Organizational Trust and Employee Performance of Selected Bottling Companies in South-South, Nigeria

Abstract

Nigerian economy slipped into recession from last quarter of 2015 to first quarter of 2017 showing negative GDP growth of -0.36%,-2.06%,-2.34% and -1.3% for the 4 quarters of 2016 respectively. 2017 GDP figures were -1.3%,0.55%,1.4% and 2.6% for 4 quarters of 2017 showing gradual exit from recession from 2^nd quarter of 2017 even though the realities on ground still portrayed  a recessed economy. Massive retrenchment of workers, low output of goods and services with high accompanying prices and rising inflation came with recession. Despite the harsh economic conditions, the food and beverage sub-sector of manufacturing which includes bottling companies showed growth both in market and production capacities of  53.7% in 2015, 60.3% in 2016 and 62.2% in 2017.This phenomenon motivated the researchers to explore the human element contribution to the growth  by examining the effect of organizational trust on employee performance of selected bottling companies in South-South, Nigeria. The study was anchored on Thorndike (1935) Social Exchange Theory. The research gap emerged from industry gap as none of the reviewed works was on food and beverage firms including bottling companies. Also, geographical and methodological gap emerged. The study used survey research design. Data were analysed using one way ANOVA. The study found out that there is a significant effect of participatory decision making on employee innovation since cumulative F value of (997.73) was obtained and the p-value (0.00<0.05). The study concluded that there is a significant effect of organizational trust on employee performance. The work confirms the validity of the Social Exchange Theory. For the practitioner, employees should be allowed in participative decision making to enhance the growth of the company. Respondent apathy was a limitation which was overcome by persuasion.

Keywords: Organizational Trust, Employee Performance, Participatory Decision Making, Employee Innovation.