CHANGE MANAGEMENT AND ITS EFFECT ON EMPLOYEE’S PERFORMANCE

ABSTRACT
 
Change is an inevitable part of human beings, the institutions they establish as well as their environment which includes climate, economy and politics. However, most people are hardly ever ready for changes they know must occur in their everyday life. The researcher focus the study on the change management and its effect on employees performance. The study objectives are to determine the effect of change on the employees’ performance evaluation, the profitability index and attitude of workers during change. The researcher also carried out analysis of how employees resist change and its attendant effect or impact on the organization’s growth. How best to carry out successful change in the organization without necessarily encountering violence. Conceptual frame work of the related literature of the work was also reviewed with particular emphasis on findings and existing literature that mainly explain the theoretical framework of the research questions. The study investigated the effect of change on employee performance. Two firms, namely Delta Steel Company Maja and Emenite Plc Enugu, were drawn from the public and private sectors of the economy respectively. The study was conducted interview using cross sectional design. The population of the study was 1,700 employees from the two firms that were surveyed. A sample of 324 respondents was drawn from the population through proportionate stratifies sampling procedure. To ensure fair representation of the research populations from the various firms and each stratum of senior and junior staff categories in the sampling process, Taro Yamane’s sample size determination and Bowley’s proportional allocation statistics were employed. The sources of data were both primary and secondary. The primary data were collected through questionnaire and secondary data were sourced from journals, textbooks and internet materials. Questionnaire was the main instrument for data collection and was designed in two parts part A was for personal data while part B was focus on raising questions that bother on the research questions and objectives of the study. Content validity approach was used to ensure that the variables were adequately covered. The reliability of the instrument was done through test-retest method. The result gave a reliability index of 0.76, indicating a high degree of consistency. The data collected from the field were presented and analyzed with descriptive statistics to answer the four questions while the corresponding research hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of alpha. Pearson Chi-square statistic was used to test all hypotheses. The study found that change has a positive effect on employees productivity, the organizations encounter challenges during change implementation, change is beneficial to both the employees and the employer and that organizations encounter challenges during change implementation, and that change has significant effect on the organizations growth rate. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended that both employers of labour should be extra meticulous in implementing change; change when administered, the fundamental reactions which could be positive or negative should be tackled cautiously; organizations should embrace change to be effective, change parties should always open lines of communication and change should start from the bottom to the top