Meaning: Traditionally, the concept
of labour productivity is associated with visible, tangible
outputs. Olaiyan (1999), an economist; for instance define productivity as the
ratio of firms’ total output to total input. This definition presents some
difficulties when such service organization is considered. This is because
whereas the output of manufacturing concern tangible and measurable, those of
service organization are not, thus making it difficult to measure. In view of
this limitation, a broad concept of productivity that incorporates all segments
of work life is therefore necessary for our purpose.
This is why we have to
examine Mali’s definition. Mali (1998:58) defines productivity as “the measure
of how well resources are been brought together in an organization and utilized
for accomplishing set of results. It is reaching the highest level of
performance with the least expenditure of resources”. These resources may be
money, land, materials, plants, machine, or tools and the services of man (labour). It is interesting to remark here that increase in
production does not by itself indicate an increase in productivity. Higher
productivity means that more is produced with the same cost expenditure of
resources i.e. at the same cost in terms of land, material, machine, time or labour.
On the other hand, productivity according Ogebre
(1992:9) Nwachukwu (1998:66), refers to achievement, accomplishment, result, performance
obtained by person, group and organization.
The concept of productivity
according to Koontz (1988:367) is very much related to overall performance of
an individual or an organization. Performance refers to how well a worker;
manufacturer or organization is doing in relation to intended purposes,
objectives, targets and intended accomplishments. It relates to whether the
target problem has been resolved, whether the desired needs have been
satisfactorily provided in terms of quality, quantity and frequency.