Employee Perceptions of the Latest Nigerian Banking Reforms

Abstract

Research on reforms in the banking sector has investigated economic-related issues such as Mergers and Acquisitions (M&As), recapitalization and restructuring, among others; with little attention devoted to the human resource aspect.  Hence, the study examined: employees’ perception about M&As in relation to the reform. Stratifying 3 out 12 merged banks among the 25 recapitalized ones, 856 employees of Sterling (484), Skye (387) and Wema (413) banks were selected using systematic sampling technique. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the sample while Independent T-test was used to test the study’s hypotheses.  Findings showed that apart from nature of employment (whether permanent or non permanent), employees’ basic characteristics such as marital status, tenure or job status had no significant relationship with employee perception of the reform.  Though more on the positive side than negative, bank employees were mixed on their perception of the reform. The non permanent staff who were employed on temporary basis as contract, casual and seasonal staff did not express positive perception of the reform due mainly to their feelings of relative deprivation.

Keywords: Banking Reform, .Globalization.  Mergers/Acquisitions,  Labour Relations.