1.1 Introduction
The role of a manager in a small business organization is so vital that for any small business organization such as inter-personal, information and co-coordinating roles must be integrated to ensure the betterment of the organization. Moreover, effective role of a manager has contributed to the increase in the organizational productivities and their income, which will ensure the continuity of the organization. Besides, some managers have also contributed to the detriment of the organization by some dubious character exhibited by them. In fact, the government should recognize the importance of small business organization sector because when they are firmly established, the nation is built up, so it is advisable for the government to help in strategies in which this ugly situation of things are solved immediately.
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
The manager is the life of the organization. The manager ensure that the organization perform to expectation, he must also ensure that the firm archive it purpose and goals, to do this the manager perform certain roles and duties ,this include organizing controlling, directing coordinating and leading. The manager may be the entrepreneur, sometimes he may not be, however, at all-times the manager must aggregate the resources of the firm to attain the firm’s goals and objectives of the firm.
The manager to be able to carry on this duties he must possess certain skills this include interpersonal skill, people skill, Conceptual Skills, People Skills, Technical Skills etc. Some managers demonstrate these skills very strongly while others only demonstrate it fairly. There are basically three levels of management within the business organization; these include the top management, the middle management and the lower management.
A manager is the person who holds a management position and who performs the process of management, or one who occupies management position and performs organizational functions of management. The various skills and duties of the manager is performed at different level of management.
More so, the management by the classification of management occupies administration position (top level) managing director or general manager, the operative position (the workers) these groups are all involved in the accomplishment of the organizations example complementing a batch order, meeting a sales quota, assembling financial data etc, are the duties of production, supervisors, sales supervisors. finance officer and a certain technical staff, when an operative manager performs the work of management, performs the work of administrative and management of the activities are known as an operative management.
In the same view, (NWEKE 1952) in his book supports that a manager is that integrates all functions of management, such as planning, organizing, motivating and controlling to achieve an organizational goal or objective which the organization was established upon. This study explores the roles, the skills and the functions of the manager of small scale business at various levels of the organization. It also explores the performance contribution of each of the skills and roles to the health and goals attainment of the organization.
1.3 Statement of Problems
Most SMEs in Nigeria die within their first five years of existence, a smaller percentage goes into extinction between the sixth and tenth year while only about five to ten percent survive, thrive and grow to maturity. Many factors have been identified contributing to this premature death of SMEs. Key among them include: insufficient capital, irregular power supply, infrastructural inadequacies (water, roads etc.), and poor management.
Most SMEs lack structure, one staff could hold two to three position all to reduce cost. The owner of the business usually hold the manager position and call MD/CEO, whether he has the skills or not, he direct the organization based on his ability.
Small Scale businesses are faced with the challenge of management because they cannot afford to employ an expert as a manager to achieve the goals of the organization. This research work tends to examine the role managers to Small Scale Business organization and provide solutions to the aforementioned problems.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of the study is to investigate the role of manager in small scale business organization using Zenith Bank Kafanchan Kaduna State as a case study. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To examine the impact of manager to the success of Small Scale Business organization,
- To examine if manager can influence employees to achieve organizational goal,
- To verify if goal setting could be achieved without the manager.
1.5 Research Questions
The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:
- Does managers influence employees to achieve organizational goal?
- Is the achievement of the organization credited to the manager?
- Is there any relationship between a manager impact and Small Scale Organization performance?
1.6 Research Hypothesis
In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.
Hypothesis One
- H0: There is no significant relationship between manager impact and Small Scale Organization Performance
- H1: There is significant relationship between manager impact and Small Scale Organization Performance
1.7 Significance of Study
This research is of significance to Small Scale business owners in that it provides adequate solution to the underlying problem of managing the business to achieve organization goals. It is also of academic significance because future researchers may use the findings here to update existing literature and building theories.
Practicing managers in small scale organizations may rely on the findings and methodology of this research to form a basis for their daily decisions.
This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.
1.8 Scope of Study
This research work will place concentration on functions of managers, their roles and contributions to the success of small scale organizations using Zenith Bank Kafanchan Kaduna State as a case study.
1.9 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this establishment to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
1.10 Definition of Terms
For this research, the following definitions have been adopted:
Manager: a person responsible for controlling or administering an organization or group of staff
Management: The organization and coordination of the activities of a business in order to achieve defined objectives
Small Enterprise: An enterprise whose total cost including working capital but excluding cost of land is between ten million naira (N10,000,000) and one hundred million naira (N100,000,000) and/or a workforce between eleven (11) and seventy (70) full-time staff and/or with a turnover of not more than ten million naira (N10,000,000) in a year.
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