Technology And New Work Designs Of Foreign Subsidiary Firms In South-West, Nigeria
Obialor, Donatus Chukwuemeka PhD
Department of Business Management, Faculty of Management Sciences, University of Uyo
Okah Vincent PhD
Department of Management, Faculty of Management Sciences, Imo State University Owerri
Keywords: Technology, Automation, Communication tools, Digital infrastructure, Work design
Abstract
Given the rapid advances and increased reliance on technology, people’s jobs and their work behavior are changing every day. The researcher adopted the survey research design for this study and determined a sample size of 232 from a population of 552 comprised of the top management staff of the selected study foreign subsidiary firms in South-West Nigeria at 5% error margin using the Taro Yamane formula. The hypotheses were tested using the Simple regression at 0.05 level of significance. Findings show that technological variables such as office automation control systems, communication tools and digital infrastructure have a strong positive influence on new work designs of foreign subsidiary firms in South-West Nigeria. The researchers recommended that manufacturing firms should overcome every problem associated with office automation control systems, communication tools, and digital infrastructure to help foreign manufacturing firms enhance new work designs and reduce the adverse manufacturing effects caused by technological factors in other to increase efficiency and performance, improve employee morale, enhance better skill development, promote greater innovation and creativity, and reduce employee turnover. It was concluded that technological variables such as office automation control systems, communication tools and digital infrastructure have a strong positive influence on new work designs of foreign subsidiary firms in South-West Nigeria.