Effects of downsizing strategies on survivors’ organizational commitment: the case of Ethio Telecom

The study sought to analyze the effects of downsizing strategies on survivors ’ organizational commitment (affective, continuous, and normative) at Ethio Telecom. This study used descriptive and causal effect type of study. It focused on both qualitative and quantitative approaches for collection and analysis of data. This research made use of both primary and secondary sources of data. The researcher employed simple random sampling technique to select 362respondents from each zone and headquarter offices. In this study, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was employed. As the findings depict that positive and significant effect of exogenous variables (organizational justice: procedural and distributive justice) with the standardized estimate for procedural justice on affective, continuous, and normative commitment effects were all significant but they are not that much strong (fi =0.22, 0.18, 0.17) while distributive justice had high effect on affective, continuous, and normative commitment0.97, 0.99, 0.98 and respectively. Based on the above findings the researcher inferred that there was organizational procedural injustice in the time of downsizing at Ethio Telecom. Consequently, these perceptions affected adversely survivors ’ organizational commitment. As a result, survivors are neither emotionally attached nor have feeling of continuous commitment to the company. Hence, the researcher recommends that the strategists should do the following in order to make it effective: plan the process properly, study the overall scenario prior to the attempt, do human resource planning industriously, set clear selection criteria, make the process transparent, communicate timely, conduct behavioral trainings, align each unit activity with company’s strategic objectives, and prepare victims for other jobs

Prevalence of internal marketing as strategy implementation tool in selected Ethiopian commercial banks

Strategy implementation requires, among others, internal marketing so as to treat employees as a customer and the job as a product using marketing like approach. The objective of the study is examining adoption and implementation of internal marketing practices as a strategic tool to implement the formulated strategy and to see the impact of internal marketing on enhancing employee attitude, organizational commitment and customer orientation in four last entrants of the Ethiopian banking industry. A quantitative, descriptive and correlational research approach is used to find out the appropriate answers of the research questions. Considering the mean score of the measurement variables, employees of the banks perceived that though the banks have a very good internal communication, they are very weak in internal information generation and the responsiveness to internal market which resulted in weak internal marketing practice. The banks found to have low commitment, engagement and low attitude to their organization. The customer orientation of the banks is also found to be weak. This shows that internal marketing has not been communicated and established amongst employees in the way that enable employees to have commitment and positive attitude to their organization to develop customer orientation as well. Based on the regression analysis, the major findings of this study is that internal marketing practice have a positive impact on enhancing employee attitude, organizational commitment and customer orientation of the banking sector. The researchers suggested that managers need to focus on internal marketing programs to achieve and sustain a strategic objective in the market. Managers should also involve the empowerment practice to increase motivation, consider that the human power is the greatest resource, and concentrate on trying to instill a customer orientation amongst their employees.Keywords: Customer orientation, employee attitude, internal marketing, organizational commitment, strategy implementatio

An assessment of industrial customers’ satisfaction at Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation: a case of South Addis Ababa Region

The survival of any organization in a highly competitive environment depends on its ability to provide the best service quality to its existing customers as the quality of service is a key factor in the success of any organization. Though a stable supply of enough energy is a must for industrialization, Ethiopia’s growing industrial sector has come with an unprecedented rise in power demand. Despite the introduction of quality improvement programs and several customer care packages in the past, service quality gaps are still enduring in EEPCo.The study has the objective of assessing industrial customers ’ satisfaction on service quality using SERVQUAL model. It also addresses the problems of quality gaps through the survey done at EEPCo, South Addis Ababa Region Industrial customers. The study was conducted using a descriptive survey method where the respondents were industrial customers and frontline managers. The sample size was 333 industrial customers and these were selected using simple random sampling technique. Front line managers were selected through purposive sampling. Moreover, structured questionnaires and interviews are tools used to gather relevant information and statistical tools like percentage, tables and charts are used to analyze the data. The study shows performance of EEPCo in providing quality service to its industrial customers is not in a situation to meet their expectations. In all dimensions of the SERVQUAL; tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, empathy, and assurance, it’s found that there is a negative gap between service expectations and service perceptions.Therefore, the Corporation should come up with an appropriate service delivery standards, proper complaint handling mechanisms, relevant training for its employees, and strengthening decision making power of employees. Decision makers also have to exert maximum effort in quality improvement programs so that the corporation ensures industrial customers satisfaction

Assessment of factors affecting the performance of microfinance institutions: the case of Hawassa City

The role of MFIs in the development process is noteworthy. The major objective of this study is to assess the factors which affect the performance of microfinance institutions in Hawassa city. The research is descriptive in type and both probability and non probability sampling techniques were employed for this study. Employees and clients of MFIs were the major target groups of the study. From the total of 116 targeted employees, 74 employees were included in the sample. On the other hand, from the total of 8590 targeted clients, 199 were taken as a sample. Primary and secondary data were collected through well organized questionnaire for this study. In addition to this, the researchers conducted interview with managers of the institutions. Accordingly the researchers assessed different factors which affect the performance of microfinance institutions. The identified factors related to clients includes: problems related to the repayment, diversion of loan into non income generating activities, business condition of the borrowers and so on. On the other hand, institutional factors such as shortage of human resource, lack of cost effective technologies, shortage of loan capital and some others are identified. Political factors which are related to MFIs performance are also recognized in this study. Based on the analysis and the finding of the study, the researchers suggested some recommendations to improve the performance MFIs in Hawassa city. Implementation of different methods to improve women's participation in micro credit and saving services, usage of cost effective technologies to minimize operational cost, hiring an adequate number of employees in the institution are some of the recommendations suggested by the researchers to improve the performance of the institutions

Assessing stakeholders’ perception on application of corporate social responsibility in Meta Abo Brewery Share Company

In recent years, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has gradually become a leading issue in business. Heightened corporate attention to CSR has not been entirely voluntary. Many companies awoke to it only after being surprised by public response to issues they had not previously thought were part of their responsibilities. But despite their intent, the practice and what drives them to engage is not lucid. Thus, the prime essence of this study was to assess the practice of CSR in Meta Abo Brewery S.C. The study used both qualitative and quantitative research approaches and it is mainly dependent on primary source of data in which three types of structured questionnaires were developed to get data from respondents composed of customers, community and employees while managers of the company were interviewed. To meet the research objective the researchers used different sampling techniques and procedures to select the samples from each stakeholder’s category. The findings depicts that the employees awareness towards concept of CSR is at its lowest level. The stakeholders' perceptions on components of CSR include economic, ethical, legal, and philanthropic responsibilities agreed that items listed are important aspects to business organizations socially responsible activities. The prioritization of CSR to the company includes philanthropic, next ethical, then economic and finally legal responsibilities. The company needs to allocate enough amount of budget and focus on training and developing mechanisms that help to communicate with the stakeholders.Keywords: Corporate social Responsibility, Components of CSR, economic responsibility, ethical responsibility, legal responsibility, philanthropic responsibility, Stakeholder

Effects of training practices on employees’ performance in east Addis Ababa District of Commercial Bank of Ethiopia

Training is the act of enhancing the knowledge, skill, and attitude of an individual for doing a particular job. In the present situation training is increasingly viewed as a means of not only fostering the growth of the individual employee but as an integrated part of organizational growth. Employee performance is normally looked at in terms of outcome. This research examined the effects of training practice on employee performance in commercial bank of Ethiopia (CBE) at East Addis Ababa District. To achieve the objectives of this study descriptive survey and explanatory research design was used. Data was collected through questionnaire from a sample of 234 those were selected using simple random sampling method and interview for managers of CBE. The data collected from the questionnaire were analyzed using inferential and descriptive Statistical tools such as mean, standard deviation, correlation, and multiple regression analysis. The results of this study indicate that, training practice dimension such as (need assessment, training objectives, training methods, selection of trainees and trainers, implementation of training program and evaluation and feedback) have positive and significant relationship with and have significantly contribute 58.4% to employee’s knowledge, skills and attitudes. On the other hand, employee’s knowledge, skills and attitudes have positive and significant relationship with and contribute 61.3% to employee performance. Based on the findings of the study, the researchers recommend starting need assessment. to analyzing organization, task and people level, doing the training evaluation and feedback before, during and after training; reassessing training objectives and design as much as possible SMARTER objectives.Keywords: Attitudes, employee performance, knowledge, skills and training proces

Phenomenological Study of Exploring Integrity Culture during Covid-19 in Ethiopia

Integrity is a common issue regardless of level of economy and conditions. The aim of this study was to explore what integrity looks like in Ethiopia during COVID-19. The study philosophical stances will be objectivist ontology and critical realist epistemology. To achieve the objective of the study, the qualitative phenomenological method will be applied to illustrate the issue. The necessary data was collected from purposively selected stakeholders by using semi-structured interview and observation as well document analysis for the secondary data. The study revealed there is a problem of awareness about the pandemic specifically in rural areas of the country, there is also a problem on existing media making the pandemic their prior issues, the business ethics are highly violated and leaders of political parties prioritizing issues of election rather than pandemic. Commonly prioritization of the current worldwide pandemics is what expected from different stakeholders in the country

Comparative study on current trading system and online trading: the case of Ethiopia commodity exchange

The Ethiopia Commodity Exchange [ECX] is an organized market place that brings buyers and sellers to trade standardized contracts using its floor based trading system. The fundamental factors to establish successful commodity exchange includes having an efficient and robust trading platform. The focus of this research is to analyze the economic significance and limitations of the current trading system and assess the prospects and challenges of online trading and factors affecting its feasibility of implementation in ECX. The study used a mix of quantitative and qualitative research method to collect and analyze data relevant for the study. Questionnaire and in-depth interview were used to gather relevant data for the study. The study collected data from 375 members and clients out of which 279 are found to be good for analysis. In-depth interview was conducted with experts. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the data. The study found that there is significant capacity problem with major skills gap with traders. The current system has its own significance in balancing the power of negotiation of traders by disseminating reliable data, and limitations in lack of market integrity, poor price discovery mechanisms and limitations in session and ticket writing times. It also found that there is good perception towards online trading system. Moreover, the exchange expects transparency, greater market oversight, market integrity and more commodities by deploying online trading system and challenges mainly infrastructural problems, and capacity of traders. Based on the findings, the paper recommends deploying an integrated surveillance system, reasonable allocation of session time, awareness on rules, in-depth training of staff and traders and building a redundant system were recommended for both trading systems accordingly.Keywords: Ethiopia Commodity Exchange [ECX], Floor Based Trading, Online Tradin

Determinants of Marketing Supply Chain of Agricultural Cooperatives Output in Ethiopia

The study is planned to identify and evaluate the determinants of marketing supply chain of agricultural cooperatives output in Ethiopia (a case of Jimma Zone cooperative union).  To achieve the objectives of the study the data was collected from cooperatives through questionnaires and Interview. Stratified sampling was applied to reach the target population and regression and correlation considered to analyze the results. The finding revealed that, factors such as Cooperative Management, Members’ participation, Marketing information, Financial Resource and Infrastructure access were found to be the determinant factors affecting agricultural output marketing performance. Hence, to solve noncompliance of agricultural cooperatives output marketing performance the cooperative union should be maintaining Cooperative Management, Members’ participation, Marketing information, Financial Resource, Infrastructure access, and providing social services to the general public