CHAPTER 1INTRODUCTION1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDYMaintaining a place in this competitive era becomes not only the responsibility of the owners or leaders of the organization but that of the employees (Oke, &Olughor,2014). Corporate survival has been the primary goal or objective of every organization (Adewale, Abolaji and Kolade, 2011). Survival is very crucial at this period of business turbulence. Organizations strive for survival and continuity, while seeking relevance and key positions in the industry.Jones & Bartlet (2008), posit that survival and growth of organizations are contained in its goals which require energy and resources investment. From the observation, survival concept is an unwritten law of every organization and when organizations survived, without doubt, there will be available goods and services and the organization will be in continue operations, and Gross (1968), adds that survival should be an expedient factor for organizations interest.Organizations encourage employee participation and creativity as means of survival.Smith (1994), postulated that in the changing workplace and aggressive market organizations should encourage participation and creativity as means of continuity, many companies seem to make effort by offering reward for new or ingenious evidence to its workforce which overtime has lacked regulations attempt (Serkan, 2009). Therefore, Employee participation is the involvement of more employees to have access to certain arrangement and decision (Shelly 2000:7).

However, Pendleton (2001) made the suggestion that employee participation is an essential ingredient for corporate survival and this worth considering. Comparatively labourers work in union and amount of literature on participation of employees need augmented discussion in relation to the modern increased competitive business environment.Employee Participation is generally defined as a process in which influence is shared among individuals who are otherwise hierarchically unequal (Wagner, 1994). Employers seek productive efficiency but many of them fail to recognize that the means to this is increasingly locked in the heads of the people they employ. Again, the rise of global institutions presents other problems for workers as corporate decisions become more distant from the staff that they concern: a decision made to close a plant in one country may have been made many thousand miles away with little opportunity for in=igenous employees to contribute or even question decisions that dramatically affect their lives (Doyle & Nathan, 2001; Felstead et al.,2003).Corporate survival has been the most interesting topics for organizations over the years. Organizations exist to survive in the midst of environmental factors that tend to encroach on business performance. Organizations attempt to maintain the existing state of affairs, but essentially the larger part of their efforts is tilted toward survival (Mindy, 1998). The competition in the industry is getting stronger and firms are adopting different strategies to be competitive in the industry. Surviving in the global struggle to meet with increasing demand on firms in the market place has seen many researchers and academicians having a resort to pay attention to the individual employees in the organization since innovation in product and services are brought about by these individuals.However, in the review of past studies, despite the level of work that has been done, only few studies try to discuss some specific aspects of employee participation that can affect survival of organizations. This has necessitated more work to be done on the extent to which employee participation affects corporate survival especially in selected maritime firms in Port Harcourt. Given this knowledge breach, our point of departure from previous studies is to empirically establish the relationship between employee participation and corporate survival.1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEMSEmployees are the engine room of the maritime industry which makes it necessary for them to take part in the decision making process, as they interact most with the customers and know what they want and would prefer. This rest on the belief that employees are the most indispensable resources in the maritime industry and organizational goals of increased performance and harmonious employees commitment to work is best attained when they are integrated in the decision making process of the organization.The problems identified that prompted this study are Lack of Team work as employees are not allowed to work as a team, Lack of information sharing among employee and top management, Employees are not allowed to make decisions at board level, Objectives are not specifically defined by management within organization. It is based on these identified problems that this study is set to proffer a structured and accurate investigation on employee participation and corporate survival in the maritime industry in Rivers state.1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDYThe main objective of the study is to examine the relationship between employee participation and corporate survival. The specific objectives are as follows:i. To examine the relationship between team work and corporate survival.ii. To examine the relationship between information sharing and corporate survival.iii. To find out the extent to which employee decision making influence corporate survival.iv. To examine the relationship between management by objective and corporate survival.1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONSThe following research questions will be used to guide the study.i. What is the relationship between team work and corporate survival?ii. What is the relationship between information sharing and corporate survival?iii. To what extent does employee decision making influence corporate survival?iv. What is the relationship between management by objective(MBO) and corporate survival?1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESISH0: There is no significant relationship between Employee Participation and corporate survival.HA: There is a significant relationship between Employee Participation and corporate survival.

1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDYThis study is significant in the following ways;Firstly, it will assist the organization to continually allow employee to participate in the decision makings and also make allow employee to share useful information for the good of the organization.Others who will benefit from this study include, managers, business organizations, higher institutions and the society in general.1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDYThis study was carried out in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. with reference to some selected maritime firms which include Hozar Marine Services Limited and Modant Marine Limited. The researcher’s decided to limit this study to avoid travelling to other institution outside Port Harcourt, Rivers State.1.8 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDYThe major limitation of the study is the short time frame the research lasted, coupled with the tight academic time table, which prevented a very comprehensive study. The fund available to the researcher was also limited and therefore the study was limited to a small portion of the survey population.Another limitation is the difficulties, encountered by the researcher in obtaining all needed information and materials from the right source and compilation of data for the project.

1.9 DEFINITION OF TERMSA better understanding of what the write-up intends to dwell upon which is Human Resource Planning and organizational survival. It has become imperative-to define some basic terms associated with the study.This is to guard against ambiguity and distortion of the intended meaning in issues discussed or the context of the study.Corporation: It is a company or group of people authorized to act as a single entity (legally a person) and recognized as such in law.Decision making: The action or process of making important decisions.Employee: A person employed for wages or salary, especially at non-executive level.Information sharing: It referred to one-to-one exchanges of data between a sender and receiver.Management by objective: It is a management model that aims to improve performance of an organization by clearly defining objectives that are agreed to by both management and employees.Participation: The action of taking part in something.Survival: It is the act of surviving; ability to remain in business.