CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1    BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Administration is as old as organizations. There is the traditional method of administration called leadership which sometimes appear to be dictatorial and autocratic in nature. Employees merely implement the ideas and methods imposed on them by the administrators who although are not qualified and skilled technically but behave as if they know everything about administration. The modern approach to administration seeks the co-operation of employees. If takes into confidence the employee and has a democratic base. According to Ebunu (1998:12) the world “Administration” concerns the laying down of policies and directing the ways the polices and strategies should go and ensuring their implementation towards the attainment of organization goals. A policy is a guide to action and provides the direction that all organizational efforts will follow. Strategies are courses of action to be followed in the achievement of set objectives.
Associated with the laying down of policies is the need to provide broad plans and programmes through which the laid down policies can be effectively implemented.
Associated with all thee is the need too to provide the yardstick through which performance can be measured. That is, it is important to work out performance. This is to find out whether the policy guidelines have been followed. If it has not been followed, then there is a deviation. The administration needs to find out and investigate the reasons for the deviation and make the necessary correction. Consequently, as a process, administration determines aims and objective for which the organization exists.
Organizations cannot function at optimal efficiency without effective administration. Non-effective administration, according to Igwe (1995:35), is like a system without purposeful routine establishment where everybody does what he likes. One of the characteristics of good administration is team-building whereby the administrator/secretary guides and assists other employees to meet set targets using the right administrative instrument. Through the administrative machinery efforts could be recognized and rewarded accordingly. This would increase employees’ interest and enthusiasm in the work they do. A fairly high level of motivation and job satisfaction is essential for attaining excellence in the administrator’s performance.
Effective administration as a concept is built on the human relations principles rooting from the ideology that all human beings are individuals of worth who are endowed with unique talents and capabilities. Recent research findings point to the fact that when management motivates its workers to a reasonable level, the interests of the workers in the attainment of the set goals are not only aroused but also sustained until the set goals are fully achieved. This is possible because motivation serves as a driving force for the accomplishment of both the individual and the organizational goals. When an administrator is motivated either intrinsically or extrinsically, he bestirs himself to pursue those courses of action that will lead to the attainment of the organizational objectives. Intrinsic motivation is regarded as a biologically inherent will or drives to perform an act. This type of motivation is in-born and it includes such things as satisfaction one obtains from achieving something, the recognition accorded to him for making such an achievement and the competence he has acquired from his efforts. Extrinsic motivation refers to the will or drives to perform an act that is induced by external factors that will influence job performance. Extrinsic motivation includes such things as salary increase, fringes benefit, security provided at residence, promotion, membership of recreation club at organization’s expense, car refurbishment loans etc. There is a popular saying that “management assumes that if the right carrots are held out, managers (administrators) and employees will run like rabbits”.
Administrators deal with the four resources of human, financial, material and informational, the most important being human resources. A fundamental rule of administration is that you can’t change people’s character, you can’t even control their actions most of the time. Change comes from within or not at all. According to Peter Self (1977:239), every organization is composed of individuals, each of whom has his or her personal aims which will frequently be different from those pursued by the organization as a whole. This poses a serious problem to administrators who believe that modern life is highly organized, but commitment or loyalty to particular organizations is a very variable phenomenon depending upon such factors as social culture, career systems, and (in public administration) political and professional allegiances. According to Peter Self (1977:251), organizations are frequently valued instrumentally rather than intrinsically, so that their survival or growth depends upon their capacity to serve the goals of their members and sponsors.