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INFLUENCE OF INFORMAL GROUPS ON PRODUCTIVITY
(A CASE STUDY OF UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA TEACHING
HOSPITAL, ENUGU.)

CHAPTER ONE
1.1 THE BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The organization development is a vital exercise that must
be carried out with a successful conclusion if technological
bondage is to be avoided in the nation. In our society today
there is need for adopting a creative approach for our
technological take off. The reason is to encouraged employees
to cultivate the ability of making maximum use of resource
available to them, develop new ways of resources utilization
that may come in the course of their job.
Since Nigeria independence, the nation has gone through
a gradual rise in the level of industrialization and the evolution

of both small and complex organization. An organization as

defined by Griffin (1984:86) is a combination of people, or
human efforts, working in pursuit of certain common purposes
called organization goals. It is any group of two or more people
working to achieve a goal or goals.
Organization range from the small business units to the very
large and complex corporate bodies. There are two groups the
formal and informal groups.
The formal group come into being as a result of
organizational hierarchy which defines expected relationships
among its workers in most cases, a group of people come
together and discuss about the problems of the company,
individual problems and how the problems should be handled.
Also, talk about those with different opinion from other and how
such people should be treated or handled. Furthermore, this
kind of group will usually have its mission or area of activity
spelled out.
Informal

groups,

on

the

other

hand,

Michael

(1985:1990).develop in response to the needs of the people

making up the group. As a result they do not have an explicitly
stated set of goals nor are there institutionally defined in and

position of authority. These aspects of an informal group

develop as a result of group of individual with the same
objectives. Hence, informal groups are not set up by the
management of the organization but arise as a result of people
with similar interest interacting and also as a result of
friendship association. Most cases, group of people come
together and discuss about the companys problems, some
individual problems and how they should be dealt with, does
who have contrary opinion from others would be convinced, are
forced to accept the opinion spell out by other members of the
groups.
The above comment succinctly shows the existence of
informal groups in an organization. These groups although not
created by the management of the organization are very
powerful

and

have

considerable

influence

on

individual

members. Members are observed to be often committed to the

achievement of the group objectives. These objectives of the
informal groups sometimes go contrary with organizations
objectives.
Therefore it is very important for the management to be
aware of the existence of these groups and understand how

they work. Some managers fail to realize the fact that informal
groups work under certain conditions which dominate the
formal organization and neglect the efforts of management.
Moreover, they can be pervasive with some managers
themselves belonging to the informal groups. Depending on
whether they are favourable or unfavourable, this may result to
the increase or decrease in the productivity of the organization.
Improper management of the informal groups may also lead to
dissatisfaction of workers, absenteeism, personal turnovers,
grievances and conflicts and these may adversely affect the
stability of an organization.
As a matter of fact, there are potential benefits to be
tapped from the existence and activities of the informal groups.
The management can only tap the benefits when it is willing to
work with them effectively without engaging in measures to
suppress the informal organization.
1.2 The Statement of Problem
Management of organizations have been trying to improve
individual

productivity

through

researches

and

product

development, employment of high skilled and experienced

workers. Despite these efforts, productivity is declining in a

organization who is to be blamed is still declining or has
remained low and unimpressive.
What is actually responsible for the continuous decline in
productivity despite serious efforts by the management, who
have control over these group is yet to be achieved from the
above assertions, it become imperative or necessary to
research and conduct an assessment on the influence of
informal groups on organizational productivity.
Do

informal

group

activities

influence

organization

decision-making?
To

provide answers to

this problem motivated the

researcher to carry out this project.

It become imperative or necessary to research and
conduct an assessment on the influence of informal groups on
organizational productivity.
1.3 The Objective of Study
The objectives of this research are:
1. To determine the effects of informal group activities on
organization productivity.

2. To find out the actual relationship between the informal

groups and management in the organization.
3. To discover the concern and contribution of informal
groups towards the realization of the organizations
objectives.
1.4 Research Questions
The researcher formulated under listed questions to
provide a guide in the course of this research.
1. To what extent do informal group activities affects
organizational productivity?
2. What is the actual relationship between informal groups
and management in the organization?
3.

To

what

extent

informal

group

influence

the

organizational productivity?
4. To what extent do informal group activities contribute to
the realization of the organizational objectives?
1.5 Significance of the Study
The existence of informal groups in organizations have
negative or positive influence which may pronounced or silent
but vital to the achievement of organizational objectives.

Understanding and controlling the informal group activities

might become possible when an empirical study has been
conducted and some facts about the relationship existing
between these factors informal groups, formal groups and the
management

within

an

organization

are

revealed

the

identification of the needs of the individual workers will help the

management to motivate the workers better for improved
productivity.
Thus, the research would be useful to organizations,
academia and consultants to organizations. If also provide a
platform for further work on the topic by other scholars.
1.6 Limitation of Study
Research works are subject to one form of limitation or the
other especially during a period of economic meltdown. Thus
the researcher was financially constrained to elaborately, thus
this research was limited to University of Nigeria Teaching
Hospital, Enugu.
During the course of the study, the respondents got a lot of
information concealments.

Equally

time

constraints

affected

the

research

considerably as the period was too short for submission of this

research.
1.7 Scope of The Study
The scope of this study was limited to cover type of
groups, reasons for joining groups, activities of informal
groups informal group leadership roles, problems of
informal groups and the effects on the productivity in the
organization.
1.8 Definition of Special Terms
For easy understanding of this work the following technical
terms are necessary to be interpreted by the researcher:
UNTH: University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital
WAEC: West African Examination Council
HND: Higher National Diploma
OND: Ordinary National Diploma
BSc: Bachelor Degree of Science