Impact of Organisational Structure on Organisational Performance

This paper examined the impact of organisational structure on organisational performance. An organisation cannot exist without a definite structure. The purpose of organisational structure is the division of work among members of the organisation, and the co-ordination of their activities so they are directed towards the goals and objectives of the organisation. This study used mainly the secondary sources of data collection. The secondary data was sourced through journals, articles, internets and texts books. The findings revealed that organisational structure has an impact on organisational performance. Therefore, it was recommended that organisations should endeavor to have well defined structure in place in order to achieve the set objectives

Review of Organizational Strategy and Structure (1962-2015)

Improving on performance is of greater interest to all organization leaders in today's business environment. Researches relating to large, small and medium sized firms constantly stress a positive link between business strategies, management activities and organizational performance. Because it is often detailed that best business strategies produce outstanding organizational performance. This study used secondary method of data collection to review various empirical literatures on business strategies and their effects on organizational performance. The study was able to ascertain from various literature reviewed that business strategies such as (customer orientation, employee autonomy, communication, training and development job satisfaction, corporate social responsibility, motivational factors) have major role to play in organizational performance. Recognizing the causes of organizational performance is important especially in the perspective of the current global crises because it helps an organization to identify those factors that should be given priority attention in order to improve the organizational performance. Hence, this study recommends that business organizations should adopt appropriate strategies that would enhance adequate organizational performanc

Restorative justice: a means to reduce imprisonment, instigate and implement rehabilitation and reintegration.(a comparative study of canadian and nigerian criminal justice system)

Some legal practitioners may disagree with the idea of a restorative criminal justice system as a better solution than retributive one. Can a criminal justice system provide justice for all while concurrently reducing the use of imprisonment? Is it possible to keep the community safe, punish and correct offenders, and reduce crime rate while reducing the use of imprisonment as deterrence? The criminal justice system is in place to do justice to victims, the state and the offender. Justice is not just for the state and the victim with exclusion of the offender. If it were so there would be no need for re-integration. Canada has a growing restorative justice system; this system brings to light the possibility of implementation of restorative element in an existing retributive system to produce a workable hybrid. This thesis seeks to explore these possibilities. Although this does not imply that the Canadian criminal justice system is perfect, quite the contrary it is a work in progress. However, this is an attribute that Nigeria and many other common law countries can learn from and emulate. This paper explains how.February 201

Gender-Equity and Reproductive Behaviour in Lagos State, Nigeria

The study examined the impact of gender differences on couples’ reproductive behaviour. The study was conducted in Ikeja, Ojo, Epe respectively representing urban, semi-urban and rural local governmentareas of Lagos State. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected. A multi-stage sampling procedure was employed in the administration of 1072 structured questionnaire. Qualitative data was obtained through focus group discussion among selected males and females in selected age- groups. The main tool of analysis was the logistic regression employed to determine the relationship between couples reproductive behaviour on one hand and gender-equity variables on the other hand. The study findings indicated that female spouses desired lower family size than male spouses. Data analyses revealed that gender-equity in decision-making among female spouses were low in rural and semi-urban areas while only moderate in urban areas. It was low irrespective of type of marital union. Gender-equity in decisionmaking on the number of children was higher for educated spouses than noneducated spouses. Based on the findings, it was observed that gender-equity in decision making promoted low fertility among married couples. This affirms the central role of gender-equity in  reproductive behaviour. In order to foster demographic change therefore, gender –equity in the family and society should be addressed.Keywords: Gender-equity, Reproductive behaviour, demographic change, Family-size

SECTORAL IMPACT OF GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS AND HIGH FOOD PRICES: A COMPUTABLE GENERAL EQUILIBRIUM (CGE) ANALYSIS FOR SOUTH AFRICAN AGRICULTURE

Published ThesisThis thesis contains studies that provide theoretical analysis and empirical evidence on the sectoral impact of the global financial crisis and high food prices on the agricultural sectors of South Africa. The study investigates the effects of the global financial crisis on the production, employment, trade and household consumption by using the ORANI-G Model, a static single country computable general equilibrium framework. The results show that a 10% decrease in export as a result of the fall in global demand leads to a decline in GDP and return on capital, and an increase in unemployment at the macro level, while the agricultural sector suffers a decline in production output and household demand.The study also explores the effects of the 2007/08, as well as the 2011 global high food prices on the South Africa economy. The global high food prices was simulated by imposing price shocks of a 25% increase in food prices. When the price shocks are incorporated, the result shows that there is an increase in consumer price and agricultural production, among others. However, there is a sharp decline in household demand for basic items. High and rising food prices undermine food security and threaten the livelihood of the poor. Empirical evidence supports the hypothesis that there are clear links between high food prices and lower caloric intake, lower quality diet, and an increase in malnutrition

Modular Product Architecture’s Decisions Support For Remanufacturing-Product Service System Synergy

Remanufacturing is identified as the most viable product end-of-life (EOL) management strategy. However, about 80% of manufactured products currently end up as wastes. Besides other benefits, the product service system (PSS) could curtail the main bottlenecks to remanufacturing namely quantity, quality, recovery time of used product, and negative perception of remanufactured products. Therefore, the integration of PSS and remanufacturing has been increasingly recommended as an enhanced product offering. However, an integration that is informed by mathematical analysis is missing. Meanwhile, the variables that bolster the performance of PSS and remanufacturing are substantially influenced by product development (PD) decisions. Among the PD strategies, modular architecture is a technique that significantly enhances product lifecycle management. Consequently, modular design is a suitable PD approach for an enhanced PSS-remanufacturing enterprise. Furthermore, it is argued that the PSS-remanufacturing initiative is poised to be a sustainable venture due to the sustainability philosophy of PSS. However, the acclaimed sustainability of PSS is flawed if a high environmental impact is associated with the production of the parts that constitute the product which is offered in PSS. Therefore, it is essential to consider the environmental implications of the production of the parts that are contained in the product architecture during PD. This research identifies that cost, core-cleaning, and product serviceability are critical variables for the success of remanufacturing and PSS. The research employs pairwise assessment methodology to evaluate the compatibility of module pairs comprehensively and obtains the modular pair compatibility indices via fuzzy system. Similarly, cost data are obtained. The study develops an optimization model that determines viable modular configuration(s) from among several alternatives in order to realize an enhanced PSS-remanufacturing business. Furthermore, the research performs lifecycle assessment (LCA) of module variants and determine the modular architecture with minimal environmental Impact. Having obtained the optimal architectures with regard to cost, core cleaning, product serviceability and environmental impacts, multi-attribute utility theory (MAUT) is engaged to collectively assess the degree of sustainability of the product architectures. The study offers analytical-based guidance to the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in making product architecture decisions in order to realize the sustainable PSS-remanufacturing enterprise

In vitro anticancer screening of 24 locally used Nigerian medicinal plants

Background Plants that are used as traditional medicine represent a relevant pool for selecting plant candidates that may have anticancer properties. In this study, the ethnomedicinal approach was used to select several medicinal plants native to Nigeria, on the basis of their local or traditional uses. The collected plants were then evaluated for cytoxicity. Methods The antitumor activity of methanolic extracts obtained from 24 of the selected plants, were evaluated in vitro on five human cancer cell lines. Results Results obtained from the plants screened indicate that 18 plant extracts of folk medicine exhibited promising cytotoxic activity against human carcinoma cell lines. Erythrophleum suaveolens (Guill. & Perr.) Brenan was found to demonstrate potent anti-cancer activity in this study exhibiting IC50 = 0.2-1.3 μg/ml. Conclusions Based on the significantly potent activity of some plants extracts reported here, further studies aimed at mechanism elucidation and bio-guided isolation of active anticancer compounds is currently underway

Performance Optimizing of a Sanitary Towel Production Plant Using Reliability Model

The study was conducted in a rm that manufactures sanitary pads and babies disposable towels which production is below the installed capacity as a result of high production downtime that resulted from incessant breakdown of the subsystems of the production system. The aim of the study was to reduce the production downtime signi cantly, thereby optimizing the machine time, and consequently, raising the reliability of the production system. The research work obtained machine breakdown records from the production unit and used the data to estimate the reliability of the production system to be 0.708. This showed that the production system was idle for about 30% of the total machine time, thereby incurring a huge production loss. The hazard rates of vital subsystems obtained, as well as the provision of redundancy for some subsystem as appropriate helped to determine the improved reliability of the production system to be 0.862. The study concludes that reliability model could be an e ective tool in performance optimization of a production system.Keywords: production system, downtime, reliability, maintenance, redundancy, hazard rat