Workplace Democracy and Employee Productivity in Selected Construction Firms in Edo State

ABSTRACT

The study examined the relationship between workplace democracy and employee productivity of selected construction firms in Edo State.

To achieve the objectives, the population of the study comprised staff of four selected construction firms in Edo State. Yamane’s (1967) formula was used to draw up approximately 302 sample size from the entire population, out of which 261 were received but 251 were valid while 10 were discarded. Structured questionnaire, having been subjected to reliability test, was used to collect the needed information from the respondents. The information elicited from the respondents were analyzed with descriptive statistics and regression analysis.

The study found that justice is the highest form of workplace democracy dimension that existed amongst staff of selected construction firms in Edo State. It also showed that participation-criticism, transparency and equality dimension of workplace democracy are negatively related to employee productivity but the justice and accountability dimensions are positively related to employee productivity. With regards to these findings, the study recommends that the firms should ensure that the management are committed, visible and be available to the employees at every level; establish a grievance system through which employees can make complaints in a protected manner; and introducing effective training programmes in order to improve workplace democracy.