MANAGERIAL STYLES AND STAFF TURNOVER TO THE NIGERIAN WORKPLACE AS A WHOLE
CHAPTER ONE
1.1 INTRODUCTION
    Right from the early age, the average Nigerian child has grown to be familiar with the concept of employment: forced or voluntary. The country is said to have one of the highest child labour rates in Africa. This is predicated on the fact that Nigeria is a country with a current estimated of 163 million people out of which 112.47 million people live below poverty (Nigerian Bureau of Statistics 2010), a trend which has not abated in the last 25years. So from an early adulthood, citizens are driven to secure gainful employment as a means to an end.
    Against this backdrop is the high rate of unemployment in the country and the speed with which we turned out candidates for the job market which is as a result of the fallout of the large population and lack of purposeful planning of the government to absorb this individuals in their establishments.
    According to statistics, it is estimated that roughly 3million children enroll yearly for elementary education. Of these, over 1.37million students were enrolled in universities, polytechnics and colleges of education in 2006 and another 1.98million in 2007. Given that most courses are completed in 4 or 5years, many of these 3.2million students that enrolled in 2006 and 2007 are expected to enter labor force in 2010/2011. These 3.2million individuals have joined the resided unemployed to jostle for the few available slots in the job market (Nigeria Bureau of Statistics 2010). When employment is eventually secured, the immediate concern for these individuals is how to remain employed in a situation where the national unemployment rate is high. In figures, a glaring 39.957 million people are not engaged in paid employment (Nigeria Bureau of Statistics 2010).
    In organisations, the term manager encompasses top, middle and line managers. At the top level there is the board of directors of a company or group of companies. The middle level comprises of branch managers or heads of divisions of the corporate headquarters while line managers are unit heads of departments and supervisors at branch level.
    Staff turnover has always been a key concern issues faced by organisations regardless of its locations, sizes, natures of barriers, business strategy (profit or nonprofit oriented).
    Chan (2010) also quoted staff turnover as a serious issue especially in the field of human resources management. Ali (2009) also commented that high turnover brings destruction to the organization in the form of both direct and indirect cost. In a separate study by Batra and Tan, it was noted the World Bank had stated that small and medium enterprises (Sme’s) in developing countries have recorded labor turnover ranging from 3% to 27%of total workers employed.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEM
    Today’s organizations are characterized by constantly changing dynamics as complexity of customization and competitiveness ; importance of people rather than strategies; reliance on technology and the rise of the knowledge economy among many other challenges (Helgesen 1990; Phillips 1983; Shakeela 2004: kuppers 2007). Indeed this is the more reason why managerial style and followership development is crucial to the success and survival of an organization now more than before. Today, the quest for responsible organizational leadership now involves education, encouragement, empowering and enabling the follower to do better (kuppers 2007).
    The essence of leadership in modern organizations nowadays is that leadership must be for the benefits of the followers and not necessarily for the enrichment of the leaders. Leadership is about drawing individuals together to get the tasks accomplished which support the organizational mission. It is not about position neither is it about power. With that position and power comes great responsibility. The responsibility to care for subordinates and build them up is strictly the duty of a leader. This is very important particularly in Nigeria where followership behavior is viewed culturally as a function of leadership behavior impacting either positively or negatively on the psyche of subordinates.    
    However, several researches in this area have only been studying single organizations as it relates to the variables (managerial style and staff turnover) but this study is interested in assessing the Nigeria workplace as a whole as it relates to the variables (managerial style and staff turnover). This study sought answers to the following research questions;
•    What are the observable effects of managerial style on staff turnover?
•    What are the various causes of staff turnover in the Nigerian workplace?
•    Is there any significance relationship between managerial styles and staff turnover?
•    What are the various types of managerial styles available in the Nigerian workplace?
•    Do managers play significant roles in the workplace?
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
    This study has as its main objectives; to evaluate the effects of managerial style on staff turnover in the Nigeria workplace. The specific objectives are;
•    To evaluate the observable effects of managerial style on staff turnover
•    To determine whether there is a significant relationship between managerial styles and staff turnover
•    To determine the various causes of staff turnover in the Nigerian workplace.
•    To determine the types of managerial styles available in the Nigeria workplace
•    To examine the roles of managers in the Nigeria workplace
1.4 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
    The hypothesis of this study is;
Ho: there is no significant relationship between managerial style and staff/employee turnover.
Ha: there is significant relationship between managerial style and staff/employee turnover.
Ho: irregular payment of salaries is not positively associated with staff/employee turnover
Ha: irregular payment of salaries is positively associated with staff/employee turnover
Ho: irregular payment of salaries is not positively associated with staff/employee turnover
1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
      Several researches in this area have only been studying single organizations but this study relates the variables (managerial styles and staff turnover) to the Nigerian workplace as a whole. The study attempts to access the effect of managerial styles on staff turnover in small, medium and large organizations. It also cut across different types of organizations (constituents of the Nigerian workplace) like the telecommunication industry, oil and gas, transportation, construction, manufacturing etc.
       However, due to the inability of the researcher to reach all managers and staff in all classifications listed above in Nigeria, this study is delimited geographically to the residential state of the researcher (Edo state).
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
    At the end of this study, it is expected that the study will add to the knowledge of business management by examining the practices, problems and approaches to implementation of effective managerial style. This study will be valuable addition to existing literature on staff turnover is influenced by managerial style. It will also give HR personnel in the Nigeria workplace some valuable insights into the effects of managerial style on labour turnover. The information obtained from the study will be of great significance to both employers of labour as well as employees.
    Managers of businesses will be aware of the impact of good managerial style in the organization having aware that effective managerial style is a potent source of management development and sustained competitive advantage for organizational performance improvement.