THE
IMPACT OF SHARED RESPONSIBILITY ON WORKERS PRODUCTIVITY IN GOVERNMENT OWN
ESTABLISHMENT VIS-A-VIS STUDY ON ITS CURRENT CHALLENGES. (A CASE STUDY OF
OUTPATIENTS DEPARTMENT JEREMI GENERAL HOSPITAL UGHELLI)
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Considering
its prominent place in the prevailing organizational discourse, shared
responsibility has proven to be a favorite formula for organizational redesign.
It is a promising concept which offers autonomy, responsibility and job
enrichment in order to meet the aspirations of the employees. At the same time,
shared responsibility is believed to enhance performance outcomes such as productivity
and quality, on both the team and the organization level. Hence, management
fashions such as business process re-engineering, lean production, the modern
socio-technical approach and human resources management (HRM), all embrace the
core principles of shared responsibility (Benders and Van Hootegem, 1999; de
Sitter et al., 1997; Kuipers and van Amelsvoort, 1990).
A
major argument for introducing and for developing shared responsibility in an
organization stems from recent insights into the impact of human resources on organizational
performance and productivity. In the current debate on HRM, the resource-based
view of the firm states that the intangible, imperfectly imitable and imperfectly
substitutable internal resources of the organization enable a firm to generate
and to sustain its competitive advantage (Doorewaard andMeihuizen, 2000). This
statement is true especially with regard to the impact of human resources on
organizational performance and productivity in organizations that practices
shared responsibility. Shared responsibility encourages team-based work. The
performance in team-based working largely depends on the employees’ competencies
and attitudes with regard to planning, performing and controlling team tasks in
an autonomous way.
When
analyzing which features of shared responsibility at work can add to the
enhancement of team performance which can only be achieved with team work i.e.
the division of job regulation tasks between team leader and team members. A
larger allocation of job regulation tasks within the team among the team
members is supposed to contribute more effectively to organizational goals than
the allocation of these tasks to a separate team leader. However, hardly any
empirical evidence exists regarding the relationship between shared
responsibility structure and shared performance (Benders et al., 1999). This
study is aimed at clarifying the impact of the structure of shared responsibilities
on workers’ productivity considering its current challenges.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Apart from the variety of job regulation
tasks in an establishment, the nature of the division of responsibilities is
important in order to analyze the influence of the shared responsibility
structure on organizational and worker’s performance and productivity.
According to Benders and Van Hootegem (1999), the concept of shared
responsibility is rather vaguely elaborated. Sometimes, shared responsibility
is conceptualized as being the autonomy of the team as a whole, whereas at
other times the concept strictly refers to the responsibility of individual
team members. Bryman’s analysis (1996) of leadership appears to be adequate in
providing a further elaboration of the concept of shared responsibility. This
focuses on leadership as a process, rather than on leadership as a formal
position within an organization. As a process, leadership consists of a set of
decisions concerning the coordination and regulation of work processes. Such a
decision-making process can be organized in many different ways. In teams with
autocratic or participatory leadership, for example, the responsibility for
decisions is located within a formal position of team leader. In teams with shared
responsibility (where a team leader appears to be absent), team members themselves
make all the decisions. In day-to-day practices, various hybrid structures of shared
responsibility exist (for example, the shared responsibility for work
preparation, support and control might be restricted to a few team members
only, or responsibilities might be divided among various team members).
For the purpose of this study, the researcher
seeks to examine the impact of shared responsibility on workers’ productivity
in government owned establishment carefully looking at its current challenges. However,
in shared responsibility structure, team members themselves make decisions
concerning work preparation, support and control in an autonomous way which
also be highlighted in this study.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The
general objective of this study is to analyze the impact of shared
responsibility on worker’s productivity in government own establishment
vis-a-vis study on its current challenges while the following are the specific
objectives:
1. To
examine the impact of shared responsibility on worker’s productivity in
government own establishment.
2. To
identify the challenges of shared responsibility in government own
establishment.
3. To
examine the different structures of shared responsibility that can enhance
worker’s productivity.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1. What
is the impact of shared responsibility on worker’s productivity in government
own establishment?
2. What
are the challenges of shared responsibility in government own establishment?
3. What
are the different structures of shared responsibility that can enhance worker’s
productivity?
1.5 HYPOTHESIS
Hypothesis
1
HO: Shared
responsibility cannot enhance workers productivity in government own
establishment
HA: Shared
responsibility can enhance workers productivity in government own establishment
Hypothesis
2
HO: Shared
responsibility has no challenges in government own establishment
HA: Shared
responsibility has challenges in government own establishment
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The
following are the significance of this study:
1. Findings
from this research work will educate head of governments, administrators and
managers of corporate organizations on the impact of shared responsibility on
workers productive as it will also throw light to its challenges thereby making
this research work a guide for the stakeholders in decision making.
2. This
research will be a contribution to the body of literature in the area of the
impact of shared responsibility on worker’s productivity in government own
establishment, thereby constituting the empirical literature for future
research in the subject area.
1.7 SCOPE/LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
This study on impact
of shared responsibility on worker’s productivity in government own
establishment vis-a-vis study on its current challenges covers all the Human
resource services in government establishment in Nigeria. The study will also
cover an overview of factors hindering worker’s productivity and the challenges
of shared responsibility.
LIMITATION OF STUDY
Financial constraint– Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the
researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information
and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
Time constraint– The researcher will
simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work. This consequently
will cut down on the time devoted for the research work.
1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS
Responsibility:
A duty or obligation to satisfactorily perform or complete a task (assigned by
someone, or created by one’s own promise or circumstances) that one must
fulfill, and which has a consequent penalty for failure.
Productivity:
A measure of the efficiency of a person, machine, factory, system, etc., in
converting inputs into useful outputs.
Productivity
is computed by dividing average output per period by the total costs incurred
or resources (capital, energy, material, personnel) consumed in that period.
Productivity is a critical determinant of cost efficiency.
Performance:
The accomplishment of a given task measured against preset known standards of
accuracy, completeness, cost, and speed. In a contract, performance is deemed
to be the fulfillment of an obligation, in a manner that releases the performer
from all liabilities under the contract
Team:
A group of people with a full set of complementary skills required to complete
a task, job, or project.
Team
members:
(1)
Operate with a high degree of interdependence,
(2)
share authority and responsibility for self-management,
(3)
are accountable for the collective performance, and
(4)
work toward a common goal and shared rewards(s).
A
team becomes more than just a collection of people when a strong sense of
mutual commitment creates synergy, thus generating performance greater than the
sum of the performance of its individual members.
REFERENCES
Benders, J. and Van Hootegem, G. (1999),
“Teams and their context. Moving the team discussion beyond existing
dichotomies’’, Journal ofManagement Studies, Vol. 36 No. 1.
Benders, J., Huijgen, F. and Pekruhl, U.
(1999), “Group work in the European Union, results from a survey’’, paper
presented at the 17th Annual International Labour Process Conference, London,
29-31 March.
Bryman, A. (1996), “Leadership in
organizations’’, in Clegg, S.R., Hardy, C. and Nord, W. (Eds), Handbook of Organization Studies, Sage, London.
de Sitter, L.U., den Hertog, J.F. and Dankbaar,
B. (1997), “From complex organisations with simple jobs to simple
organisations with complex jobs’’, Human
Relations, Vol. 50 No. 5, pp. 497-534.
Doorewaard, H. and Meihuizen, M.E. (2000),
“Strategic options in professional service organisations’’, Human ResourceManagement Journal, Vol. 10 No. 2, pp. 39-57.
Kuipers, H. and van Amelsvoort, P. (1990), Slagvaardig organiseren,
Kluwer Bedrijfswetenschappen,Deventer.