CHAPTER ONE

INTROUDUCTION

1.1     Background to the Study

Human resource function becomes recognized as a central business concern sequel to its ability to integrate employee welfare and organizational objective and effective communication into strategic management. Human resource management seeks to eliminate the meditation role and adopts a generally unitarist perspective. It emphasizes strategy and planning rather than problem-solving and medication, so hat employee cooperation is delivered by programmes of corporate culture, remuneration, packaging, team building and management development for core employees, while peripheral employees are kept at arms length.

Human resource polices and practice are influenced by strategy and structure and by external factors such as trade unions, labour market situation and legal system. In reality most firms do not have such a well thought out sequential model in their human resource practices hence the role of human resource management in promoting industrial harmony in most organizations becomes vague. It is against this background that the researcher sees the subject matter: the role of human resource management in promoting industrial harmony in Nigeria Bottling Company Plc Kaduna, worthy being studied.

1.2     Statement of the problem

Productivity in most organisation have comparatively taken a nose dive  sequel to frequent industrial conflict. As such many organisation has resorted to different means of resolving such conflict in the past but to know avail sequel to frequent agitation by worker for improved working condition and other workers interest and right. Hence optimal productivity has been hampared because of frequent industrial conflict as such many organisations has resorted to different means of resolving such because of it’s intended negative consequences such as down toll, which will affect sales, production decline, patronage and profit margin.

1.3     Objectives of the study

The central objective of the study is to examine the role of human resource management in promoting industrial harmony in Nigeria Bottling Company Plc Kaduna.

1.4     Research Question

i.        What are  the  functions of human resource in promoting industrial harmony in Nigeria Bottling Company Kaduna?

ii.       What is the relationship that exist between management and employees of Nigeria Bottling Company Kaduna?

iii.      How does human  resource management in Nigeria Bottling Company Kaduna influence key decisions and polices as it affect employees and their union.

iv.      What are the constraint militating against human resource management from achieving industrial harmony in Nigeria Bottling Company Kaduna

1.5     Significance of the study

The study will be beneficial to corporate organisation espeically NBC as they utilize the finding in policy formulation regarding conflict management in their organisation. The study will add to existing knowledge on conflict resolution and would be a useful reference materials to individuals, students as well as scholars who may wish to undertake a similar research.

Most importantly, the study will go along way in putting unnecessary unrest in the corporate and will enhance productivity, peaceful co-existence between management and employee which will have positive impact on sales, profit, motivation and maximum enhancement of labour hours.

1.6     Scope of the study 

Theexamine the role of human resource management in promoting industrial harmony in NBC.The study will equally identify the causes of conflict in achieving industrial harmony in Nigeria Bottling Company Kaduna  and would profer solution to such problems. The study will cover a period from 2007-2011.

1.7     Limitation of the Study

The study is limited to bias in respondent opinion about the subject matter as well as the use of a single study area and the uncertainly about the generalization of finding sequel to the use of a single research design as well as instrument. For the fact that only Nigeria Bottling Company Plc Kaduna  was used as the sole area of study it is no certain if the same result would be obtained in other organization.

Respondent bias and nonchallant attitude also constitute a greater limitation to this research. For the fact that questionnaire constitute the only instrument use to collect data and survey research design the sole  design used for the study. It is not certain if the same result will be used if other type of design as well as instrument  were used. All these factor constitute a greater limitation to the research.

1.8     Definition of Terms

Human Resource: Also known as labour, is one of the key resources (man, capital, information, machine) used to effectively harness and transform organizational activities into goods and services.

Management: The co-ordination of human and material and other resources toward objective accomplishment. It is a process of planning, organizing and controlling activities of the sub-systems and relates them to the environment. It also refers to those individuals or groups who are responsible for promoting the goals of employers and their organizations.

Industrial Harmony: It is the ideal state of peace wherein workers engaged in production of goods and services feel content, thereby are propelled to give the best of their talents and talent potentials for the development and progress of the organization.

Industrial Relations: It is the interdisciplinary field of study that concentrates on individual workers, groups of workers and their unions and associations, employers and their organizations and environment in which these parties interact.

Collective Bargaining: It is machinery for setting conflict issues between employers (management representative) and employees (union). It examines and resolves differences between both parties in terms of benefits.

Productivity: It  is the measure of the achievement of an enterprise when compared to its purpose, goals and objectives within a specified period of time. In economics, it is defined as a measure of the relationship between the output and the input in the production process.

Union: An employee organization that has the main goal of representing members in employee-management bargaining over job related issues.