Employee Work-Life Balance as an HR Imperative

There is a growing awareness in today's workplaces that employees do not give up their lives just because they work. Work and life remain the two most important domains in the life of an employed individual. However, the challenge of balancing work and non-work demands is one of today's central concerns for both individuals and organisations. With the growing diversity of family structures represented in today‟s workforce, particularly with the growing norm of dual-career families, the importance of managing an employee's work-life balance have increased markedly over the past 20 years. Employers are realising that the quality of an employee's personal and family life impacts work quality and that there are concrete business reasons to promote work and non-work integration. In this paper, we contend that assisting employees to achieve a work-life balance should become a critical part of HR policy and strategy if it is to truly get the best from the organisation's people without leaving them unsatisfied, burnt-out and unfulfilled.Keywords: Work-life balance, Human resources, Employee, Organisatio

Institutional Failure, Democracy and Development in Nigeria

This paper focuses upon an examination of the set of factors that are responsible for the failure of the institutional frameworks for managing resources and hence development and democracy in Nigeria. It locates these factors in the weaknesses in the ideological framework within which institutional choices are made, faulty institutional designs and corruption.NESG Economic Indicators Vol. 13 (1) 2007: pp. 38-5

The causal texture of trade union environments

This paper is an attempt to fill an important gap in the existing literature on trade unions by providing a more adequate theoretical formulation of trade union environments. The discussion suggests that unlike the environment of business and related organisations whose causal texture is understood in terms of uncertainty, complexity, instability and turbulence that of trade unions needs to be understood in terms of hostility. In the capitalist state, environmental hostility denotes the existence of a set of subjective and objective barrier conditions that are consciously erected and sustained for the purpose of limiting labour’s self-conscious and self-liberating understanding and actions. These barrier conditions vary in range, density, and scope. Different combinations of levels of density, range and scope of barrier conditions lead to different levels of hostility in the environment which may range from the mildly hostile, through the hostile to the deeply hostile. The discussion also attempts to indicate the set of conditions that lead to the existence of one rather than another type of trade union environment and the implications that these should have for trade union action

The causal texture of trade union environments

This paper is an attempt to fill an important gap in the existing literature on trade unions by providing a more adequate theoretical formulation of trade union environments. The discussion suggests that unlike the environment of business and related organisations whose causal texture isunderstood in terms of uncertainty, complexity, instability and turbulence that of trade unions needs to be understood in terms of hostility. In the capitalist state, environmental hostility denotes the existence of a set of subjective and objective barrier conditions that are consciously erected and sustained for the purpose of limiting labour’s self-conscious and self-liberating understanding and actions. These barrier conditions vary in range, density, and scope. Different combinations of levels of density, range and scope of barrier conditions lead to different levels of hostility in the environment which may range from the mildly hostile, through the hostile to the deeply hostile. The discussion also attempts to indicate theset of conditions that lead to the existence of one rather than another type of trade union environment and the implications that these should have for trade union action

Deacidification of high acidic rubber seed oil by reesterification with glycerol

Some studies have shown that rubber seed oil (RSO) from the seed of rubber tree (hevea brasiliensis)has potential technical applications. However, the high free fatty acid (FFA) associated with the oil may be a limiting factor in its applications. In this study, crude rubber seed oil (RSO) containing 37.69% FFA was deacidified using 4.3-5.6% of glycerol. The reactions were carried out at a pressure of 20mmHg in the presence of zinc dust and zinc chloride catalysts added separately at high temperature (150 – 2500C). The progress of the reaction was monitored by determining the FFA at various time intervals.The FFA content in the RSO was reduced to 1.5% in six hours when 4.3% glycerol was used with zinc dust at a temperature of 2000C while the triglycerides content of the oil increased from 40.32% in the crude oil to 80.62% in the deacidified RSO. The study showed that this process is effective in the deacidification of RSO without loss of neutral glycerides as in alkali neutralization

Synthesis and Characterization of Vulcanized Vegetable Oil from Rubber Seed Oil

Vulcanized vegetable oil (VVO) is a product synthesized from unsaturated vegetable oil and a vulcanizing agent such as sulphur. It is used in rubber industry as processing aid and is imported into Nigeria whereas there are potential plant oils such as rubber seed oil (RSO) locally available in the country for its synthesis. Rubber seed oil is obtained from the seeds of the rubber tree (hevea brasiliensis) and are in abundance in Nigeria but unexploited. Its use in the synthesis of VVO was investigated by using sulphur as the vulcanizing agent. The effects of various doses of additives such as iodine, magnesium oxide, sodium carbonate, 2-mercaptobenzothioazole and zinc diethyldithiocarbonate on the vulcanization process were investigated. The vulcanized rubber seed oil (VRSO) obtained was characterized in terms of hardness, free sulphur, ash content and acetone extract. The type of vulcanized oil produced from rubber seed oil was found to depend on the level of sulphur and additive used. As the level of sulphur used in the synthesis without additives was increased from 15wt% to 30wt% of oil, the gel time was reduced from 35minutes to 14minutes and the physical properties of the VRSO improved. The use of some of the additives markedly affected the gel time particularly magnesium oxide which at 10wt% and 30wt% sulphur loading reduced gel time to 6minutes while some others seemed to have little effect on the gel time. The study shows that VVO can be produced from RSO when the right combination of additives is used instead of when sulphur is used separately

Considerations of the extraction process and potential technical applications of Nigerian rubber seed oil

Rubber seeds from the rubber tree (hevea brasiliensis) are in abundance in Nigeria from which nonedible oil could be obtained. However, the seeds are wasted in the rubber plantations annually even though the extractable oil has potential technical applications. If the full potentials of the oil are to be realized, there is need to have a data base information on the oil extraction process and its properties. Rubber seeds were collected from different rubber clones and extracted first by n-hexane to determine the yield characteristics. Second, the seeds were extracted by a hydraulic press at varied operating conditions: pressure range (5-8MPa), temperatures, 40-90ºC; and moisture content, 7-16%. The effect of particle size and other operating variables on oil yield were studied. The physico-chemical properties of the extracted oil were evaluated. It was found that the percentage oil yield from the seeds of the rubber clone NIG800 at 45.03% was higher than the yield from other clones; GTI (40.21%) and RRIM 707 (38.42%) when the particle size of 1.16 mm was used. Oil yield increased with increase in temperature and pressure. Maximum oil yield was obtained during mechanical pressing at a moisture content of 10% (wt), temperature of 70ºC and pressure of 8MPa. The physicochemical characteristics of the oil showed high incidence of free fatty acid (FFA) of 37.96% (wt) and the high iodine value (IV) of 142.45 is indicative of the presence of high unsaturation. Rubber seed oil could therefore serve as semi-drying oil used in ingredients for surface coating and in the formulation of products where the presence of unsaturation is important

Patterns of Passage into protected areas: drivers and outcomes of Fulani immigration, settlement and integration into the Kachia Grazing Reserve, Northwest Nigeria

Abstract Increasing land use and associated competition for natural resources in the wake of high human and livestock population pressures have been major challenges confronting pastoralists of West Africa. This is especially true in Nigeria where Fulani make up 4% of the national population and prevailing national insecurity issues are impacting on pastoral livelihoods, including violent conflicts over land and ethnic, religious and political disparities. This study examined the dynamics of immigration within the Kachia Grazing Reserve (KGR), an exclusively Fulani pastoralist community in Kaduna State, northwest Nigeria, prompted by concerns from both the farming communities and the authorities about mounting pressure on existing limited resources, particularly in regard to availability of cattle grazing resources. Drawing from a household census conducted in 2011 and employing a range of qualitative methods (focus group discussions and key informant interviews), this study explored the drivers and consequences of immigration and subsequent integration within the KGR community. The study revealed two types of immigration: a steady trickle of pastoralists migrating to the reserve to settle and acquire land, secure from the stresses of competition from cultivators, and the sudden influx of internally displaced persons fleeing violent clashes in their areas of origin. Population pressure within the reserve has risen steadily over the past three decades, such that it is severely overgrazed (as evidenced by reports from the KGR community that the animals run short of pasture even during the wet season due to desertification and the spread of non-edible weeds). The newer immigrants, fleeing conflict, tended to arrive in the reserve with significantly larger herds than those kept by established residents. Pastoralists in the reserve have been forced back into the practice of seasonal transhumance in both wet and dry seasons to support their herds, with all the attendant risks of theft, clashes with cultivators and increased disease transmission

Legitimisation strategies and managerial capture: a critical discourse analysis of employment relations in Nigeria

YesIrrespective of the fundamental role of legitimacy in industrial relations as well as social and organisational life, little is known of the subtle meaning-making strategies through which organisational concepts, such as employment relations and engagement, are legitimised in modern world of work, particularly in developing countries such as Nigeria, which results in managerial capture. As a result, this paper explores the discursive legitimisation strategies used when making sense of employment relations in Nigeria’s conflictual, non-participatory employment relations terrain. Relying on Leeuwen’s (1995) legitimisation strategies, critical discourse analysis (CDA) and call by Bailey, Luck & Townsend (2009) and Legge (1995) to widen employment relations discourse, we explore interview, focus group and shadow report data, and distinguish and analyse five legitimisation strategies. The strategies include authorisation, moralisation, mythopoesis, rationalisation, and management. Therefore, we contend that while these specific legitimisation strategies appear in separate data source, their recurrent manifestation and application underscores legitimising discourse of managerial capture in Nigeria’s employment relations

Brucellosis as an Emerging Threat in Developing Economies:Lessons from Nigeria

Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa, has a large proportion of the world's poor livestock keepers, and is a hotspot for neglected zoonoses. A review of the 127 accessible publications on brucellosis in Nigeria reveals only scant and fragmented evidence on its spatial and temporal distribution in different epidemiological contexts. The few bacteriological studies conducted demonstrate the existence of Brucella abortus in cattle and sheep, but evidence for B. melitensis in small ruminants is dated and unclear. The bulk of the evidence consists of seroprevalence studies, but test standardization and validation are not always adequately described, and misinterpretations exist with regard to sensitivity and/or specificity and ability to identify the infecting Brucella species. Despite this, early studies suggest that although brucellosis was endemic in extensive nomadic systems, seroprevalence was low, and brucellosis was not perceived as a real burden; recent studies, however, may reflect a changing trend. Concerning human brucellosis, no studies have identified the Brucella species and most reports provide only serological evidence of contact with Brucella in the classical risk groups; some suggest brucellosis misdiagnoses as malaria or other febrile conditions. The investigation of a severe outbreak that occurred in the late 1970s describes the emergence of animal and human disease caused by the settling of previously nomadic populations during the Sahelian drought. There appears to be an increasing risk of re-emergence of brucellosis in sub-Saharan Africa, as a result of the co-existence of pastoralist movements and the increase of intensive management resulting from growing urbanization and food demand. Highly contagious zoonoses like brucellosis pose a threat with far-reaching social and political consequences