THE EFFECT OF STRATEGIC PLANNING ON ORGANISATIONAL PRODUCTIVITY(A Case Study of the Rivers State Transport Company)

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The fortune and hope of developing economies as far as rapid growth and improvement in societal welfare and development are concerned, largely depends on the aggregate volume and quality of goods and services produced within the economy. In the case of the Rivers State Transport Company it depend on the quality of their services. The higher the aggregate value of goods and services produces the fewer the man-hour of labour and other resources used for production according to the classical economists. From the economists point of view the higher the customers satisfaction  the greater the demand and this is a good step in the process of creating and expanding wealth which is the objective of business organisations, thus the need for effective strategic planning for the management of complex systems of men, machines materials and money.

Strategic planning involves utilizing resources and creative processes for determining how to take your organisation from where it is today to where it ought to be in the future .Strategic planning therefore define the specific approaches or game plan for achieving the organisations objectives.

In settling up effective strategic planning of the organization’s productivity the external environment of the organisation is also taken into the consideration. According to Mintzbery and Quinn (1991) effective strategy planning contains three essential elements;

– The goal co-objectives to be achieved

–  The policies guiding or limiting action

–  The major action sequences that are to accomplish the defined goals within the limit.

Strategic planning is a disciplined, creative process for determining how to take your organisation from where it is today to where you want it to be in the future.

Therefore, strategic planning is a systematic method of analyzing and responding to a competitive environment. Stoner C.K. et al (1998). Strategic planning should be viewed as on on-going processes. It provides an overviewed and analysis of the business and its relevant environment. Then it prescribed an outlines or action capitalize on its strengths and maximize its weakness or threats strategy in organizational productivities simply means as a set of objective policies and plans that taken together define the scope of the business enterprise and its approach to survival and success, Mluko M. et al (1998). Strategy could also be described as a long-term commitment of resources to achieve a specific goal in a competitive environment. Planning on the other hand, could be defined as selecting from among alternative future course of action as a whole and for every department or section making and determination of how the objectives are to be carried out.

Rue and Byars (1997) have suggested four (4) major stages that should be adopted in the process of formulating organizational strategies. It includes the following

(1)   Identifying opportunities and threats

(2)   Estimating the risk associated

(3)   Appraising the organisation strengths and weaknesses

(4)   Match opportunities and capabilities

1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

This research is motivated by the unsuccessful business operations especially in the River State Transport Company may rise from their poor planning. Where there are no effective strategic planning introduced into the system to examine the methods of operations and work flow procedures, the maximum objective would not be gained.

Problem arising due to lack of trained staff/personnel needed in the various operational units. There will be problem where the work place is not planned in such a way that operations are not integrated with other department and system in the organisation. Also lack of proper planning can lead to under-development and productivity of the organisation.

1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The main objective of this research work is to

(i)    Identifying the importance of effective strategic planning on organizational productivity.

(ii)   Identifying strategies needed for organization to achieve its goal and objectives.

(iii)  Identifying factors that leads to poor productivity

(iv)  Determining the policies guiding or limiting factors

(v)   Finding out the basic competencies required of both the operating personnel and workers

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The success or failure of any business organization depends mainly on the effectiveness of strategic planning. This study will enable the researcher to discover the effect of strategic planning on the organisations productivity and how production managers should strategize in order to actualize the goals and objective of the organisation. It will also point out areas in which good/effective strategic planning can affect positive competence to both the workers and the management. The effectiveness of planning, organizing, directing, co-coordinating, controlling, motivating etc. can help in the actualization of the organizational productivity. Generally, this study will help to provide, managers with criteria to follow in order to implement operational objectives.

1.5 RESEARCH QUESTION

The following question will guide this research work.

(i)    DO managers in organisations plan extensively?

(ii)   What kind of strategic planning do they adopt?

(iii)  What is the effectiveness of strategic planning on the organisations productivity?

(iv)  What influences the workers positively.

1.6 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

For the purpose of data collection and interpretation of this study, the following hypotheses are raised.

H0: There is no significant relationship between effective strategic planning and organizational productivity.

H1: There is a significant relationship between effective strategic planning and organizational productivity.

1.6 SCOPE AND DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY

The scope and delimitation of this study would be limited to Rivers State Transport Company in Port-Harcourt. Besides, consideration was not given to the small organisations and at such suggests therefore that more research should be done on this area including the small organisations. There are a lot of companies in port-Harcourt of Rivers State. The researcher concentrated her study only in one company which is Rivers State Transport Company due to financial imbalance and limited time factor.

1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS

There is need for every work in a research proposal and of course in any research report to be clear as to its meaning, since words have different meaning in different context.

EFFECT: A change or the result or outcome of a course.

STRATEGY: This is a plan that is intended to achieve a particular purpose.

PLANNING: This is a detailed arrangement for something you want to do in the future.

ORGANISATION: This is defined as a group of people who form a business, company club, etc. in order to achieve a particular objective.

PRODUCTIVITY: This is the rate at which a worker company or an organisation produces goods and the amount/quality produced, compared with how much time, work and money is needed to produce them.