Perceptions of employees towards automation: A
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Date
2006-01
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Kampala International University, College of Economics and Management
Abstract
As Organizations continue to automate in order to reduce costs and increase quality, the employee's
perceptions towards automation on the other hand have become a major critical area. This is because
most employers are having to determine how they can implement automation and at the same time
retain their workers.
Automation has resulted into companies having to make unpopular decisions such as organizational
downsizing, employee layoffs among other changes. This study sought to find out the perceptions of
New Kenya Cooperative Creameries employees towards automation. Having explored automation
and its main problems, the researcher's goal was to investigate employee perceptions and recommend
measures that can be taken in order to improve the current situation.
The investigations conducted utilized the qualitative and quantitative methodologies. The target
population being all N.K.C.C employees, the researcher divided the employees into two subsets, the
first subset was top level managers and the second subset was factory based workers. Included in this
study were 32 employees from the various departments ofN.K.C.C Ltd.
The researcher used stratified sampling to determine the sample size. This was done by dividing the
population into strata according to the different characteristics of each group. This method ensured
homogeinity, increased precision and accuracy. A self administered questionnaire was then utilized to
collect primary data and contained three categories as follows; Demographic response, general
automation opinion and intensive automation opinion. The Likert scale was used in the last category
to measure respondents opinions as follows; 4 (strongly disagree), 3 (agree), 2 (disagree) I (strongly
disagree).
A letter was then presented to N.K.C.C General Manager, requesting permission to conduct the
research in the organization. After the researcher was granted permission, the data was collected from
the respondents, compiled and analyzed to present the Research findings.
The research findings, according to the study, showed varied opinions; this is in view of the responses
the researcher received from the respondents. Most N.K.C.C employees had no negative feelings
towards automation, what they needed to be addressed by the management is automation benefits and
how it affects their duties. The findings also revealed that N.K.C.C employees were willing to enter
into a mutual relationship with the management so as to create a productive working environment.
Description
research report presented to the faculty of business and management, Kampala International University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the Degree of Bachelor of International Business Administration.
Keywords
Automation, Employees, New Kenya Cooperative Creameries Ltd.