MODERN INFORMATION MANAGEMENT PRACTICES OF SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES (SMES) IN ENUGU METROPOLIS

ABSTRACT

This research study aimed at determining the Modern information Management practices of  Small and Medium Enterprises (SMES), in  Enugu Metropolis. Specifically, the study sought to determine the information generating practices, the information processing practices, the information disseminating practices, the information storage practices and the information retrieving practices of SMEs in Enugu Metropolis. Five (5) research questions and two (2) null hypotheses were formulated in line with the objectives to guide the study. The instrument used was the questionnaire and the population comprised 1023 respondents, which was made up of 321 employers and 702 employees in the

117 accredited SMEs in Enugu Metropolis. One hundred and twenty seven (127) employers and four hundred and eighty seven (487) employees were randomly selected from the sixty (60) companies studied. Data collected were analyzed using mean, standard deviation and t-test. The major findings include: Asking of questions enhance information generating; associating with colleagues improve information generating and co-ordination among workers. Problems encountered by SMEs include: lack of needed skills for ICT; inadequate provision of ICT equipment and facilities; absence of seminar and workshop affect employers and employees performance. The following recommendations were made based on the findings: Employers and employees of SMEs should participate in conferences, seminars and workshops in order to update their skills, abilities and knowledge on the emerging information management practices; computer is now an indispensable tool in modern :business therefore all SMEs employers and employees should be computer literate; efforts should be made by employers and employees to adopt a method of sourcing information through reading of newspapers, magazines, catalogues, watching and listening to television and radio.

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Background of the study

The   ever-changing   complex   environment   has   continued   to   pose challenges to the business enterprise. To survive, it requires the support and patronage of the public or customers as the case may be. This has become imperative most importantly in small and medium enterprises where challenge and stiff competition exist.

Therefore, to ensure the corporate existence and growth of any establishment, there is need for the managers to plan and set up rules and regulations to guide activities and human behavior. For any of the above, the manager needs relevant information, which increases his or her knowledge and reduces the rate of uncertainty or mismanagement.

Information is the basis of all decision-making in a business enterprise. Without proper information business decisions will be wrong or misguided and failure would be the obvious consequences. Information is the ingredient that makes business possible. Business functions would not be carried out effectively without information. Co-ordination of business activities as well as customers is handled through information functions. Management relies on information for their routine operations and quality decision in the areas 6f planning, orqanizing, leading,  controlling, and  staffing etc.  Information is  the  linking factor in  any organization through the use of men, material, money and machines. Therefore, information is an indispensable tool to every organizational setup. It aims at maximum utilization of both its human and material resources. It is the life wire and binding factor among the various authorities within the organization.

To  Okoro (1995) the term information stemmed from the  Latin words informare, which “carries the thought of forming matter, much as a potter forms clays”. The author opined that information has been variously defined as “to mould the mind”, “to shape the mind” or “to instruct the mind”.

Bittel (1980) referred to information as data that has been processed for specific use by manager and supervisors in decision making related to management function. Todd (1986) opined that information is the knowledge (such as basic background data about a particular job), skills (such as a specific work procedure), and feelings.(such as display of confidence in an employees ability to respond favourably) that are exchanged in the communication process through various media. These media according to Todd are memo, letter, radio, television, public address system, report etc. Odiari i(1991) defined information as  data  that  have  been  processed into  a:  form which is  meaningful to  the recipient and which is of real or perceived value in current or prospective decisions and action.

Adibe in Obayi and Okwuanaso (2000) asserted that information is the product  of  data  processing.  To  the  authors,  data  processing  operation  or activities include sorting, collecting, collating, recording, refining, summarizing, categorizing, adding and otherwise manipulating data into a meaningful or useful form for decision making. O’Brien (2002) also concurs with this line of reasoning and states that information is data that have been converted into meaningful and useful context for specific end users. Management cannot achieve the organizational goals without information. Both management and information must

be used conjunctively to achieve the goals and mission of the organization. This interrelationship is  very  important  in  understanding information  management practices.

Management get things done through and with people by using relevant information. (Akpala 1990). Management, according to Rue and Byars (1989) is the process that involves guiding or directing a group of people towards organizational goals or  objectives. Furthermore, management is  the  process undertaken by one or more individuals to co-ordinate the activities of others to achieve results not achievable by one individual acting alone. Donnelly, Gibson and Ivancevich (1992)

Management is broadly defined as a process of combining and utilizing, or of allocating an organization’s inputs (men, materials and money) by planning, organizing, directing, and controlling for the purpose of producing outputs, (goods and services or whatever the objects are) desired by customers so that the organizational objectives are accomplished. Akpala (1990)

Odiari   (1977)   citing   Fitz   Gerald   (1987)   opined   that   information management is a practice whereby the manager collects, processes, stores, and distributes information to and in decision making for managerial functions of planning, organizing, directing, controlling, staffing and co-ordinating. To Chijioke (1996) in Obayi and Okwuanaso (2003) information management practice could be regarded as those practices that accelerate collection, processing, analysis, transmission of data and presentation of facts to aid rational decision making, planning and control of business operations.

Information management practices whether defined in terms of organizational  functions  or  in  terms  of  organizational  personalities have  the primary goal of attaining the stated objectives of business enterprises. Based on these  conceptions, information  management practices in  small  and  medium enterprises should be designed so that business enterprises should know how to make proper use of available information in order to monitor trends and developments in the economy, industry, domestic and informational market; also to evaluate the sufficiency and reliability of their budget, policies, plan and other financial projection.

The industrial policy of Nigeria (1989) defined small scale enterprises as that  enterprise whose total investment is  between N100,000 and  N2 million excluding land put including working capital and medium scale enterprise as that with total investment of between N2 million and N5 million excluding land but including working capital.

At the same time, the decree establishing the national economic reconstruction fund (NERFUND) in 1989 defined (SMEs) as “those whose fixed assets excluding land and excluding cost of investment project, do not exceed N10 million.

In 1992 the National Council on Industry unified the definitions in the light of prevailing circumstances to mean as follows” small scale enterprises as comprising those with fixed Assets above N1 million but not exceeding N10 million including working capital but excluding cost of land and medium scale enterprises as those having fixed Assets of over N10 million but not excluding

working capital but excluding land”. In 1996 these definitions by the National council on industry were revised as follows: “Small scale enterprises are those having manpower strength of between 11 and 35 workers and total cost including working capital but excluding N40 million. Medium scale enterprises are those having  manpower  strength  of  between  36  and  100  workers  and  total  cost including working capital but excluding cost of land of above N40 million.

Also, the Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME)

2003  defined  a  small  sized  enterprise  as  “any  enterprise  whose  capital investment excluding cost of land is between 10 and 100 million naira and / or with a work force of between thirty one and seventy full time workers, and/or with a turnover of net more than 10 million naira; while the medium scale enterprise is defined as “an enterprise whose capital investment excluding the cost of land is between (one hundred) 100 million naira, and 100 million naira, and/or with a work force of between seventy one and two hundred full time workers, and/or with a turnover of not more than 20 million naira.

However defined, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are expected to play vital roles in Nigeria’s industrial development through information management practices in order enhance managerial functions of planning organizing, directing, co-ordinating and controlling of the operation of business enterprises.

Ajayi (2004) stated that the information and communication technological revolution has revolutionized business activities and is still revolutionizing several fields of life in direct ways. To him, the introduction of the Internet as a readily

accessible cost effective means of communication has rapidly transformed the way  the  Nigerian society  conducts business, the  way  the  society organizes politically and socially in sharing information. This is why the modern small and medium enterprises use the internet, intranets, extranets and other networks to support every step of the commercial process. This might include everything from advertising, sales and customer support on the World Wide Web, to internet security and payment mechanisms that will ensure completion of delivery and payment processes.

It could be right to note that the bulk of work in business organization is affected through information transmission. Most SMEs have an abundance of information  within  the  company.  The  information  includes  customer  orders, tender cost, estimation, production scheduling, resources planning and control. This information, according to Lau, Choy, Wong and Fungi (2003) are the main inputs for any business organization that wants to function effectively and efficiently.

The fact still remains that SMEs cannot exist successfully without well defined and analyzed information management because if the communication network is inadequate, entrepreneurs would not know what their colleagues are precisely doing and the customers requisitions at any point in time.

Information dissemination is as important as information generating and processing. Dissemination of information between management and other members of the organization or among management staff or among other employees. For example, employees are not informed of most of the plans of the

organization especially those that affects them and their work. Employees as used  in  this  study  are  those  that  are  paid  to  work  for  the  company  while employers are owners of the companies. They give employment.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

In this 21st century the world is witnessing an upsurge in the use of information management in really all aspects of human endevour. The wireless revolution and the internet phenomenon have recently changed the way people live and transact business. Also, the telecommunication and information technology industry have taken center stage in world affairs arid will continue to be so far into the foreseeable future.

Quite often business enterprises have lofty aspirations about future development, but  no  clear ideas on  how to  achieve them or  the  resources needed. Yet, they go ahead and wonder why their targets are never met or achieved. What is lacking most often is  appropriate information for  effective decision making in order to survive and remain in business.

For example, most of the conflicts that arise amongst individuals within an organization are due to lack of or adequate information flow that is faulty dissemination of information. It  has also been noted in the introduction that information is very important in any organization, and that a lot of resources (physical and mental) are spent by organizations on information management practices. However, poor, storage methods could lead to destruction or loss of

valuable information. Again, poor storage leads to difficulty in retrieval, which consequently results in deferred or poor decision-making.

Despite its importance and resources spent, often there are lots of problems that face small and medium enterprises in the area of information generation, processing dissemination, retrieval and storage. These problems go a long way to stultify the growth and development of their businesses. The growth and development problems of small and medium enterprises could be handled if the specific areas of information management that pose problem are identified in this study.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The major purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which information management practices pose problems to Small and Medium Enterprises in Enugu Metropolis.

Specifically the study sought to

1.       determine the  information generating practices that  pose  problems to

SMEs in Enugu Metropolis.

2.      determine the information processing practices that constitute problems to

SMEs in Enugu Metropolis.

3.         establish   the   problems   SMEs   in   Enugu   Metropolis   encounter   in information dissemination.

4.         determine  the   problems  SMEs  in   Enugu   Metropolis  encounter  in information storage.

5.       find out the information retrieval practices that pose problems, to SMEs in

Enugu Metropolis.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The result of this study will be of immense benefit to small and medium enterprises. It  will  assist them to  bring to light the information management practices that business organisation need. The outcome was expected to bring about structural and operational changes in organizations as regard generation, processing,- dissemination, storage and retrieval of information. Small and medium enterprises have suffered from inability and difficulty to generate, process, disseminate, store and retrieve information for a long time. As has been observed, this has led to their stunted growth.

Information technology providers will also benefit from the result of this study. It will help them to be better informed on those areas that require modification.

The government (federal, state and local) will also benefit from the result. It will bring to light the impact of modern technological changes in the area of information management practices which will help the various government establishment on how to carry out their various functions in consonance with technological changes.

Business education curriculum planners will benefit from the results of this study.  Courses  that   promote  information  management  practices  can   be

integrated into the curriculum. By so doing, lecturers and students will live up to their vocation in this era of information technology.

Business educator will benefit from the result of this study. They will know the vacuums of information technology skill and practices they need to fill up in their academic lives and timely too, in order to remain relevant in the present technological era.

Students of the various business education departments will also benefit from the result of this study. It will help them to be better informed and the relevant information management practices they are required to posses, especially those who  may have prospects for  advancement in  the  business world. They will also know the level of skills they currently possess and seek to fill any gap/vacuum created.

Future researchers in this area of study stand to benefit a lot from         the result of this study because they’ will use! it as a guide and foundation for their researcher work.

Finally, the study was expected to boost the volume of literature in the area of information management. Thus, the solution to a problem starts with the identification of the problem. This was the focus of this study.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The following research questions were answered in the study.

1.         To what extent do the information generating practices pose problems to small and medium scale enterprises in Enugu metropolis?

2.         To  what extent do information processing practices pose problems to small and medium scale enterprises in Enugu metropolis?

3.         To what extent do information disseminating practices pose problems to small and, medium scale enterprises in Enugu metropolis?

4.         To what extent do small and medium enterprises in Enugu metropolis encounter problems in information storage?

5.         To what extent do small and medium enterprises in Enugu metropolis encounter problems in retrieving information?

NULL HYPOTHESES

The following null hypotheses are developed to further address the problem. They will be tested at 0.05 level of significance

H01     –         There  are  no  significant  differences in  the  mean  responses  of employers and employees in small scale enterprises on problems encountered in information management practices

H02     –         There  are  no  significant  differences in  the  mean  responses  of employers   and   employees  in   medium  scale   enterprises   on problems encountered in information management practices. .

DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY

This  study  was  delimited  to  the  information  management  practices adopted by the accredited small and medium enterprises in Enugu metropolis published in NASME into media of April 2005 page 29-31.

The  areas  of  information  management  covered  in  this  study  are information generation, processing, dissemination, storage and retrieval.

₦5,000.00 – DOWNLOAD FULL PROJECT DOWNLOAD FULL PROJECT Added to cart

---

---

---

---

Related Project Topics :