executing agencies or public enterprises is limited to budget monitoring and annual performance evaluation; however, experts are of the view that there is no link between employee performance and financial data (Pollitt and Bouckaert, 2004). In South Africa, for example, recent developments in the way employees  are  managed  in  organizations  have  brought about the need to seriously consider employees as major stakeholders in organizations (Tchapchet et al, 2014).

In this competitive and commercialized environment, there is a constant need to enhance performance in the University of Buea as this has been discussed by Kaplan and Norton (2004) as cited in Nabukeera, Ali and Raja (2014).  The need to enhance performance has raised the necessity for efficiency and the need for evaluation mechanisms to help assess employee performance that are quite inadequate in stakeholder expectations (Nabukeera, Ali and Raja, 2014).  Salem  (2003)  stated  that while it was clear by the1980s that interest in Performance Management had moved from the ivory towers of academia to the corridors of government around the world, towards the end of the 1980s, many systems of Performance Management were born,  adopted and implemented at many levels of the  organization  and  these  were  traced  back  to  the  use  of  cost  benefit  analysis  in  the  1960s; to management by objectives  (MBO)  in  the 1960s and  1970s; and  to  output  budgeting  in  the  1960s.  Most  of these  initiatives, however,  were  regarded  as  experimental  and  some were  only adopted  as one-off exercises.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Human resources are the most vital resources of any organization (Armstrong, 2009). The University of Buea in its efforts to remain the centre of excellence has endeavored to ensure its employees perform their duties by supplying the necessary opportunities, infrastructure and funds to ensure delivery of quality services to its clients.

In spite of the University management’s efforts to reward the employees for better services to University clients, the employees did not exhibit strong signs of well rewarded employees as specifically reflected by high labour turnover, employees taking on part-time jobs as a means of topping up their basic salary, late-coming, lack of commitment to the job, dodging lectures which consequently results into poor performance of both employees and students. (meeting of congregation, School Board Minutes, September 2014).

Several issues were reported to be affecting performance of staff.   A few studies done by different scholars have identified managers’ attitude, organizational culture, personal problems, job content, financial rewards, communication, norms and standards used at work as some of the factors affecting employee performance (Saeed et al, 2013; Nassazi, 2013; and Amari, 2014).

However, this study is being conducted to examine the effect of organizational culture, organizational communication and organizational commitment in influencing employees towards the attainment of the University performance goals and objectives which are essential to management. These are the three factors recognized as central drivers of employee performance (Mohammed and Abukar, 2013; Femi, 2014; and Ahmad et al, 2014).

The researcher felt that if nothing is done to avoid this situation, the University will lose its position as a centre of excellence and also as a leading institution of higher learning in Cameroon. This raised the need to establish the effect of the combined organizational factors on the performance of employees at the University of Buea.

Considering the rate at which the University of Buea is growing both nationally and internationally, there is need for the University management and other University policy makers to be informed about the challenges affecting the performance of employees in order to think of the solution together. Since the University of Buea came into existence in 1994, there has been an increasing desire for it to be the best University from both within and outside the University.

However, as a University like any other, it is affected by a series of factors limiting its success and these ranges from organizational commitment, organizational culture and organizational communication. This means that, unless the factors affecting employee performance of this University are assessed, the likelihood of being the best would be jeopardized.

The problem statement is about factors affecting the performance of employees at the University of Buea (UB).  The variables which are identified to affect the performance of employees at the University of Buea include; organizational culture, organizational communication, organizational commitment, motivation, working environment and training.

Among the six variables mentioned above, there are three factors including organizational culture, organizational communication, and organizational commitment that have direct effects towards employee performance at the University of Buea. These variables are described in different studies that affect the performance of employees at the work place. However, for the study to be scientific, some questions will be posted as seen below:

1.3 Research Questions

The main research question is how does organizational factors affecting the performance of employees working at the University of Buea?

The specific research questions are:

1. How organizational culture influenced performance of employees working at the University of Buea?
2. What was the relationship between organizational communication and the performance of employees working at the University of Buea?
3. How organizational commitment influenced performance of employees at the University of Buea?

Check Out: Business Administration Project Topics with Materials