Postmodern Organization And Service Delivery In The Banking Industry In Lagos State, Nigeria

ABSTRACT

The banking industry in any economy is expected to be the engine room of economic growth and development. The industry globally, has employed practices that have challenged the continued relevance of the ideal bureaucratic model of Max Weber in order to improve in its service delivery. These global practices that are at variance with the bureaucratic model are regarded in this study as postmodern organization. Postmodern organization has contributed to quality service delivery in most countries of the world. In a bid to remain globally relevant and to improve in service delivery, the Nigerian banking industry forced its way into a postmodern organization. However, in spite of the adoption and implementation of these global practices, the Nigerian banking sector still manifests turbulence and gap in quality service delivery. It was against this backdrop that this study was embarked upon to unravel the extent of postmodern organization in the Nigerian banking industry; the extent to which postmodern organization contributes to service delivery in the sector and the role of the business environment in the observed trends. Postmodern theory, Complexity theory, Structuration theory and theory Z were used to explain specific themes of the study. The study was conducted in six banks selected from the twenty one existing commercial banks in Nigeria in six Local Government Areas of the three Senatorial Districts of Lagos State, Nigeria. A sample of 371 bank employees and 584 of their customers was selected for the study from the six consolidated banks studied. The study employed both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection. These include a cross sectional survey of the banks and their customers (involving the use of two structured questionnaires) and in-depth interviews. All statistical analyses were performed using the SPSS software package. Descriptive statistics such as frequency distribution, cross tabulations, measures of central tendency and variability (mean, standard deviation) were employed. The key findings show that postmodern organization is evident in the banking industry in Nigeria and its application has improved service delivery to the economy. However, some of the features of postmodern organization such as, decentralization, employee empowerment and customer service among others, were not well implemented because they were foreign transplanted. The turbulence in the Nigerian banking industry was not limited to the shortcomings of the internal organization of the banks and poor implementation of the postmodern features. Rather, it is mainly located in the problems arising from the banks’ business external environment which the banks have little or no control over. These include the dearth of infrastructural facilities, the predominance of corruption, policy summersaults, socio-cultural misalignment/distortions, and environmentally induced poor corporate governance. It is concluded that modern organization typical of bureaucracy cannot be totally jettisoned. It can only be modified or complemented by postmodern organization especially in developing nations like Nigeria to meet situations as they present themselves.