WORKPLACE OBJECTIVITY AND COMPETITIVENESS OF TELECOMMUNICATION FIRMS IN RIVERS STATE

Abstract

The study examined workplace objectivity and competitiveness of telecommunication firms in Rivers State. The objective of the study was to examine the relationship between dimensions workplace objectivity (use of hard facts/evidence, clear/irrefutable information, performance evaluation) and measures of competitiveness such as new policies development, workplace retention and competitive salary/defined career path of telecommunication in Rivers State. Thus, the study was anchored on Equity Theory as its theoretical foundation. The study adopted the explanatory cross sectional survey research design. The population of the study consists of one hundred (100) registered telecommunication firms in Rivers State. Due to accessibility and manageability, only ten (10) telecommunication firms operating in Port Harcourt were used. Since the population is small, the sample size of the study consists of the entire population. Thus, the study adopted a census method of sampling. The census method was adopted since the population is not large. In terms of respondents, four (4) managers were purposively selected from each of the ten (10) telecommunication firms in Port Harcourt. Thus, the sample of this study is ten (10) , telecommunication firms in Port Harcourt with 40 respondents. After validation by the experts in test and measurement, A total of forty (40) copies of questionnaire was distributed to the targeted respondents and the researcher was able to retrieve thirty eighty (38) copies of the entire validated questionnaire distributed. The reliability of the instrument was ascertained, using test-retest. Mean and standard deviation was used for research questions analysis while Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was used to test hypotheses. It was found that there is a significant positive relationship between dimensions of workplace objectivity (use of hard facts/evidence, clear/irrefutable information, performance evaluation) and measures of competitiveness in terms of new policies development, workplace retention and competitive salary/defined career path of telecommunication firms in Rivers State. It was concluded that Telecommunication forms who fail to be fair in cause of making decisions in employees’ work-related issue, might really face great challenge in attaining organizational competitiveness. Consequently, the study recommended that management of telecommunication firms should ensure that fact and evidence presented to them are reliable before usage so as to enable them develop new policies that could aid their organization-compete favaourably.