Staff Disengagement And Its Effect On The Morale Of Workers

INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The federal Radio corporation of Nigeria was formerly known as Nigeria Broad casting corporation (NBCC) and was opened in march 28, 1955 by Sir Lan Jacob K.B.E.C.B. who was then the Director General of the British Broad casting corporation. Later the name was changed from Nigeria Broad casting corporation to federal Radio corporation of Nigeria by a Degree promulgated on February 28, 1979.
The degree took retrospective effect from April 1, the degree has since been changed to an act of parliament No. 8 of 1979 in consonance with the democratic presidential system now being operated in Nigeria.
Consequent upon the provisions of this act quoted above, the federal government of Nigeria has established four zonal stations in Enugu Ibadan, Kaduna, Lagos including the voice of Nigeria (VON) which though on its own but nevertheless takes care of the external services of the corporation.
The federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria now has its head quarters at Abuja, the federal capital Territory of Nigeria. Also on 1st July, 2001 the Radio Nigeria started its own FM transmission in Nigeria.
The act which Established, the federal Radio corporation of Nigeria also stipulated that the corporation shall amongst other things to the exclusion of any other broadcasting authority in Nigeria be:-
i. Responsible for radio broadcasting in short-ware or powerful medium wave for effective and simultaneous reception in more than one state of the federation at any one time.
ii. It shall be the duty of the corporation to provide as a public service, in the interests of Nigeria.
iii. The corporation shall ensure that the services which it provides, when considered as a whole, shall reflect the unity of nIgeria as a federation and the same time give adequate expression of the cultural characteristics and opinions of each state of the federation. A part from its legal name of federation radio corporation of Nigeria, the corporations national character is equally reflected in as –on-the-air identifications name of Radio Nigeria as appellation exclusively of Nigeria.
The structure of corporation as at present constituted, it based on zoning of the country with emphasis on broad casting in twelve Nigeria language viz Edo, Efik, fulfulda, Hausa, Igala, Igbo, Izon, Kanuri, NNPe, Tio, Urhobo and Yoruba, such as to ensure that at least 85% of the population of the country are covered by their programmes in these languages. Staff strength of about 847, 340 workers were disengaged that is about 40% of the total work force.
Subsequently, in December 31, 1995, out of about 400 staff, 95 were disengaged and in March 1999 out of 300 staff about 80 workers were disengaged.
In almost all the instance of disengagement of workrs, the major reasons have been:-
a. years of service: that is some workers may have reached the retiring age and service of 60 years and 35 years respectively.
b. Inefficiency
c. Redundancy
d. Misconduct (French disloyalty etc)
e. Poor health condition
f. Over-staffing
The above reasons shall be discussed in detail in chapter 2 of this research work.
The problems of this research work will there fore be to find out of the above claimed reasons for disengagement of workers were the true reasons for the exercise or not a combination of other sets of behaviour by a worker and the criteria for selecting them.
In addition, the researcher work will also be interest in finding out the effect of this be interest I finding out the effect of this exercise on the remaining workers in the corporation that is it there has been any noticeable change in productivity and in what direction. The researchers lens will also be focused on the effect of this exercise on the external environment.
That is the people outside the organization, socially, economically and so on.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The containing economic depression which Nigeria has been passing through for some years now has compelled citizens, industrial and business establishment big and small to take for reaching measures in the struggle for survival the economic depression such as:-
1. The difficult and stringent conditionality, which Nigeria government must, met before a IMF loan is given.
2. delay in passing the budget estimate in Nigeria.
3. delay in given subvention to parastatal.
The successive disengagement exercises currently taking place in Nigeria public service poses Economic and social problems.
According to Websters winth new collegiate dictionary (1983:1007) Retrenchment is the act of cutting down expenses live more cheaply.
While disengagement means to the (oneselt) from an engagment, to reduce amount of curtail expenses in order to elenomize, it could also be seen as the act of terminating the services of a worker, when the job ceases to exist, usually as a result of technology, political or economic changes. Disengagement, which is a recent-phenomenon in the history of public services in Nigeria started in the middle 70’s by then military Head of state as a result of economic recession during the period.
According to Adebayo (1994:113) there was a general purge (in 1975) of the public services in which though the intention was lauclable, the execution left much to be desired. The good were thrown, out with the bad. Those who survived the hole cast were told that their advice would be sought it and when need and that their main task was to carry out orders handed down to them.
It may not be an overstatement to say that most developing countries of the world including Nigeria has been going through a recession, but nevertheless the Nigeria case has been a very peculiar situation because it has resulted in many people losing their job. This could be seen in an editoral, agory of Retrenchment, by Agbese (1985:6-7) where in federal radio corporation of Nigeria Enugu zone, out of a total enable him give out his best in the achievement of the organization objectives.
This research work will therefore proceed pragmatically on the above theory Y, taking cognizance of the fact that, no one suffering from a feeling o fear and depression can be expected to be efficient at his work (Adebayo 1994:115).
Research questions
1. Why were workers in federal radio corporation of Nigeria Enugu disengaged recently?
2. what are the effects of this disengagement on the mrale and productivity of the workers in federal radio corporation of Nigeria Enugu.
3. what are the possible social and economic consequences of disengagement?
4. what alternative action would you have preferred to government take?

1.3 OBJECTIVES / PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
Disengagement of workers is an event currently taking place throughout the country. It had reached its heights since th emilitary found themselves into the position of leadership in Nigeria. It is therefore the aim of this study to find out the effect this exercise has had on the morale of the still employed workforce.
To this end, the researcher will find out amount other things:-
a. Reasons for the disengagement of workers and the criteria in selecting who were to go.
b. How workers feel and think about disengagement exercise.
c. How disengagement affects their productivity and attitude to work, that is whether the exercise has made them work harder because of the fear of loosing their job and also it they feel alienated from jobs.
d. Social and economic consequences of disengagement of workers.
e. Prefer solutions to the findings other researcher.

1.4 THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS OF THE STUDY
According to Iie (1999: 252) city Mc Gregary (1960:35-48), here developed two theories or assumption of human behaviours namely, theories X and Y theory.
The basic assumptions of theory x are:-
1. work, it not down right distasteful is an enormous there to be performed in order to survive.
2. the average human being has an inhenent dislike of work and will avoid it he can.
3. because of his characteristic dislike of work, most people must be coerced controlled, directed or treated with punishment to put forth adequate effort, towards the achievemtn of organizational objectives.
4. the average human being prefers to be directed, wishes to avoid responsibility, has relatively little ambition, wants security above all.
Theory Y
The basic assumptions of theory Y are:-
1. the expenditure of physical energy and mental effort in work is as natural as play or rest.
2. external control and the threat of punishment are not the only, means for bringing about effort towards the achievement of organizations objectives. Man will exercise self direction self control in the service of objectives to which he is committed.
3. commitment to objectives is a function of the rewards associated with their achievements.
4. the average human being learns under proper condition not only to accept but seek responsibility.
5. the capacity to exercise a relatively high degree of juvenility and creatively in the solution of organization problems is widely, not narrowly distributed in the population.
6. under the conditions of modern title intellectual potentialities of the average human being are only partially utilized. According to Olewe et al 91994: 168) the level of performance of a worker is a function of his abilities and will. A workers ability determines how he can do the work, while will determines what he would do.
When the will is positive, workers output would increase, but where it is negative, works’ performance level would be low.
As a result of the above and in agreement with theory Y above. It is the opinion of the researcher that disengagement of workers should not be used as a deterrent to the still employed state as this could be counter productive an average human being needs to be motivated and assumed of the security of his job to the incessant frequent and unplanned disengagement (Lay-offs, management successions etc) of workers especially in Enugu zone of the federal radio corporation of Nigeria has in no small way militated against the achievement of the set goods of the corporation.
The research is therefore, aimed at finding the effect of disengagement on the morale of the skill employed work force of the corporation. That is, if they felt threaten and their morale is high and they have become more productive because of the exercise.

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
For quite some years now, disengagement of workers have been the order of day especially in the public service. It has reached a crises situation since the ministry take over of government in this country.
The seriousness of this exercise has made the executive of the Nigerian Labour congress (NLC) to cry out on behalf of their members to the government, both federal and state to stop further disengaement of workers, because it is subjecting members of NLC to some very hard conditions and untold hard ship.
It is based on the above premise that the research is being carried out. Hoping that through the resulting of this research, the true effect of disengagement would be known.
However, where disengagement is done on the basis of in efficiency, redundancy etc. this work would emphasis the fact that employers do not always disengaged just to save cost or to come out of recession but also, that efficiency dedication and hard work. On the part of employee are rewarding.
Finally, it is hoped that the research paper would be of help to others who would want to explore the more.

1.6 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This study will be limited to the federal Radio corporation of Nigeria, Enugu zone is a delimitation on its own since federal radio corporation of Nigeria has four zonal offices plus Abuja. The Headquarter, therefore the researcher has decided to restrict the scope of this study to the identification and making of recommendation on the problem of disengagement with emphasis on Enugu zone of the corporation located at Onitsha road, in the Northem part of the capital city of Enugu state.

1.7 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
The effort made by the research to produce a befitting thesis have been punctuated by certain limitation which include:-
a. SCARCE LITERATURE TO REVIEW
The extent to which the research is carried out depends so much on the available data. Therefore for a research topic to be given adequate treatment, it requires sufficient theoretical frame work. Literature peculiar to disengagement of workers is scanty. So in most cases, the researcher has no alternative than to resort to the use of magazines, articles and journals for reviewing disengagement issues.
However, the researcher ensured that problems being address and in the study were explored and found.
b. FINANCE
The present economic constraints in the country constituted a problem to the researcher as no research work can go well without fund. Because of the limited fund, this work has to be limited to federal radio corporation of Nigeria, Enugu zone.
c. TIME
Time constraint is another limitation encountered. The interval between the choosing of the project topic, the submission of the project etc and the preparation for the degree examination is very short, though they are indispensable activities. As a result of the above premise, the researcher had to contend with the problem of time to be able to strit a balance between other school curriculums and the research work.
d. LITERACY LEVEL
The general attitude of the worker to the research was poor and very appalling.
Therefore another problem encounter was the literacy of the average Nigeria workers. This is because most Nigeria workers. This is because most Nigerian civil or public servant are not academically exposes enough, they were unappreciative of usefulness of a researcher work. They have the impression that the university students and their lecturers are always wasting their time on the researchers that are never used by anybody.

1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS
Will
This may be referred to as the power of making a reasoned choice or decision or of controlling one’s own action (Olewe et al, 1994).
OVER – STAFFING
This is seen as a having too large of a staff. That is having too many people to do all the work that needs to be done in an organization.
DISENGAGEMETN
This has been seen as the act of cutting down expense in order to economic in other works. It could be seen as the act of reducing the number of people or workers in an organization in order to economize.
MORALE
This has been defined as the mented emotional condition of an individual or group with regard to the function or tasks at hand. Morale is a feeling some what related to espint due corps, enthusiasm or zeal (Olew et al 1994).
MISCONDUCT
This term mis conduct has been defined as improper or unprofessional behaviour of a person or group of people towards a task or assignment.
INEFFICIENCY
This is a state of being wasteful (of persons) wasting time, energy etc. in their work or duties, not producing an adequate results.