Employee Participation and Organizational Performance in an Emerging Economy

Abstract

Public sector organisations are generally believed to be ‘no-man’s business and as a result employees sometimes do not give their best when discharging their duties. In Nigeria, though the public sector is the largest employer of labour, employees, otherwise referred to as civil servants heavily rely on government directives rather than using their initiatives when rendering services. This study seeks to find out how employee participation affects organisational performance in the public sector specifically in the head of service of the federation, in Nigeria. The study had a population of eight hundred and sixty-two (862) and a sample size of 400 which was derived using Taro Yamani formula. Primary data was gathered using questionnaires administered to the respondents and the data was analyzed using linear regression technique with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The findings revealed that all the independent variables examined comprising of employee involvement, employee engagement and employee empowerment had positive and significant effect on organisational performance of head of civil service in Nigeria. The study recommends amongst others based on the findings, that both regulatory authorities and head of service must take employee participation more seriously to ensure effective and optimum organisational performance.