Impact of Corona Virus Pandemic Lockdown on Employee Commitment in Deposit Money Banks Staff in Ekiti State

Impact of Corona Virus Pandemic Lockdown on Employee Commitment in Deposit Money Banks Staff in Ekiti State

Awolaja, Ayodeji. M (Ph.D)

Faculty of Management Sciences, Department of Business Administration, Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria

DOI: https://doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2023.70624

Received: 22 September 2022; Revised: 16 May 2023; Accepted: 20 May 2023; Published: 21 June 2023

ABSTRACT

The study examined the impact of the Corona-Virus Pandemic lockdown on Employee Commitment in deposit money banks in Ekiti State. This study was designed along the line of a descriptive survey. The population of staff strength of these banks is numbered to be 427. The 427 number of staff is relatively low compared to other state; nonetheless it may be unachievable if the researcher tends to sample all the registered banks. Still, the study cut across the entire population involving all members of staff of deposit money banks in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State. Regression analysis was carried out to analyze the data. The study revealed that employee commitment among members of staff of deposit money banks in Ekiti State is determined by different factors which include work schedule and workload reduction while slashes in salary and slow pace of sales insignificantly determine employee commitment of staff. The study recommended management of banks should ensure that employee workloads are well suited and incorporated in the management agenda as this will help to reduce turnover intentions. They should also ensure adequate organisation growth in respect to promotion, remuneration, training, financial and non-financial incentives to employees in order to enhance employee commitment in this sector

Keywords: Corona- Virus, Lockdown and Employee Commitment

INTRODUCTION

Covid-19 pandemic shook the world by surprise, since December 2019, which cumulated to a world-wide lockdown in the year 2020, giving an unprecedented worldwide restriction of movement within and outside the country and a massive reduction in trade and commerce globally. Moreover, this led to massive economy recession which leads to many profit-oriented organisations to restructure and reform to current realities. Many organisations resulted into downsizing, down scoping and permanent closure of business. The banking sector in particular has been faced with a significant instability from profitability, credit management, customer relationship, operational resilience and business continuity management. Moreover, in spite of the advent of the pandemic, the services of the banking sector remain very crucial to individual and businesses. The decision to stay in business in spite of the negative impact the pandemic is causing all organisations and businesses, which the banking sector is also inclusive, has become very paramount. However, any good or crumbling organisation needs labour to survive irrespective of its stand in the business.  Hence, employees are important and valuable assets of an organisation as they contribute to its development and success (Danish & Usman 2010). The most important asset has become human resources among organizations’ assets. The success of an organisation is determined by its human resources. So human resource is a vital competitive tool for organisations growth and profitability (Igwe, Onwumere & Egbo, 2014). In spite of the corona virus pandemic, the success of an organisation will be a determinant of her HR, if the human resources department deem it fit to duly compensate employees for a rigorous and stressful medium to achieve a work or goal, such a firm will benefit greatly from her employee and if otherwise, employee may be uncommitted to a work. In the space of trying to cope with the advent of the covid-19, so organisations have chosen a coping strategy in order to cut down cost to stay in business, some of the cutting cost strategy in the covid-19 era chosen for the purpose of this study includes slashes in salary, work schedule, workload reduction

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Figure 1.1: Conceptual framework of organisation career and occupational commitment

Source: The Author’s Design (2022)

METHODOLOGY

This study was designed along the line of a descriptive survey. The population of staff strength of these banks is numbered to be 427. The 427 number of staff is relatively low compared to other state, nonetheless it may be unachievable if the researcher tends to sample all the registered banks. Still, the study cut across the entire population involving all members of staff of deposit money banks in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State

RESULTS

Table 1.1: Regression Coefficients

Source: SPSS 20, 2022

From the Table 1.1, the following regression equation was established

AEC = 1.076 – 0.053_SS + 0.042 _SPS

From the regression, the AOC (Affective occupational commitment) is 1.076 when other factors (slashes in salary and slow pace of sales) were held constant. Slashes in salary has a negative and an insignificant effect on employee commitment which implies that a percent increase in salary slashes result to about 0.53% decrease in employee commitment of staff. Also, slow pace of sales has positive and an insignificant effect on employee commitment which implies that a percent increase in slow pace of sales will bring about 0.42% increases in employee commitment of staff of deposit money banks in Ekiti State. Hence, it can be concluded based on the result of hypothesis one that coronavirus has no significant effect on affective employee commitment in Ekiti State.

Table 1.2: Result of Regression Analysis

Source: SPSS 20, 2022

The Table 1.2 indicated that the model had a correlation value of 0.706, which manifests a good linear relationship between dependent (Affective occupational commitment) and independent variable (coronavirus). The R² = (0.611; p < 0.05) which depicted that 61% of the changes in dependent variable (affective occupational commitment) was accounted for by the independent variable (Coronavirus-slashes in salary and slow pace of sales). The adjusted R2 shows the actual contribution of the independent variable (slashes in salary and slow pace of sales) to the dependent variable (affective occupational commitment). The F value of 11.674 significant at .000 shows a good explanatory power of the independent variable. This showed that the model do not suffer from specification bias.

Table 1.3: Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)

Source: Field Survey Report, 2022.

The findings from the ANOVA help in indicating the weakness or the strength of the model. According to Belle (2008), an insignificant F-test value indicates a weak regression model. From the findings obtained in the Table 1.3 the F-test value is 11.674 with a significance value of 0.00 at 0.05 level of significance. Since the p-value 0.00 obtained was < 0.05, the F-test is significant hence the conclusion that the regression model was a good fit.

Hypothesis two: Coronavirus has no significant effect on employees’ normative commitment in Deposit money banks

Table 1.4:  Regression Coefficients

Source: SPSS 20, 2022

From the Table 1.4, the following regression equation was established

NEC = 0.945 + 0.125_WS

From the regression, the NOC (Normative occupational commitment) is 0.945 when other factors (Coronavirus-Works schedule) were held constant. Work schedule has significant positive effect on normative employee commitment which implies that a percent increase in work schedule during coronavirus lockdown will bring about 94.5% increases in normative employee commitment among staff of deposit money banks in Ekiti State. Hence, it can be concluded based on the result of hypothesis two that work schedule during coronavirus lockdown has positive and significant effects on normative employee commitment in Ekiti State.

Table 1.5: Result of Regression Analysis

Source: SPSS 20, 2022.

The Table 1.5 indicated that the model had a correlation value of 0.884, which manifests a good linear relationship between dependent (Normative employee commitment) and independent variable (works schedule during coronavirus lockdown). The Table further showed that the R² = (0.734; p<0.05) which depicted that 73% of the changes in dependent variable (normative employee commitment) is accounted for by the independent variable (coronavirus). More so, the adjusted R square is 63.1% which further justified the fact that the result of the study is not bias. The F value of 166.952 significant at .000 shows a good explanatory power of the independent variable. This showed that the model does not suffer from specification bias.

Table 1.6: Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)

Source: SPSS 20, 2022.

From the findings obtained in the Table 1.6, evidently the F-test value is 10.409 cannot in any way be compared to the F-tabulated value of 2.62; this implies that the significance value of 0.00 obtained from the ANOVA result is much lesser than 0.05, as such, conclusion was made that the regression model was good and not spurious.

Hypothesis three: Coronavirus has no significant effect on employees’ continuance commitment in Deposit money banks.

Table 1.7:  Regression Coefficients

Source: SPSS 20, 2022

From the Table 1.7, the following regression equation was established

CEC = 0.894 + 0.428_WR

From the model, the CEC (Continuance employee commitment) is 0.894 when other factors (workload reduction during coronavirus lockdown) were held constant. Coronavirus lockdown have significant and positive effect on continuance employee commitment which implies that a percent increase in workload reduction during the coronavirus lockdown will bring about 4.28% increases in continuance employee commitment among staff of deposit money banks in Ekiti State. Hence, it can be concluded based on the result of hypothesis three that workload reduction during coronavirus lockdown have significant effect on the continuance employee commitment of staff of deposit money banks in Nigeria.

Table 1.8: Result of Regression Analysis

Source: SPSS 20, 2022

The Table 1.8 explored that the model had a correlation value of 0.619, which manifests a good linear relationship between dependent (Continuance employee commitment) and independent variable (workload reduction). The R² = (0.576; p<0.05) which depicted that 57% of the changes in dependent variable (Continuance employee commitment) is accounted for by the independent variable (workload reduction during coronavirus lockdown). More so, the adjusted R square is 47% which further justified the fact that the result of the study is not bias. The F value of 63.521 significant at .000 shows a good explanatory power of the independent variable. This showed that the model does not suffer from specification bias and it is a good fit.

Table 1.9: Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)

Source: Field Survey Report, 2022

From the findings obtained in the Table 1.9 the F-test value is 63.521 with a significance value of 0.00 at 0.05 level of significance. Since the p-value 0.00 obtained was < 0.05, the F-test is significant hence the conclusion that the regression model was a good fit.

Table 1.10: Validation of Hypotheses

Source: Author’s Computation, (2022).

The t-test is done to test the significance of each of the explanatory variables using the student t-distribution test. It is carried out on a two-tail test and by comparing the t-cal and the t-tab.

Decision Rule:

If t-cal > t-tab, accept H₁ and reject H₀ and if t- cal < t-tab, accept H₀ and reject H₁. T-test would be employed at 95% confidence level i.e. 5% significance level.

From the Table 1.10, it is explicitly seen that all the independent variables (slashes in salary and slow pace of sales have probability value of 0.11 and 0.17 which is greater than 0.05, hence, it has no significant effect on affective employee commitment; work schedule and workload reduction have probability of 0.01 and 0.00 which is less than 0.05. As a result, work schedule and workload reduction have significant effect on normative and continuance employee commitment of staff in deposit money banks in Ekiti State.

DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATION OF FINDINGS

The study investigated the effects of coronavirus lockdown on employee commitment among staff of deposit money banks in Nigeria. To achieve the objective of the study, three research objectives, research questions and research hypotheses were raised. The hypotheses were tested through inferential statistics which involved the use of regression analysis.

Based on the result of the study, hypothesis one revealed that corona virus (slashes in salary and slow pace of sales) has negative and positive effect respectively on employee commitment when measured by affective employee commitment in Ekiti State. The implication arising from the result is that when salary is being slashed, it results to no motivation to work which reflected in the negative effect, also, slow pace of sales could be seen as movement prohibition which restricted sales of goods, products and services to the consumers. In all, corona virus lockdown has no significant effect on employee commitment of staff in deposit money banks. Government and management of banks are advised to look inwardly on how to compensate bank officers even in the midst of the deadly corona virus. This is premise on the note that when employees are well remunerated and insured, they will have enthusiasm to work for productivity as a result of maximum commitment.

The result of hypothesis two concluded that work schedule under corona virus lockdown significantly affected normative employee commitment of staff in deposit money banks in Ekiti State. This indicates that during the era of lockdown, banking industry like other services firms were exempted from movement restriction to an extent, still, the working hour was so short which varies between 9am to 2pm. With this effect, work schedule is minimal which increases employee commitment to work for productivity compared to when the normal era was in existence. Thus, bank management should intensify effort to recruits more hands on the job so that many hands can move the company faster for greater productivity with the aim of full employee commitment. However, when there is greater work with lesser labour it will result to less commitment of employees.

Lastly, corona virus (workload reduction) significantly affected continuance employee commitment of staff of deposit money banks in Ekiti State. This is not surprising because it indicates the extent to which one’s present job enables an employee to acquire new skills, training and knowledge. However, employers and management of banks should endeavor to allocate jobs that an employee have technical know-how knowledge. This is because when bank reduces work load of an employee without placing emphasis on what he can do best, it may be tantamount to no result. The implication is that the process of selecting, staffing, training and rewarding employees even after workload reduction in banking industry should contribute to employee commitment which on the other hand can be detrimental to the achievement of organisational goals and objective.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The study established that employee commitment among members of staff of deposit money banks in Ekiti State is determined by different factors which include work schedule and workload reduction while slashes in salary and slow pace of sales insignificantly determine employee commitment of staff. The study recommended management of banks should ensure that employee workloads are well suited and incorporated in the management agenda as this will help to reduce turnover intentions. They should also ensure adequate organisation growth in respect to promotion, remuneration, training, financial and non-financial incentives to employees in order to enhance employee commitment in this sector

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