PERFORMANCE EVALUATION AND EMPLOYEE PRODUCTIVITY

Performance Evaluation And Employee Productivity In Nigerian Service Industry

Performance Evaluation And Employee Productivity In Nigerian

Introduction

Nigeria is a nation with enviable human and non-human resources. With a population of more than 100 million people, one can comfortably say that Nigeria is a big market for products and services. The managers of Nigerian companies are, therefore, expected to evolve management strategies and practices that help to achieve corporate objectives of profitability, market share, sales volume, and customer and client satisfaction, among other cognate performance measures. It is the objective of this research, therefore, to evaluate the TQM strategies of Nigerian companies. Such an evaluation will, among others, isolate the emphases Nigerian companies have been putting on this modern management technique which aims essentially to achieve customer and client satisfaction in an organization. It will thus create an awareness and opportunity for Nigerian companies to understand the state-of-the-art of TQM practice in Nigeria. Such awareness will assist corporate decision makers to improve their corporate-wide managerial practices with a view to achieving set goals and objectives.

Theoretical framework

The dynamics and precarious forces in the business environment usually compel corporate executives to practice management strategies that allow them to survive, grow, and satisfy customer and client needs and wants. Corporate managers, therefore, need organizational culture where quality products and services, processes, and people are critical to their managerial performance. Put simply, they need an understanding of the principles and mechanics of TQM (Bank, 1992).

According to Lee et al. (1992), TQM is an organizational strategy and the associated techniques that result in the delivery of high quality products and services to customers and clients. TQM means that an organization's culture is defined by, and supports, the continuous attainment of customer and client satisfaction through an integrated and synergistic system of tools, techniques, approaches, and training (Sashkin and Kiser, 1993). This embraces the continuous improvement of organizational processes, products and services, and people.

According to Deming (1986), it will not be enough to have customers or clients that are merely satisfied; an unhappy customer/client will switch.

Also a satisfied customer/client may switch on the thinking that she could not lose much, and might gain by switching. It should be noted that profit (or benefit) in any sphere of business is a function of customers/clients. That is, customers/clients that are comfortable with their relationship with an organization's products or services are willing to share their comfortable experiences about an organization's products/services/ideas with their relations. Organizations should stay ahead of customer/client needs and wants, and anticipate the future needs and wants of the customer/client. The emphasis on customer or client requirements should be determined from the customer requirements for a product/service including specification, performance, reliability, value for money and on-time delivery at the lowest cost (Bank, 1992). Deming (1986) has seen competition as a function of customer/client satisfaction. Relatedly, Drummond (1992) posits that quality is a basic customer/client requirement, while Ishikawa (1985) is of the impression that quality control is carried out in organizations in order to achieve ...