Being thesis submitted in the department of business administration and marketing, school of management

4.2.6. Restatement of Research Objective Six and Research Question Six.

Objective 6. Examine the relationship between industrial relations practice and corporate entrepreneurship

Question 6. What is the relationship between industrial relations practice and corporate entrepreneurship?

Table 4.18 Respondents Responseson Industrial Relations Practices (IR)

S/N	To what extent would you say that your establishment adheres to the following:			NE 1	VLE 2	LE 3	ME 4	GE 5	VGE 6	Mean	SD
1.	Your establishment is focused on team-oriented culture		Freq.	18	59	65	226	340	225	4.67	1.780
			Perc.	1.9	6.3	7	24.2	36.4	24.1
2.	Your establishment has systems and practices in place that inspire the workforce to do their best		Freq.	22	79	91	207	360	175	4.48	2.058
			Perc.	2.4	8.5	9.7	22.2	38.5	18.7
3.	The company/establishment creates a feel-good atmosphere in the workplace.		Freq.	8	49	95	210	357	212	4.59	1.215
				0.9	5.3	10.2	22.6	38.3	22.8
4.	Your managers/officers utilize every possible communication channel to help employees understand the company’s direction		Freq.	11	52	65	200	423	184	4.63	1.114
			Perc.	1.2	5.6	7	21.4	45.2	19.7
5	Managers/officers provide frequent and continuous communication regarding their expectations from the employees		Freq.	11	51	71	216	413	160	4.57	1.106
			Perc.	1.2	5.5	7.7	23.4	44.8	17.4
6	Your establishment creates an enjoyable or convivial atmosphere in the workplace		Freq.	12	56	82	268	319	184	4.54	1.770
			Perc.	1.3	6.1	8.9	29.1	34.6	20
7	Your establishment is giving more control over how, when, for whom and where employees work to the employees.		Freq.	9	63	95	228	362	164	4.52	1.743
			Perc.	1	6.8	10.3	24.8	39.3	17.8
8	There is transparencyy in decision-making in my organization		Freq.	18	89	97	238	308	174	4.35	1.276
			Perc.	1.9	9.6	10.5	25.8	33.3	18.8
9	There is a clear cut communication flow between managers and their subordinates in my establishment		Freq.	13	51	88	256	367	152	4.58	2.602
			Perc.	1.4	5.5	9.5	27.6	39.6	16.4
10.	Managers consult employees when major changes are to be made in the operations of my establishment/company		Freq.	35	86	106	247	306	144	4.28	2.126
			Perc.	3.8	9.3	11.5	26.7	33.1	15.6
12.	The management of my establishment/company is open to criticism		Freq.	67	95	104	255	287	119	4.09	2.190
			Perc.	7.2	10.2	11.2	27.5	31	12.8
Grand Mean=		4.483038

Source: Field Survey Result, 2016

Interpretation

Table 4.18 presents the respondents’ opinion on different aspects of industrial relations practices in their respective establishments as related to best practice. This includes the fact that 64.7% of the respondents agreed that their establishment is focused on team-oriented culture (Mean = 4.67, Standard deviation = 1.780), 79.4% believe that their respective establishments has a system and practices in place that inspire the workforce to do their best (Mean = 4.48, Standard deviation = 2.058). 83.7% are of the opinion that their establishments create a feel-good atmosphere in the work place (Mean = 4.59, Standard deviation = 1.215), 86.6% consider that managers provide frequent and continuous communication regarding their expectation from employees (Mean = 4.57, Standard deviation = 1.106), 86.3% believe that managers utilize every possible communication channel to help employees understand their establishment’s direction (Mean = 4.63, Standard deviation = 1.114), 83.7% believe that their establishment create an enjoyable atmosphere in the workplace (Mean = 4.54, Standard deviation = 1.770), 81.9% took the position that their respective establishments is giving control on how, when for whom and where employees work over to the employees (Mean = 4.52, Standard deviation = 1.7543), 78.9% accepts that there is transparency in decision-making in their organizations (Mean = 4.35, Standard deviation = 1.276), 83.3% believe that there is a clear cut communication flow between managers and subordinates in their establishments (Mean = 4.58, Standard deviation = 2.602), 83.6% consider that managers consult employees when major changes are to be made in the operations of their establishment (Mean = 4.28, Standard deviation = 2.126), while 71.3% believe that the management of their establishments are open to criticism (Mean = 4.09, Standard deviation = 2.190).

Table 4.4 earlier referred suggests that the respondents believe that, on the whole, employees in both banking and civil services institutions in Lagos and Ogun States exhibit corporate entrepreneurial work behavior, with a grand mean of 4.0979. The mean of the responses to each of the items is greater than 3.5 which is the bench mark for the acceptance of the particular entrepreneurial behavior as being present in the organization.

Responses from Table 4.18 show that most of the respondents believe that their establishments observes best practices in their industrial relations activities, with grand mean, being 4.483, which is above the bench mark of 3.5 minimum mean in the region of acceptability of propositions in the questionnaire. Comparing this mean (4.483) for industrial relations practices with the mean level of corporate entrepreneurship reported in Table 4.4, one can deduce that there is a relationship between industrial relations practice and corporate entrepreneurship. This has thus helped to achieve our objective six (6) by answering the research question six (6). This is further tested in our hypothesis six (6) below:

4.2.6.1. Test of Hypothesis Six

Hypothesis Six (H₀₆): There is no significant relationship between industrial relations practices and corporate entrepreneurship.

To test this hypothesis, data collected on industrial relations practices and corporate entrepreneurship was subjected to Pearson product moment correlation analysis. Data on industrial relation practices were obtained from combining responses to questionnaire items on industrial relations practices (nos B31-B41), while data on corporate entrepreneurship variable were formed from the combination of responses to questions relating to proactivity dimension of corporate entrepreneurship (B50 – B54), innovation dimension of corporate entrepreneurship (B55 – B62), and risk taking dimension of corporate entrepreneurship (B63 – B67).The result is presented in Table 4.19.

Table 4.19: Pearson product moment correlation on the relationship between industrial relation practices and corporate entrepreneurship

Variables		Corporate Entrepreneurship	Industrial Relation Practices (IR)
Corporate Entrepreneurship	Pearson Correlation	1	.584^**
	Sig. (2-tailed)		.000
Industrial Relations Practices	Pearson Correlation	.584^**	1
	Sig. (2-tailed)	.000
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

Source: Field Survey Result, 2016

Interpretation

Table 4.19 reports the results of Pearson product moment correlation analyses executed to determine relationship between industrial relation practices and corporate entrepreneurship. From Table 4.19, the relationship between industrial relation practices and corporate entrepreneurship is .584 which is significant at 0.01 level (r = .584, p < 0.05). This implies that there is a significant positive relationship between industrial relation practices and corporate entrepreneurship in the selected public and private institutions in Lagos and Ogun State of Nigeria.

Decision

Based on the finding above, the null hypothesis six (H₀₆) which states that there is no significant relationship between industrial relation practices and corporate entrepreneurship is hereby rejected. Hence, it can be concluded that industrial relation practices have significant positive relationship with the corporate entrepreneurship.

4.2.6.2. Discussion

The sixth hypothesis of this study seeks to determine if there is a significant relationship between industrial relations practices and corporate entrepreneurship among employees in the civil services and banking service industrial environment operating in Lagos and Ogun States respectively. As shown above, the findings revealed that industrial relations practices have a positive and statistically significant relationship with corporate entrepreneurship.

Earlier investigations on the role of industrial relations suggest that it prevents the expression of entrepreneurial work behavior and hence negates the findings of this study. Acs and Audretsch (1988) is an example of such investigation. Acs and Audretsch (1988) conducted an empirical investigation of the practice of innovation in large and small firms in different industries in the United States of America as well as the factors responsible for them. They found that the total number of innovations in these firms is negatively related to unionization. Also, Akintayo (2010), in a study of job security, labour-management relations and perceived workers productivity in industrial organisations in Nigeria, found a negative relationship between labour-management relationship and technological innovation. This study showed that hamonious labour-management relations have always been compromised in the course of managing technological innovations. This suggests the reason why most employers, especially in the private sector, tend to prefer a union-free status for their organization.

Other series of studies have however linked industrial relations with positive corporate entrepreneurial behavior outcomes in line with our present finding. For example, Shonekan (1992) and Kukoyi (2002), submit that technological innovation tends to be influenced positively by quality labour-management relations. Rios-Avila (2014) found that good union/management relationship is positively related to productivity and research and development, but not profit.However, most of these studies investigated aspects of HRMP that are only related to elements of industrial relations rather than the term industrial relations in general as constructed in Akintayo (2010). For example, Castrogiovanni, Urbano and Loras (2011) found strong association between corporate entrepreneurship and elements of industrial relationship such as the existence of personal relationship and open communication between owners, managers and employees. In this manner, Gyes (2003) linked innovation, which is the core element of corporate entrepreneurship, with workers participation in decision making.

In a more direct study of the role of industrial relations (IR) in strengthening innovation in Europe, Guy-Van-Gyes (2003) shows that both direct and indirect form of workers participation has a positive effect on innovation at company level. Specifically he found the strongest involvement in innovation matters in those industrial relations systems that are governed by the principles of cooperation and coordination as found in Nordic countries. Song, Dyer and Thieme (2006), also support the findings of this study. In their study, they identify and classify conflict management strategies into two; antagonistic or destructive conflict management and constructive management and found that there is a strong positive association between constructive management strategy and innovative performance. Specifically, they found that destructive management tends to lead to lower innovative performance, while constructive management was associated with higher innovative performance.

Edralin (2010) focus on industrial relations even more directly in a study of twenty large companies operating in the manufacturing and service sectors in the Philippines. He not only found strong relationship between industrial relations (IR) and corporate entrepreneurship, the study showed that IR has the greatest impact of corporate entrepreneurship. Antoncic and Antoncic (2011), support this finding in their study of the link between employee satisfaction and intrapreneurship from data collected from 149 firms in Slovenin. They conceived of employees’ satisfaction to include satisfaction with working condition and employee relations and found that employee satisfaction and good employee relationship are positively related with corporate entrepreneurial work behaviour.This, according to Collins (2013), is because good labor relations can boost workers morale and motivate them to put forth his best effort towards achieving organizational goals. These are consistent with the findings of this study and points to the potential of IR as a tool of fostering entrepreneurial work behavior.