EMPLOYEES’ WORK ATTITUDE AND JOB CHARACTERISTICS OF FOOD AND BEVERAGE FIRMS IN RIVERS STATE, NIGERIA

EMPLOYEES’ WORK ATTITUDE AND JOB CHARACTERISTICS

OF FOOD AND BEVERAGE FIRMS IN RIVERS STATE, NIGERIA

ABSTRACT: This study examined the relationship between employees’ work attitude and job characteristics of food and beverage firms in Rivers State, Nigeria. The cross-sectional survey was employed in this study and a total population of 250 employees was covered in this study. A systematic sampling technique was used in this study. The questionnaire was used in collecting data from respondents. The retrieved data was analyzed using Spearman Rank Order Correlation Coefficient in order to ascertain the relationship between job characteristics and employees’ work attitude. The findings revealed that autonomy had a significant relationship with the measures of employees’ work attitude. It was also discovered that task feedback had a positive and significant relationship with job satisfaction but had a negative relationship with organizational commitment. Thus the study concluded that job characteristics significantly relate to employees’ work attitude. We, therefore, recommended that food and beverage firms in Rivers State should ensure Employee satisfaction on the job should be paramount during job design so that an unconducive workplace would be avoided. The food and beverage firm should ensure that their employees get feedback from their tasks performed in order to increase their performance in the organization.

GET RELATED PROJECT TOPICS HERE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

• Background of the Study

Among the numerous resources at the disposal of any organization, man is believed to be the most sensitive and critical of them all. This is because he (man) combines the other resources to achieve the organizational predetermined goals and objectives (Ayanyinka & Pius, 2014). Therefore, an organization must have men who are capable of performing their duties effectively and efficiently in order to accomplish their objectives. However, having the best collection of human capacity may not be the only determinant to achieving an organization’s success. The way jobs are designed in an organization according to Wegge, Schmidt, Parkes and Dick (2007), have also been found to be a major determinant to achieving organizational goals and objectives.

The Hackman and Oldham Job Characteristics is a widely studied model that has been found useful in explaining important work outcomes. The business dictionary defines job characteristics as a specific aspect to a job that can be assessed, defined and recognized; such as mental & physical demand, knowledge & skills and working conditions.  According to Hackman & Oldham  (1976), Job characteristics are a set of environment variables that are vital causes of employees behaviour in an organization. Therefore,  job characteristics are features to a job that are important causes of an employee work attitude. This implies that the way jobs are designed determines employee’s work outcome (Wegge, Schmidt, Parkes & Dick, 2007).

Hackman and Oldham (1975), identified the five core job characteristics to be skill variety (complexity of skills and talents needed to perform the job), task identity (the extent to which the job is seen as involving a whole identifiable task), task significance (how the job affects the well being of others) autonomy (how the job allows for personal initiative) and feedback from the job (the extent to which the job itself provides information about job performance). They also posit that the presence of these job characteristics satisfies important psychological state (i.e, experienced meaningfulness of the work, felt responsibility and knowledge of results) of an employee to the job. These psychological states of an employee, when satisfy enhances organizational performances (Hackman & Oldham, 1976).

The presence of job characteristics in an organization motivates employees to perform their job well. This is because, job characteristics leads to high level of satisfaction, performance and motivation, as well as low level of absenteeism and turnover among employees (Ferris & Gilmore, 1984; Griffin, Bateman, Wayne & Head, 1987). Therefore, when employees are motivated, their attitudes towards the organization will be positive and as such, organization’s performance will be enhanced thereby making the organization to be more resourceful and effective (George & Jayan,  2013).

However, employees are rational being who will not get a positive work attitude towards their firms when the organization is characterized by lack of job characteristics. This is because, “Attributes of employee’s job primarily determine their perception and responses to the job” (Hackman & Oldham, 1975). Therefore, an understanding of the attitudes of employees at all levels of a firm is very vital, because these attitudes influence organizational performances (Deal, Stawiski, Ruderman, Gentry & Rweyongoza, 2011). They further posit that the attitudes of workers in the organization can affect the success of the entire organization.

Eagly and Chaiken (1993), define attitude as “A psychological tendency which is expressed by assessing a specific entity with some degree of favour or disfavour”. This implies that the nature of attitude is tripartite (I.e. the affective, cognitive and behaviour), they constitute an emotional process, reasoning process and actions (Fazio & Olzon, 2003). Therefore, Employee work attitude is “An individual psychological disposition which may be negative or positive, express about one’s job”. This implies that job attitudes can be viewed as actions and inactions of employees toward their work (Olson & Zanna, 1993).

Considering the high necessity and benefits of job characteristics, an organization can thereby enhance positive employee’s work attitude by ensuring adequate job designation. This implies that, when job are not designed equitably, it will have a negative significant impact upon the attitudes, beliefs and feelings of the employees because the characteristics of one’s job basically determine their responses and perceptions to the job (Hackman & Oldham, 1975). However, this study will focus only on two (2) job characteristics which are; Autonomy and Task feedback, amongst the five (5) job characteristics identified by Hackman and Oldham (1975), to determine how they relate to employee’s work attitude factors, identified by Deal, Stawiski, Ruderman, Gentry and Rweyongoza (2011) amongst others; Organization commitment and Job satisfaction.

However, based on the forgoing empirical evidence on job characteristics and employee’s work attitude, it is clear that there is the dearth of empirical work that has examined how the dimensions of job characteristics relate with the measures of employee’s work attitude of food and beverages firms in Rivers State, Nigeria. Therefore, this study seeks to examine the relationship between job characteristics and employee’s work attitude of food and beverages firms in Rivers State, Nigeria.

• Statement of the Problem

In this era of job insecurity and high job mobility, the problem of negative employee attitude towards work has crippled most business success in their respective industries. The problem of employee negative attitude has over the periods reduced the effective functioning of firms. This is based on the fact that employee attitude enhances organization competitive advantage. Thus, the problem of employee attitude has reduced the edge of competitiveness of firms in their various industries. Deal et al (2011) noted the problem of negative attitude on the employee when they asserted that organizations that are used to asking much of their employees results to employees at every level of the firm to be less effective, less committed and are likely to leave the organization when chanced. Thus, the continuous less effectiveness, less commitment and exit, resulting in a downturn inefficiency, low morale and distraction inflow of organizational activities. Considering the food and beverage firms, the issue of employee work attitude is substantive because when an employee attitude is negative it leads to poor productivity and poor creativity.

Inuwa, Mashi and Salisu (2017) observed that when employees attitude toward work is positive it strengthens employee’s performance as well as enhances creativity and productivity. George et al (2013) noted that an organization without a positive employee attitude will be less resourceful and ineffective. This implies that by knowing what drives the positive attitude of employees, the right environment can be created to handle the issue of the negative attitude of employees.

Although several studies have attempted to proffer ways to enhance employee work attitude; yet, the problem persists. Thus, enhancing job characteristics can go a long way to enhancing employee work attitude. This study seeks to examine how job characteristics relate to employee work attitude in the food and beverage firms in Rivers State, Nigeria.

• Conceptual Framework

Source: The dimensions of job characteristics were adapted from Hackman and Oldham (1975); while the employee’s work attitude was adapted from Deal, Stawiski, Ruderman, Gentry and Rweyongoza (2011).

• Aim and Objectives of the Study

The aim of the study is to ascertain the relationship between job characteristics and employees work attitude of food and beverage firms in Rivers State, Nigeria. The specific objectives are to;

1. Examine the relationship between autonomy and organization commitment of food and beverage firms in Rivers State, Nigeria.
2. Ascertain the relationship between autonomy and job satisfaction of food and beverage firms in Rivers State, Nigeria.
3. Determine the relationship between task feedback and organization commitment of food and beverage firms in Rivers State, Nigeria.
4. Investigate the relationship between task feedback and job satisfaction of food and beverage firms in Rivers State, Nigeria.

• Research Questions

The following research questions were outlined for this study.

1. What is the relationship between autonomy and organization commitment of food and beverage firms in Rivers State, Nigeria?
2. What is the relationship between autonomy and job satisfaction of food and beverage firms in Rivers State, Nigeria?
3. What is the relationship between task feedback and organization commitment of food and beverage firms in Rivers State, Nigeria?
4. What is the relationship between task feedback and job satisfaction of food and beverage firms in Rivers State, Nigeria?

•  Research Hypotheses

The following null hypothesis was formulated for this study

Ho1. There is no significant relationship between autonomy and organization commitment of food and beverage firms in Rivers State, Nigeria.

Ho2. There is no significant relationship between autonomy and job satisfaction of food and beverage firms in Rivers State, Nigeria.

Ho3. There is no significant relationship between task feedback and organization commitment of food and beverage firms in Rivers State, Nigeria.

Ho4. There is no significant relationship between task feedback and job satisfaction of food and beverage firms in Rivers State, Nigeria.

• Significance of the Study

The significance of this study is covered under practical and theoretical relevance.

Practical significance

This study is of immense importance to the food and beverage firms because it will reveal the extent to which job characteristics relates to employee work attitude. The study will again be of immense relevance to the food and food and beverage firms because it will help provide a recommendation on various ways to eliminate poor employee work attitude in the workplace and thereby enhancing the effective functioning of the organization.

Theoretical Significance

The study is of relevance to scholars and future researchers because it provides a detailed explanation of the variables under investigation, thereby enhancing the wealth of knowledge which could serve as reference material to future researchers.

• Scope of the study

The scope of this study/work will cover three (3) broad scopes;

 Content scope: the content scope of this work covered the predictor variables (job characteristics) and its dimensions, the criterion variables (employee work attitude) and its measures.

Geographical scope: the geographical scope of this study will be restricted to selected food and beverage firms in Rivers State, Nigeria.

Unit Scope: the unit scope will be at the micro (individual) level of analysis and employees of the selected food and beverage firms in Rivers State, Nigeria where the unit of analysis.

• Limitations of the Study

The geographical scope covered in this study which is restricted to Rivers State, Nigeria; is one of the limitations of the study. Furthermore, the study did not examine all the dimensions of job characteristics as well as all the measures of employee work attitude and that also served as a form of limitation to this study. Despite these limitations, the researcher was still able to carry out the research.

• Operational Definition of Terms

Autonomy: This refers to the extent to which an employee exercises substantial freedom, independence and discretion to the job and determining the procedure to be used in carrying out the job.

Employee work attitude: This is an individual psychological disposition which may be negative or positive, express about the individual’s job.

Job characteristics: This refers to features of a job that are important causes of an employee’ work attitude.

Job feedback: the extent to which performing the job, the employee is provided with clear and direct information about the effectiveness of his/her performance.

Job satisfaction: This refers to the positive attitude and feelings an employee has towards their work.

Organization commitment: This is a feeling of bond and attachment employees experience with their organization.

• Organization of the Study

The study would be discussed under five (5) chapters as follows:

Chapter one: this chapter covers the introduction, detailed background to the study, statement of the problem, research hypothesis, significance to the study scope of the study, limitation of the study, definition of terms and organization of the study.

Chapter two: this examined a detailed literature review regarding the variables under study.

Chapter three: this chapter examined the methodology which covers the research design, population, method of data collection and analysis techniques.

Chapter four: this covered the data presentation and data analysis which will be carried out, also with discussions of findings.

Chapter five: this chapter contains the summary, conclusion, recommendation and contributions to knowledge.