Supplementary Livelihood Strategies among Workers in Nigeria : Implications for Organizational Growth and Effectiveness

This paper examines the impact of supplementary livelihood strategies among workers on organizational growth and effectiveness in Nigeria. 320 staff from University of Calabar, Calabar was randomly and purposively selected for the study. Data was gathered through questionnaires. Five hypotheses were postulated and tested using chi-square, independent t-test, z-test and spearsman’s rho correlation. Findings revealed that educational qualification, income and household size influenced workers engagement in supplementary livelihood. The study also revealed that, there is a significant difference between male and female in the engagement on supplementary livelihood. The research further revealed that, workers engagement in supplementary livelihood affects organizational growth and effectiveness. It was recommended among others, that management should pay salaries as at when due and make policies that promote good condition of services.


Introduction
History and sociological considerations indicate that the most practical means of ensuring everyone's access to the goods of the earth is some system of private property (Weber, 1946).Such right to private property is derived from the collective right of the human race to use the good of the earth.Workers can maintain such private property by offering their labour power to get wages or salaries as reward (Marx, 1964).These wages/salaries enable workers to satisfy their direct needs for daily subsistence (Best, 1999).
In Nigeria, rather than provide the means by which workers can satisfy their lower order needs such as food, clothing and shelter, the deprivation of physiological needs are encouraged through salary insecurity, over taxed and delay in the payment of salaries or fringe benefits, and this have behavioural consequences.The phenomenon has inevitably resulted in high level of bureaucratic corruption, inefficiency and low morale among workers.Workers adopt any possible means to meet their basic needs even if it entails running down their organizations (Ushie, 2002).
It is definite that workers in Nigeria have not been able to cope adequately with their take-home-pay which constitutes the only justified means of livelihood opened to them and hence have been resorting to other means (supplementary ) to make ends meet.This situation threatened the effectiveness, growth and survival of organizations.This study therefore made conscious attempt to identify the various supplementary livelihood strategies that have been adopted by workers in Nigeria over the years and the reasons for the adoption of such alternative livelihood strategies; and its implications on organizational growth and effectiveness.

Study Area
The University of Calabar, where this study is carried out, is one of the second generation universities in Nigeria that has consistently turned out several graduates since its inception.Founded in 1975 under the National Higher Education Expansion Programme of the Federal Military Government, the university is ranked among the leading and largest of Nigeria's second generation Universities.Academic activities actually commenced in 1973/74 session, in what was a campus of the University of Nigeria.The University of Calabar witnessed phenomenal physical, academic, and staff growth in its first decade of existence.Those were the halcyon days of the petroleum revenue boom (University of Calabar Decree, 1979).
From its nucleus, the Duke Town Campus, the University rapidly expanded into a busy academic community that is housed in a vast constellation of modern academic blocks, students' residential halls and staff quarters.The students' population rose from 896 in 1976, spread in the Faculties of Arts, Science and Social Sciences, to over 30,000 full time and part-time degree and diploma students in the 2001/2002 session.The University now has one Graduate School, 9 Faculties and 3 Institutes.These are: Faculties of Agriculture, Arts, Education, Law, Science, and Social Science, Faculties of Management Sciences, Laboratory and Allied Health Services and the School of Medicine (Clinical Sciences), the Graduate School; the Institute of Education, the Institute of Oceanography; and the Institute of Public Policy and Administration.Academic Programmes of the University of Calabar aim at laying a sound and broad undergraduate foundation upon which further intellectual and professional pursuits can be based at the Graduate School Level (Graduate School Prospectus, University of Calabar).As at May/June, 2003 the academic and non-academic staff strength of the University stood at 2906 (Establishment Records, 2003).
Since its inception in 1975, the University of Calabar has been guided by certain fundamental considerations in its academic and other activities.Established at the peak of the national outcry against corruption, nepotism, indiscipline and indolence, the university sought a citizenry imbued with high sense of duty, conscious and responsibilities to the Nigerian nation.Thus, character receives as much emphasis in her training as academics.The university is perhaps the first in the country to establish an annual Pro-Chancellor's prize for the best-behaved student of the graduating class.Besides, as a federal institution, the University seeks to establish on the campus an atmosphere where Nigerians from all states and linguistic groups in the country can cultivate healthy social inter-group relations.Indeed, all states of the federation are represented in the student population of the institution.The university has also consciously sought to learn from the mistakes of old Nigerian Universities by adopting a rather flexible and forward-looking attitude with regard to academic programming (University of Calabar, Decree 1979).
Consequently, the University adopted the Four-Year integrated degree programme based on the semester system and the course system in its faculties, something that some of the older Universities are just beginning to do.The University also makes conscious use of local materials for instructional purpose in the sincere effort to make her programmes relevant to the needs of Nigeria.Though not responsible to the state in which it was located, the university is responsive to the genuine aspirations and interests of its immediate community and interacts freely with that community through its programmes in Adult and Continuing Education, Comprehensive Health Scheme, as well as Symposia, Seminars and Workshops organized not infrequently on and off campus.Founded at the peak of the cultural renaissance in the country and situated in an area of the country distinguished for her rich culture, the University prides itself as a significant academic custodian of the rich culture of the people through the performance of her Department of Theatre Arts, which, within the shortest period of its existence, has established an enviable record for itself in Nigeria and abroad (University of Calabar Decree 1979).
The Cross River State, where the University of Calabar is located, has "a unique inheritance of almost everything for those who are interested in the cosmos and cosmic laws, this land of the rising sun attract visitors.It falls within the tropical rainforest zone of Nigeria and is located at an altitude of 38 metres above sea level.The area lies between latitudes 4 o 57'N and 5 o 35N of the equator and between longitudes 8 o 00'E and 8 o 25'E of the Greenwich meridian.

Literature and Empirical Review
Formal organization is a system designed to coordinate specialized activities of individuals towards the efficient achievement of set goals (Gross, 1969;Katz & Kahn, 1978).This is made possible when workers are willing to contribute their actions towards accomplishing the set goals (Burred & Morgan, 1979).Goals or objectives are central to all organizations.They exist in order to achieve objectives and to provide satisfaction for their members.Organizations enable goals or objectives to be achieved that could not be achieved by the efforts of individuals on their own (Gross 1969).It is through cooperative action, that members of an organization can provide a synergistic effect (Etuk, 1990).
Organizations perform or satisfy primary object in every society.These include -the creation and distributions of product or service, satisfaction of personal objective of the members such as -profit to owners, salaries and other compensation for employees.Psychic income for all including -pride in work, security, recognition, acceptance, meeting community and social obligation such as -protection and enhancement of the human resources of society, protection and enhancement of the physical resources of society (Flippo, 1984).It is normally through the interaction of people that the goals or objectives are achieved.And in doing this some form of structures are needed by which people's interaction and efforts are channeled and coordinated through the process of management towards the pursuit of goals or objectives.Such goals/objectives can be those of profits maximization or rendering of essential services to society.
To achieve organizational goals, individual or unit is given specific job/responsibility to carry out.The performance of such a job will lead to the accomplishment of overall goal.When goals are not achieved, it means the individuals or the units are not doing their jobs.While management is ken about achieving objectives/goals, they should strive to blend the pursuit of profit objectives with equitable consideration for labour and the consumer.Workers should be encourage through good personnel policies to develops their potentials to the full and thus contribute to the growth and effectiveness of the organization.
Organizational growth here refers to structural and positive physical change in amenities or welfare of an organization.It entails remarkable improvement in the physical structure, increased profitability, large salaries for workers, greater opportunities for advancement, more power and prestige for organizational participants and the ability of the organization to meet community and social obligations.
All organizations experience strong natural pressures to grow for a number of reasons.For instance, managers and chief executives are rewarded directly by the growth of the organization, in terms of larger salaries, greater opportunities for advancement, and more power and prestige (Perrow, 1970).Growth is also a particular way to deal with internal strain, when ambitious managers come into conflict (katz & Kahn, 1978).Again, just as the system of competitive markets makes economic efficiency the natural goals of the owner, so too does the system of organization makes growth the natural goal of the manager (Mitzberg, 1983).Growth enables the organization to meet system needs of survival, efficiency and environmental control.The small organization is vulnerable while the larger one is more secure.Efficiency also relates to economics of scale.In most organizations, especially ones reliant on elaborate or complex technical systems they must grow large to become efficient (Pfeffer & Salanck, 1978;Mitzberg, 1983;Galbraith, 1952).
Organizational efficiency or effectiveness refers to the overall performance of the establishment.It entails the degree to which the organization accomplishes its objectives.For instance, a business firm is effective, if it makes profit; a welfare agency is effective, if it provides professional service of high quality (Argyris, 1964;Kechey, 1984).Organization effectiveness is also seen from the perspective of benefactors, thus a business organization is effective if it reduces cost, because the owners have profit as their objective.While unions are effective if they have strong rank-and-file participation because the union is created to serve the need and aspirations of members (Blau & Scott, 1962).
Organizational effective can be evaluated using four major approaches which include (1) its ability to accomplish set goals in terms of output; (2) its ability to successfully acquire resources needed from the environment (3) its ability to ensure the smooth and harmonious functioning of the internal structure and (4) its ability to keep their strategic constituencies satisfied (Cameron, 1980).Strategic constituencies refer to groups of people who have a stake in the organization, such as customers, workers and stockholders (Saal & Patrick, 1988).
The complexity as well as the extraordinary pressure in formal organization, the different backgrounds of people, in terms of needs, goals, skills, status, perception and other diverse aims affects organizational growth and effectiveness (Umoren, 2001, Jaja & Umezuruike, 2004;Buker, 1999;Onyeonoru & Bankole, 2001).For instance, the drive by workers to satisfy their physiological needs and seek additional salary affects their commitment to the organization as well as their adaptive habits towards supplementary livelihood (Fajana, 1991).
Supplementary livelihood entails engaging in other activities outside official responsibility with the aim of raising extra income to one's official salary in order to meet one's direct needs (Ushie, 2006).Job satisfaction also determined whether a worker would embark on supplementary job or not.Those who are not satisfied would engage on supplementary jobs (Heineck, 2003).Income insecurity and irregular promotion of staff influenced significantly workers engagement on supplementary livelihood (Croal, 1992).Any establishment where workers are giving to supplementary jobs would hardly ever be efficient, grow and achieve its goals (Blau, 1972, Mott, 1972, Kelly, 1980, Coch & French, 1960;Locke & Schweiger, 1979).The effectiveness and growth of formal organizations is therefore tied to workers cooperation (Okoh, 2003).

Theoretical Consideration
This study utilized two theories-the Expectancy Theory and Anomie Theory of Crime.Expectancy theory is a contingency model, which recognizes that there is no universal method of motivating people towards achieving organizational objectives.The theory was propounded by Vroom (1964) in his study of staff motivation and job satisfaction.The underlying assumption of expectancy theory is that whether a person works hard will depend essentially upon what he expects to get out of the effort put into work.A basic tenet of the theory is that human behaviour is instrumental in attaining an outcome and the subjective probability that the outcome will be forthcoming (Mitchell, 1973).Outcomes may be positive such as pay, security, companionship, trust, fringe benefits, a chance to use talent or skill, or negative such as fatigue, boredom, frustration, anxiety, harsh supervision, non-payment of salary, threat of dismissal among others (Mamoria, 1993).Expectancy theory therefore holds that, motivation of staff to work is closely affected by the amount of rewards that people derive from jobs, while their level of performance is closely affected by the basis for attainment of rewards.Individuals are satisfied with their jobs and are ready to put in their best for the attainment of organizational objectives to the extent that effective performance leads to the attainment of what they desire.
Expectancy theory in sum indicates only the conceptual determinants of motivation and how they are related.It is however, of value in understanding organizational behaviour and especially as will be applied in this study.For instance, workers in formal organization have their expectations.Therefore, in order to get their necessary cooperation for the efficient administration of the organization, which will lead to the attainment of organizational goals or objectives, the manager should strive to discover the workers' expectations and satisfy them accordingly.
Anomie Theory of crime was propounded by Merton (1968).The theory held that, deviance is a symptom of the dissociation between the goals that people are taught to aspire to and the means through which they can be achieved.Merton (1968) typology draws attention to the unequal opportunities and the strain that such inequality generates.It suggests that lower class people and members of disadvantaged minority groups are likely to engage in deviant or illegal behaviour, not because they have innately criminal characters, but because they face more obstacles to achieving the success goals of the dominant culture.What this means is that, all forms of deviance will be highest among people with the least access to legitimate means to achieve culturally valued goals (Hale, 1990).This study infer from the theory, that, workers who cannot adequately satisfy their economic, social and psychology needs either due to their salary scale or their position in the organization and establishment would most likely adopt supplementary means to enable them cope with responsibilities.

Methodology
Survey research design was adopted in this study.The decision to adopt the survey research in this study derives from its economic standpoint.It is economical in the sense that a study representative samples will permit inferences from the population that would be too expensive to study as a whole.The population of the study comprises of 2960 academic and non-academic staff of the University of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria.Out of which 320 staff were sampled in the following ratio: 80 academic staff (male) and 80 academic staff (female), 80 non academic staff (male), and 80 non-academic staff (female) respectively.Random and purposive sampling technique was used in selecting the 320 respondents.Questionnaire, interview and participant observation were used to gather data from respondents.
The questionnaire instrument is divided into five sections.The first section consists of questions on demographic characteristics of respondents.These help the researchers to assess the level of engagement in supplementary livelihood strategies between male and female among old and young staff.Section two contains questions on socio-economic characteristics such as educational qualification, income and household size, and marital status.These enable the study to evaluate likely reasons why workers engagement in supplementary livelihood strategies.Section three of the instrument help the study to gather information on types of supplementary livelihood strategies; time spent carrying out these supplementary livelihood activities; and reasons given by staff for engaging on supplementary livelihood strategies.Section four gathered information on the impact of supplementary livelihood on organizational growth and effectiveness.While section five enable the study to gather data on means of enhancing organizational growth and effectiveness.

Hypothesis one
Socio-economic status is a significant factor in determining the extent of workers engagement in supplementary livelihood strategies.
The synopsis of Chi-square (X 2 ) results of the socio-economic status of the respondents against workers' engagement in supplementary livelihood strategies are presented in Table I.The result indicate as follows; education qualification X 2 calculated = 99.96,X 2 0.05 = 67.50,df=50; income X 2 calculated = 71.98,X 2 0.05 = 55.76,df = 40; household size X 2 calculated = 97.58;X 2 0.05 = 55.76,df = 40.Except marital status that is not significant, X 2 calculated = 44.34,X 2 0.05 = 67.50,df = 50.This result revealed that educational qualification, income and household size are significant factors determining the extent of workers' engagement in supplementary livelihood strategies.While marital status was not a significant factor.

Hypothesis 2
Rank of staff is a significant factor determining the extent of works' engagement in supplementary livelihood strategies. 2 revealed that, rank of staff was not a significant factor in determining the extent of workers engagement in supplementary livelihood strategies.Unit results revealed that, rank of academic staff both junior and senior was not a significant factor in their adoption of supplementary livelihood strategies as the obtained X 2 -value of 78.06 and 106.92 were less than the X 2 critical value of 146.60 for junior and senior academic staff respectively, at 5% level of significance.Similarly, findings revealed that, the calculated X 2 values of 86.63 and 103.38 respectively for Junior and senior non-academic staff was less than X 2 critical of 146.60 using 5% level of significance.

Hypothesis three
There is a significant difference in the level of engagement in supplementary livelihood strategies between male and female staff.
Table 3, revealed that, there was a significant difference in the level of engagement in supplementary livelihood strategies between male and female staff.Z calculated value exceeded Z -critical value at 5% level of significance.Both male and female staff had adopted extra work habits but exhibited differences in interest, time and space.The differentials in the adoption may be due to interest, capability and biological ability in gender.

Hypothesis Four
There is a significant difference in the mean member of academic and non-academic staff involved in supplementary livelihood strategies.
Findings as revealed in Table 4, indicates that there is a significant difference in the mean number of academic and non-academic staff involved in supplementary livelihood strategies as reflected by t-calculated value exceeding t-critical value at 5% level of significance (P< 0.05).

Hypothesis five
There is a significant relationship between workers engagement in supplementary livelihood strategies and organizational growth and effectiveness.
Table 5 revealed that there was insignificant negative relationship between workers engagement in supplementary livelihood strategies and organizational growth (r = -0.14;df = 6; p< 0.05).This implies that the adoption to supplementary livelihood strategies by workers has far reaching deteriorating effects on organizational growth.Findings in Table 6 also revealed that, there is a significant negative relationship between workers engagement in supplementary livelihood strategies and organizational effectiveness (r= -0.03; df = 7; p< 0.05).

Discussion
The result revealed that socio-economic status of (educational qualification, income and household size except marital status), significantly determine the extent of workers engagement in supplementary livelihood strategies.That is, workers engage in supplementary livelihood strategies to enable them get additional income.This finding is consistent to Fajana (1991) observation.Workers in Nigeria engaged in supplementary livelihood to get additional income.He argued that low income workers are fond of engaging in extra work activities to generate additional income to augment their meager salaries.Income size and insecurity in salaries push workers into supplementary jobs.However, according to Heineck (2003), under utilization of the workers may also influence their engagement in supplementary livelihood strategies.That is, a worker who is not receiving job satisfaction on his/her main job would likely cultivate extra work habit.The finding that marital status of workers does not determine their engagement in supplementary livelihood contrasted Fajana (1991) observation.He held that, marital status of workers significantly influence workers engagement in supplementary livelihood.
The study also revealed that, rank of staff was not a significant factor in determining the extent of workers engagement in supplementary livelihood strategies.The adoption of extra work activities by workers is unconnected to their cadre/rank.Most respondent who engages in other supportive trade to earn a living were senior staff.This shows that salaries paid workers are inadequate to carter for their basic needs.According to Best (1999) and Ushie (2002Ushie ( & 2006) ) when workers salaries cannot satisfy their direct needs for daily sustenance, they are pushed into extra work to get support wages to their main salary.This scenario would impede the growth and development of the organization.
More so, the study revealed that, there is a significant difference in the level of engagement in supplementary livelihood strategies between male and female staff.This implies that, there is a sharp contrast in the adoption to extra work habits between male and female staff in formal organizations.
Furthermore, the study shows that, there is a significant difference in the mean number of academic and non-academic staff involved in supplementary livelihood strategies.The result revealed that higher proportion of academic staff is involved in other supportive work culture.Some are environmental, medical and attitudinal consultants with government agencies and other corporate organizations.Some of the non-academic staff are also involved in supportive work.But their proportion is small.These activities could hinder the growth and development of the organization.According to Croal (1992), workers who are denied promotion or pay rise would justify their actions for embezzlement, theft and other unethical behaviour.
The study also revealed that, supplementary work habits of workers affect negatively on the growth and effectiveness of formal organizations.This implies that, increased in tendency of workers in extra work habits will have a corresponding decrease in the organizational growth and effectiveness.This corroborate Okoh (2003) and Best (1999) who held that, workers who engage in supplementary livelihood or who push their personal interest above organizational goals adversely affect the growth and effectiveness of the establishment.Similarly, Blau (1972), Mott, (1972) and Kelly (1980) observed that, when workers engaged in extra work to support their salaries, organizational goals and effectiveness would be affected.Furthermore, Coch and French (1960), Locke and Schweiger (1979), views corroborate this research finding.They posit that, involvement of workers in extra work activity derailed productivity, organizational growth and effectiveness.

Recommendations
Based on above findings, the following recommendations are made: 1. Government should immediately reassess the work and reward system in the country.Urgent steps should be taken to ensure that salary structures of staff are amended to meet employees' basic needs.Staff salaries should be reviewed upward to be consistent with the economic situation of the nation.
2. Far reaching measures should be undertaken to address policies initiative that are counter-productive.Decisions should be staff oriented and should be from bottom to top.
3. Policies should be made by management that would encourage workers training and ensure job satisfaction.Workers should be trained and developed to meet new challenges in work place.The work environment should also be redesign to enhance job satisfaction.
4. Disciplinary measures should also be put in place to discourage fraudulent practices.Those involve in such act should be brought to book.

Conclusion
The growth and effectiveness of any organization depends on the cooperation of workers.Socio-economic status of workers affects workers cooperation towards goals attainment in formal organizations.Consequently, supplementary livelihood strategies are adopted by workers to meet their basic needs, which is often at the expense of the organization's goals.Workers at all level engaged in extra work to make earns meet; this revealed that salaries are inadequate for staff and should be reviewed upward.Work environment should be design to promote job satisfaction.