Research Journal of Commerce & Behavioural Science - RJCBS

Table of Contents 

Articles 

PREDICTING EMPLOYEES STRESS AND INTENTTON TO QUIT: EXAMINING THE EFFECTS OF LEADERS’ 

WASTEFUL MANAGEMENT PRACTICES (Case study-Deber Tabor Hospital) 

Assegid Demissie Demissie Shishigu 

BRAND PREFERENCES OF THE CONSUMERS IN BUYING PACKAGED DRINKING WATER 

Ramesh Kumar S, N. Vanitha, Dr. K. Sathya Bama, Dr. G. Padma Parvathy, 

Transfer Pricing in India – A Distant Concept ?? 

Kashyap Arunkumar Ganatra 

STRATEGIC CUSTOMER RETENTION THROUGH CRM; A STUDY OF PERCEPTION OF INSURANCE 

OFFICIALS 

Biswa mohan dash 

COMMUNICATION AND DECISION MAKING IN NIGERIAN FAMILY SYSTEM 

Ajayi Johnson Olusegun, Toyin Adefolaju

Predicting Employees Stress and Intention To Quit: Examining The Effects Of 

Leaders’ Wasteful Management Practices (Case Study-Deber Tabor Hospital) 

Assegid Demissie Shishigu, 

Asst. Professor, 

Department of management, P.o.Box 196 

University of Gondar, Ethiopia. 

ABSTRACT 

The purpose of this study is to assess the perception of medics of their leaders‟ wasteful managerial 

practices and its effect on employees stresses level and intention to quit the hospital. All medical staff 

of Debr-Teabor Hospital South Gondar, Ethiopia was taken as a sample of the study.73 percent of 

them participated in the study. Instruments used were adapted from standard instruments and 

Cronbach‟s Alpha was used to test its reliability. The result of the study shows that wasteful 

managerial practices are rampant in the Hospital. Most employees are under stress at least some times 

in a week. Almost all of them have intention to leave the Hospital. Study reveals a slight influence of 

wasteful managerial practices on employees stress, but do not show on their intention to leave. 

Key words: wasteful managerial practices, stress, intention to leave 

INTRODUCTION 

Staff members in organizations work closely with their bosses. In a large majority of organizations, 

leaders‟ management practices are used which do not contribute to organization‟s objectives (Gupta 

C.B. 1992). Such practices are unproductive and occur slowly and silently. Leaders also fail to 

recognize and control them (Ibid). Employee emotional exhaustion is common in many organizations 

(Maslach, Schaufelli, & Leiter, 2001). 

Consequently, researchers have been studying correlates and consequences of burnout for decades. 

It is further understood that employee emotional exhaustion has a negative impact not only upon 

individual workers but upon entire organizations, including other organization‟s employees and the 

people they serve (Garner, Knight, & Simpson, 2007). 

However, although there is a growing body of literature that describes how good leadership 

practices and happy employees contribute to the overall success of an organization, little academic and 

empirical research is done about the effect of leader‟s wasteful Managerial Malpractices on employee 

stress and their intention to leave. 

Hence, this descriptive study is designed to assess the extent and relations among leaders‟ 

Wasteful Managerial Malpractices, level of employee stress and employees‟ intention to quit 

particularly in DebreTabor Hospital, Ethiopia. 

Statement of the Problem 

Most leaders are using management practices, which don‟t contribute to the fulfillment 

organizational objectives and happiness of employees. There are numerous evidences of the rampant 

wasteful Managerial Malpractices and destructive employee stress and conception to leave the 

organization, however, few academic and empirical researches has been conducted overall, and a large 

portion of it comes from the business management community (Saks, 2006).This study is designed to 

assess how wasteful Managerial Malpractices affects employee‟s stress and intention to quit in public 

organizations such as, Hospital. 

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY 

The main aim of this study is to examine the extent of leaders‟ Wasteful Managerial Malpractices 

and its impact on employees‟ feeling of stress and their intention to quit. 

www.theinternationaljournal.org > RJCBS: Volume: 02, Number: 11, September-2013 Page 1

The specific objectives are 

1. To assess the extent of Wasteful Managerial Malpractices (in terms of organizational politics, 

confusing message, unproductive meetings, hypocrisy, and withholding information ) in the Hospital; 

2. To examine the level of employees stress in the Hospital; 

3. To examine the level of employees intention to leave the Hospital; 

4. To investigate the effect of leaders‟ Wasteful Managerial Malpractices on employees‟ stress 

and their intention to leave; 

5. To assess demographic variable determine level of employees‟ stress; 

6. To give recommendation and suggestion for policy makers 

Research Questions 

The research questions deemed most important for this study were narrowed down to the following 

four: 

1. To what extent do leaders perceived performing Wasteful Managerial Malpractices in the hospital? 

2. To what extent do employees are feeling stress? 

3. To what extent employees develop intention to quit their organization? 

3. What is the effect of leaders‟ Wasteful Managerial Malpractices on employees‟ stress and intention 

to leave the organization? 

4. To what extent do demographic variables of employees differ in their report of stress and intention 

to leave? 

LITERATURE REVIEW 

WASTEFUL MANAGERIAL MALPRACTICE 

Best Management Practices (BMPs) are a good collection of small efforts that leader should follow 

to the best of his ability. Each practice will take only a small investment in time and/or money to 

implement it http://www.pprc.org. However, in majority of organizations, managerial practices, 

which do not contribute to the achievement of organization‟s objectives, are common. Such practices 

are wasteful. But people fail to recognize and control them. Quite often these practices are taken for 

granted as a normal feature of organizational life (Gupta C.B., 1992). According to Denis 

Donovan,(nd) Waste means to expend uselessly; to squander; to neglect. Practice – performance or 

execution, as opposed to theory; custom or habit. Placing these terms together gives Wasteful practices 

which mean to habitually squander or neglect. In terms of organization operations, wasteful practices 

occur so frequently that we become blind to them. They are “custom or habit” (Ibid). The basic cause 

of Wasteful Managerial Malpractice is that individuals tend to pursue their own personal objectives 

without contributing to organizational goals (Gupta C.B. 1992). 

In this study, Wasteful Managerial Malpractice is treated in terms of organizational politics, 

confusing message, unproductive meetings, hypocrisy, and withholding information. These 

dimensions are the most common counterproductive practices that have crept into an organization and 

come part of its normal operations. These counterproductive practices or demodulators exist because 

they are allowed to and they remain because little has been done about them (Ibid). These wasteful 

practices in work places are briefly presented below: 

Organizational politics: Organizational politics is actions by individuals, which are directed toward 

the goal of furthering their own self-interests without regard for the well-being of others or their 

organization (Kacmar and Baron, 1999).Organizational politics is usually defined as behavior 

strategically designed to maximize self-interests and therefore contradicts the collective organizational 

goals or the interests of other individuals (Ferris, Russ, & Fandt, 1989). This behavior was frequently 

associated with manipulation, defamation, subversiveness, and illegitimate ways of overusing power to 

attain one‟s objectives (Ferris & Kacmar, 1992). Organizational politics is a general method for 

getting things and using power for personal gain in an organization (Barton,et al.,1999).It usually 


operates according to unwritten rules of success that send subtle, ambiguous and anxiety-producing 

messages to employees about politically “correct” behaviors such as whom to fear, whom to appraise, 

whom to avoid, whom to blame (Ibid). 

Organizational politics play a prominent role in likely influence several important work-related 

attitudes and behaviors (Kacmar & Carlson, 1997). For example, organizational politics perceptions 

have been found to be related to increased job anxiety (Cropanzano, Howes, Grandey, & Toth, 1997).It 

involves competition for owner, for influence, and favor and of course promotions. Employees are too 

scared to go against their own bosses, even when they know that their bosses are wrong and they have 

feasible and sometimes brilliant ideas to improve productivity. This is why there is no innovation and 

status quos remains for years, producing inefficient and ineffective (Barton et al., 199). 

Ferris et al. (1989) also argued that when employees perceive high levels of organizational politics 

and feel that they have little control over these organizational processes, organizational politics likely 

will be perceived as a threat. Individuals with low control, perceptions of organizational politics were 

related with lower levels of satisfaction with supervisor than for individuals with high control (Ibid). 

Confusing message: Mangers must hold nothing back of interest to employees except those very few 

items that are absolutely confidential. But in reality one of the most counterproductive rules in 

organizations is distributing information selectively and do not make their expectations known .This 

create a huge. Workers‟ frustrate with the absence of adequate communication (Barton,et al., 

(1999).The problem with confusing messages is that after a while, workers realize that when 

everything is a priority, nothing is a priority; they waste large amount of energy and time working on 

the wrong task, accomplishing the wrong results, and becoming extremely frustrated in the processes 

and de-motivated (Ibid). 

Unproductive meeting: Meetings are vital to corporate success and no one is against them. But in 

reality most practices show that managers in organizations attend too many meeting weekly which 

sometimes become a reason for resentment in the part of the managers as well as employees (Hackman 

&Johensin, 2004). Meetings provide a controlling factor in achieving the organizational objectives. 

But they can be major wasteful management practices when the attendees have nothing except being a 

part in the room to listen the leader on what he wants, and does not want any feedback or opinion. 

Most meetings are poorly planned and ineptly led anyone with responsible must make meeting short 

and satisfying (Ibid) 

Hypocrisy: Hypocrites are people who publicly uphold strict moral norms; expecting and demanding 

others to follow them, but who privately violate these espoused standards in their own behavior 

Valdesolo, P., & DeSteno, D. (2007) and Adam, D. et.al nd). Hypocrisy is the discrepancy between 

what respondents think is normative and how they actually behave. The discrepancy between what 

respondents believe other people should do and what they actually would do themselves in such a 

situation (Batson & Thompson, 2001). 

Withholding information: some managers feel powerful by not sharing information with their staffs. 

They do not take the time or care enough to pass on the information the staff need to know, or they 

deliberately hold back information (Barton, et al, 1999). 

EMPLOYEES’ STRESS 

The word „stress‟ is now part of most people‟s daily vocabulary but its meaning remain unclear. 

Stress is a natural part of life, and occurs whenever there are significant changes in our lives, whether 

positive or negative. It is generally believed that some stress is okay (sometimes referred to as 

“challenge” or “positive” stress) but when stress occurs in amounts that individuals cannot cope with, 

both mental and physical changes may occur (Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, 

2000,Swanson, Naomi G., 2000). 


According to Grimshaw, (1999), while it is not possible to draw definitive causal links, research is 

showing strong relationships between the experience of chronic stress and the development of illness 

and disease. In one survey, 60 percent of workers reported losing productivity due to stress while at 

work during the one month, and American workers surveyed roughly 30 percent of them reported 

“extreme” stress levels (American Psychological Association, 2008).It is generally accepted that 

untreated workplace stress is associated with increased levels of employee absenteeism and turnover, 

decreased levels of productivity, as well as lost workdays due to disability or sick leave (Williams, 

2003). Stress can also lower the immune system and play a role in a person‟s susceptibility to more 

colds, flu and other infectious diseases. Additionally, people who are stressed are more likely to 

experience pain-related conditions, and a host of other ailments, from teeth grinding and chest 

tightness to fatigue (Wein, Harrison. 2000). 500 Canadians were asked the question, “Thinking about 

stress in your life, how often do you feel really stressed, In response, 9% of Canadians said they felt 

really stressed all the time, 43% felt really stressed a few times a week, while 24% felt really stressed 

about once a Month (American Psychological Association, 2008). Researchers found that to cope with 

stress, 40 percent of people smoked, 41 percent gambled, 35 percent shopped and 27 percent drank 

alcohol (American Psychological Association.2008). An organization might wish to be seen as caring 

and as looking after their employees in order to raise morale or improve the company 

image.(Grimshaw, 1999 ).Change must come from the top, and it is therefore imperative for managers 

to recognize that they have a legal and moral responsibility to protect the physical and mental 

wellbeing of their workers (Clark, 2002), instrumental support may offer the resources to resolve a 

problem or stop it from arising in the first place (Wichert, 2002).one of the research questions of this 

study assess this issue. 

INTENTION TO LEAVE 

Quitting of an employee means quitting of tacit knowledge and loss of social capital (Ongori, 

2007). If job is dissatisfying, the withdrawal process is activated and individuals begin thinking about 

quitting and start searching for alternative positions, before forming an intention to quit and then 

actually leaving the organization (Amah, 2008). According to a recent Gallup Organization study of 

approximately 2 million workers at 700 companies, the number one reason people leave their jobs is 

because of “bad bosses.” 3/4 of people voluntarily leaving jobs don't quit their jobs; they quit their 

bosses (Herman, Roger, 1999). The other research question of the present study inquires the 

relationship between wasteful managerial Malpractices and their intention to quit. 

METHODS OF STUDY 

Population and Sample: The population of the study is 74, the total of medical staffs of Debretabor 

Hospital, South Gondar, Ethiopia. To examine leaders‟ Wasteful Management Malpractices, 

employees‟ stress level and their intention to leave in this study group, the total population is taking as 

a sample. Questionnaires were distributed to all 74 medical staffs, and 54 workable questionnaires 

were returned. 

The study Instruments: To measure “Wasteful Management Malpractices” an instrument, containing 

22 items is developed from literatures of (C.B.Gupta, 1992, C.N.parkinson, 1957, Barton,et al,1999, 

Hackman &Johensin, 2004). The item was presented to the respondents as a statement to which they 

were asked to indicate the extent to which they agree/disagree along a five-point Likert response scale 

(1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree). The reliability of the instrument, Cronbach‟s Alpha is used 

as a measure of internal consistency, to determine if all the items within the instrument measure the 

same thing Reliability Statistics of organizational malpractice is.914. The stress self reporting test” 

was adapted from Canadian Mental Health Association Newfoundland and Labrador Division (August 

2005) containing 12 items. The item was presented to the respondents as a statement to which they 

were asked to indicate the extent to which they agree/disagree along a five-point Likert response scale 

(0 = rarely, 1 = a few times a week, 2 = almost always). Reliability Statistics of Reliability Statistics of 

job stress is.0.885. The questionnaire included one item measuring respondents‟ inclination to leave 


their job. Which is adopted from, Zaman Khalid et al, (June 2010).The item was presented to the 

respondents as a statement to which they were asked to indicate the extent to which they 

agree/disagree along a five-point Likert response scale (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree). 

DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 

Descriptive statistics of Wasteful Management Malpractice& Intention to Leave 

As it is revealed in Table 1 the mean of the Wasteful Management Practice is (M=3.52, SD .657) 

.the means of all components of Wasteful Managerial Practices are more than (M=3.5). The mean rate 

Employees intention to leave the organization is (M=4.31). 

This analysis indicates that the respondents perceived the prevalence of Wasteful Managerial 

Practices in the Hospital. The medical staffs of the hospital have a strong desire to leave the 

organization whenever they get a better job. 

Table1: Wasteful Management Malpractice& Intention to Leave 

J Mean Std. Deviation 

wasteful Management malpractice 3.52 .657 

1. Organizational politics 3.50 .944 

2. Confusing message 3.58 .773 

3. Unproductive meeting 3.51 .865 

4. Hypocrisy 3.68 .885 

5. Withholding information 3.71 .893 

Employees intention to leave 4.31 .886 

Extent of Employees Stress 

Table2 shows that 46.2 percent of the respondents confirm as they are under stress “a few times a 

week”, 34.6 present are “rarely” in stress while the rest and 19.2 percent of them experience stress 

“almost always”. In general almost 65.4 percent of medical staff of Debre-Tabor Hospital is under 

stress. 

Table 2: Stress frequencies of employees 

Frequency 

Percent 

Rarely 18 34.6 

a few times a week 24 46.2 

almost always 10 19.2 

Extent of Wasteful Management practices, Stress level, and intention to leave by profession 

Table 3 clearly shows that almost all respondents perceived the existence of Wasteful Management 

Practices in the hospital .except Midwifery the rest professionals have higher intention to leave the 

organization. Regarding to the level of stress in employees all of them are experiencing stress a few 

times a week but it is sever among Pharmacy technicians 

Table3: extent of Wasteful Management Malpractices, intention to leave and Stress level by 

profession 

Profession Wasteful Management Malpractices intention to leave Stress level 

M Std. D M Std. D M Std. D 

Nurse 3.57 .632 4.67 .606 .85 .471 

Lab Tech 3.34 .832 4.00 1.247 .74 .648 

Pharmacy 3.55 .917 4.17 .408 1.17 .175 

Midwifery 3.40 .311 3.29 .756 .80 .151 


The relationship among Wasteful Managerial Practices, Employees’ stress and 

leave 

intention to 

The following Table 4 clearly reveals that Wasteful Managerial Practices has significant positive 

relationship with feeling of stress (r=.331 * ) and intention to leave (r=.286 * ).Regarding to components 

of Wasteful Managerial Practice “Confusing message” and “Unproductive meeting” are significantly 

and positively correlated with both “employees feeling of stress” and “intention to leave”. But 

organizational politics have significant relationship with employees‟ intention to leave but has no with 

“feeling of stress” while Hypocrisy is significantly correlated with “feeling of stress” but not with 

employees “intention to leave”. But Withholdings information is not significantly correlated with 

employees feeling of stress and employees‟ intention to leave the organization. Feeling of stress is 

found have not significant correlation with employees‟ intention to leave. 

Table 4: Correlations among wasteful managerial malpractices, Employees’ stress and 

intention to leave 

intention to leave feeling of stress 

Wasteful Managerial Malpractices .286 * .331 * 

organizational politics .618 ** .113 

Confusing message .317 * .442 ** 

Unproductive meeting .317 * 276 * 

Hypocrisy .250 .404 ** 

Withholding information .081 243 

feeling of stress .139 

Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). *. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2- 

tailed). 

Extent of Influence of Wasteful Managerial Practices on employees’ stress and intention to leave 

As table 5 reveals The linear combination of the independent Wasteful Managerial Practices 

variable was significantly related to the dependent variable employees stress, R 2 = .110, Adjusted R 2 = 

.092, at Sig. .018 and an estimated 9.2 percent of variance in employees stress index can be accounted 

for Wasteful Managerial Malpractices‟ dimensions predictor. However, this study failed to show a 

significant influence between Wasteful Managerial practices and employees intention to leave and as 

well as between employees stress and their intention to leave. 

Table 5: regression Analysis between Wasteful managerial practices and employees stress 

Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Sig. 

1 .331 .110 .092 .018 

CONCLUSION 

The purpose of this study was to assess the extent of wasteful managerial practices in public 

hospital as perceived by its medical staff and. examine the level of their stress and intention to leave 

the hospital and the relationship among them. 

The result of the study reveals that wasteful managerial practices are perceived as it is common in the 

hospital. This finding also shows almost all of the medical staffs are more or less under stress. 

Whenever there is an opportunity to get a better job all of most of them have a strong desire to leave 

the hospital. The result of the study also shows that as there is a positive relationship between wasteful 

managerial practices and employees stress and between wasteful managerial practices and employees 

to leave. But there is no a significant relationship is found between employees stress and employees to 

leave. 


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http://www.pprc.org. 


Abstract 

Brand Preferences of the Consumers in Buying Packaged Drinking Water 

N. Vanitha, Assistant Professor, 

Dr. K. Sathya Bama, Associate Professor, 

Department of Commerce, A.P.C. Mahalaxmi College for Women, Tuticorin. 

Dr. S. Ramesh Kumar, Associate Professor and Head, 

Dr. G. Padma Parvathy, Research Assiatant, 

Research Department of Commerce, V.O.C College, Tuticorin, India. 

The aim of the present study is to examine the brand preferences of the consumers in buying packaged 

drinking water. Interviews of 607 randomly selected consumers representing four districts in the 

southern district of Tamil Nadu. The brand preference depends on the family type of the respondents. 

The respondents give first preference for the more quantity and service quality. The change of service 

quality is a key factor to retain or switch over to another brand. The low and high education level of 

the respondents does not associate to shift to another brand. Government should take steps to create 

awareness in checking of quality marks in the packaged drinking water. 

Key words: Packaged drinking water, brand preference and service quality. 

INTRODUCTION 

Consumption patterns are changing in the packaged mineral water industry. Mineral water is now 

served on trains and aero planes. Besides the standard one liter bottle which is still the largest seller, a 

variety of pack sizes have been introduced (Nithiyanandan, 2000). For the uppermost echelons of 

society, packaged water has now become a common place commodity and almost a dare necessity in 

metros. The industry’s phenomenal growth in the recent years can be attributed to the rising incidence 

of water-borne diseases, improper municipal supplies, and the evolved health consciousness of people 

as well as globalization, which has brought in tremendous tourist inflow. Now since the Industry has 

matured, only big companies with branded products are in the fray to capture a large market share. 

Most of the small-scale producers sell non-branded items and serve small markets (Murali and Ramesh 

2007). 

2. MATERIALS AND METHODS 

2.1 SAMPLE SIZE 

The quantitative data from the study was collected from 607 respondents randomly selected from 

southern districts of Tamil Nadu. In the field work, the data were collected through a well-structured 

questionnaire through personal interview mode after obtaining consent from them. 

2.2 RESARCH DESIGN 

The survey analyses the brand preferences of the consumers in buying packaged drinking water 

during the period of May 2011 to April 2013 as a part of Doctoral research work. The questionnaire 

was divided into two sections (1) Demographic factor, (2) brand preferences of packaged drinking 

water. 

2.3 PILOT STUDY 

The questionnaire was pre-tested by collecting data from 45 respondents. The questionnaire 

was revised and restructured based upon the results from the pilot study. The final draft was prepared 

after revising the schedule based upon the feedback on the pilot study. 


2.4 DATA ANALYSIS 

The collected data was analyzed by using the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) 

software package version 17. The t test has been used to infer the association between service quality 

and shifting to another brand. The one-way analysis of variance has been used to find out the 

relationship between the education and shifting to another brand. The correlation analysis has been 

used to find out the inter relationship between brand loyalty, better quality, more quantity and quality 

service. The regression analysis has been used to low quality, bad odor, fungus/dust/worms, 

gus/dust/worms, and containers’ damage. Factor Analysis has been used to narrate the key factor 

indicators of service quality, particular source and availability. 

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 

HEALTH PROBLEM AND REASONS TO SWITCH OVER TOANOTHER BRAND – 

REGRESSION 

Most of the respondents expect price discounts as a percent of the sale promotion scheme. Quite a 

number of the respondents suggested improving the quality of the advertisement (Sasirega Ramani and 

Sudharsava Reddy, 1999). 

Table 1 

Health problem and reasons to switch over to another brand –Regression 

Ho: Affecting health is not associated to the variables of low quality, bad odour, fungus/dust/worms, 

and containers’ damage. 

Coefficients a 

Model Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients t P value 

B Std. Error Beta 

1 (Constant) 2.141 .545 3.928 .000* 

Low quality .141 .090 .124 1.561 .121 

Bad odor -.012 .080 -.012 -.145 .885 

Fungus/dust/worms -.104 .085 -.099 -.218 .225 

Containers damage .072 .087 .066 .821 .413 

R value 0.148 

R square 0.022 

F statistics (4, 162) 0.913 

a. Dependent Variable: Affects health 

Dependent variable: Affecting health 

Independent variable: Low quality, bad odor, fungus/dust/worms, gus/dust/worms, containers 

damage 

Multiple R: 0.148 

R square: 0.022 

Adjusted R2: 0.002 

F value: 0.913 

P value: 0.000 

R 2 describes the amount of variability has been explained by independent variables of low quality, bad 

odor, fungus/dust/worms, gus/dust/worms, containers damage. Here, it is (0.022) 2%. Adjusted R 2 

gives the indication, whether there is any insignificant factor or not. It should be close to R 2 value 

(Multiple). Here R 2 (0.022) and adjusted R 2 (0.002) are very close to each other, which indicates the 

good model. (Adjusted R 2 always < or = multiple R square). 


The regression analysis R 2 value always increases with the inclusion of parameters, but adjusted R 2 

may not be. This indicates the presence of nuisance parameters into the model. 

The significant P-value of F test indicates that there is at least one variable, which has significant 

contribution to the model. The P-value of t – test is significant (P RJCBS: Volume: 02, Number: 11, September-2013 Page 11

All the factors have to inter – correlation positive values. 

1. Highly correlated with more quantity and quality service 0.395. 

2. Better quality correlates with brand loyalty 0.324. 

3. Quality service correlates with better quality 0.199. 

4. Quality service correlates with brand loyalty 0.243. 

Table 4 

Influence of service quality in shifting to other brand 

Shifting to other brand N X t value P value 

Shift 168 2.95 1.451 

Not shift 439 2.55 1.342 

3.203 0.001* 

*Significant at 5% level 

This table reveals the relationship between service quality and shifting to another brand. As per the 

rejection null hypothesis, there is a significant relationship between service quality and shifting to 

another brand. Hence, it is concluded that, the packaged drinking water brand shifting to another is due 

to insufficient service quality. The change of service quality is a key factor to retain or switch over to 

another brand. 

Table 5 

Influence of education in shifting to other brand 

N X F value P value 

Poor service Illiterate 7 3.71 1.704 

School level 87 4.48 1.098 1.484 .230* 

College level 74 4.30 1.332 

Old stock Illiterate 7 2.86 1.345 

School level 87 3.08 1.025 1.581 .209* 


High price Illiterate 7 2.86 1.215 

School level 87 2.78 1.176 1.404 .249* 


Sales man behaviour Illiterate 7 3.14 1.864 

School level 87 3.11 1.450 .012 .988* 


Credit cancellation Illiterate 7 2.71 1.496 

School level 87 2.98 1.397 2.817 .063* 


Residence change Illiterate 7 3.00 1.414 

School level 87 2.74 1.351 .426 .654* 


*Significant at 5% level 

Table 5 analyses the relationship of education among the respondents to the shifting of the sources of 

purchasing. As the acceptance of the null hypothesis, there is no relationship in shifting the sources of 

purchasing and different levels of education among the respondents. This analysis concluded that the 

different levels of education do not make changes in shifting the brand in purchasing. The low and 

high education level of the respondents is not associated to shift to another brand. 


Table 6 

Reasons in changing particular Source 

Total Variance Explained 

Compone 

nt 

Initial Eigen values 

Tota 

l 

% of 

Varianc 

e 

Cumulativ 

e % 

1 2.93 

4 

29.339 29.339 2.93 

4 

2 1.37 13.757 43.096 1.37 

6 

6 

3 1.13 11.317 54.414 1.13 

2 

2 

4 .948 9.484 63.898 

5 .734 7.337 71.235 

6 .710 7.103 78.338 

7 .626 6.257 84.595 

8 .589 5.889 90.485 

9 .513 5.133 95.618 

10 .438 4.382 100.000 

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. 

Extraction Sums of Squared 

Loadings 

Tota % of Cumulativ 

l Varianc e % 

e 

29.339 29.339 2.15 

13.757 43.096 1.89 

3 

11.317 54.414 1.39 

8 

Rotation Sums of Squared 

Loadings 

Tota % of Cumulativ 

l Varianc e % 

e 

21.500 21.500 

0 

18.931 40.431 

13.983 54.414 

Rotated Component Matrix a 

Component 

1 2 3 

Reputation of the seller .072 .800 .127 

Quality .063 .449 .721 

Nearness .077 -.203 .846 

Credit .245 .685 -.096 

Service quality .568 .092 .234 

Force of sales man .553 .321 -.257 

Friends recommendable .745 -.224 .074 

Price .474 .326 -.021 

Quantity .586 .424 -.048 

Quick delivery .568 .309 .092 

Factor I Service quality 

1. Friends recommendation 0.745 

2. Quantity 0.586 

3. Service Quality 0.568 

4. Quick delivery 0.474 

5. Price 0.474 

6. Force of salesman 0.553 

Factor II Particular Source: 

1. Reputation of the seller 0.800 

2. Credit 0.685 

Factor III Availability 

1. Nearness 0.846 

2. Quality 0.721 


Principal component analysis is the method of extraction. Vari max is the rotation method. As per the 

Kaiser criterion, three factors in the initial solution are greater than 1. Together, they account for 

almost 54.41 (54%) of the variability in the original variables. Table 6 shows the Eigen value to the 

factors. Using the above rotated component value; the variables are classified into three factors, 

namely service quality, particular source and availability. 

1. Service Quality is the name given to the first set of factors and is identified through factor 

analysis. All these variables have factor loading. All items have one commonality. 

In addition to this, friends’ recommendation is considered as the most important factor in maintaining 

service quality. It is followed by quantity and service quality. Quick delivery is considered as an 

influential factor in changing specific source of purchasing packaged drinking water. Further, price 

and force of the salesman are considered as important for the specific source of purchasing packaged 

drinking water. Hence, it is essential to follow service quality to lead a better service. 

2. Particular source: The variable reputation of the seller and credit approval influence the brand 

in the effective manner. Reputation of the seller is considered as an important factor to maintain the 

source preferences. It is followed by allowing credit facility to the customer who is observed as an 

important factor for source. Hence, it concludes that particular reputation of the seller and credit 

facility are very essential to maintain the preference of source of purchasing packaged drinking water. 

3. Availability: 

In addition to this, the respondents change the source of purchasing packaged drinking water due to 

quality and easy availability of the product. 

The respondents give first preference to service quality followed by availability and particular source. 

In the availability of the packaged drinking water, they highly prefer nearness followed by particular 

source, and they give importance to reputation of the seller. In service quality, they give preference to 

friends’ recommendation and quantity. 

Conclusion 

The single and joint families prefer different types of brands. The respondents give first preference for 

the more quantity and service quality. Affected health is connected by the independent variables of low 

quality, bad odor, fungus/dust/worms, gus/dust/worms, and containers’ damage. The change of 

service quality is a key factor to retain or switch over to another brand. The low and high education 

level of the respondents is not associated to shift to another brand. In the availability of the packaged 

drinking water, they highly prefer nearness followed by particular source, and they give importance to 

reputation of the seller. In service quality, they give preference to friends’ recommendation and 

quantity. During travel, most of the respondents buy unbranded mineral water from the motels. The 

government and private business should supply quality mineral water at reduced prices. Thus, 

consumers should get quality and correct price on the products. Government should take steps to 

create awareness in checking of quality marks in the packaged drinking water. 

References 

Murali D. and Ramesh C., “Packaged Drinking Water Industry – What we see is the Tip of the Ice 

Berg”, Business Line – e.paper, Friday, July 27-2007. 

Nithiyanandan, K.“Market status of mineral water industry with special reference to TEAM”, MBA 

project report, Department of Management studies, Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai, April 2000. 

Sasirega Ramani and Sudharsava Reddy, C.H., “A study on Institutional consumer perception of 

packaged drinking water”, MBA Project Report, Depart of Management Studies, Sri Sairam 

Engineering College, Chennai, May 1999. 


Transfer Pricing in India – A Distant Concept?? 

Mr. Ganatra Kashyap A. 

Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. 

Abstract 

This paper gives a basic idea about what is transfer pricing and also highlights the essentials which go 

in drafting of these policies. The importance of foreign direct investment and the role of MNE is also 

checked. The tax implications and other reasons of these policies are also covered. The coverage of 

transfer pricing in developing countries and its impact is looked into. The question which arises in 

mind is that „Is this concept already here or still it is a far fetched distant dream which is yet to take 

roots in India‟ ? 

Keywords: Transfer Pricing, Tax implications, Role of MNE, Developing Countries. 

Introduction 

‘What is Transfer pricing’? 

Like any transaction between independent enterprises, management of a firm in a Multinational 

Enterprise (MNE) system has to fix a price for an intra-firm transaction. This price is known as 

„transfer price‟. It is defined as „the price set by related corporations for the sale or other transfer of 

goods. Services and/or intangible property thereof‟ (UNCTAD 1997). The OECD defines „transfer 

price‟ as „prices at which an enterprise transfer physical goods and intangible property or provides 

service to associated enterprise‟ (article 9 of the OECD model tax convention). Consequently the term 

„transfer pricing‟ refers to the process of attaching value of transfer of goods, services and technology 

between related entities. 

Thus, transfer prices are essentially set within a single enterprise as against market prices set in 

transaction between independent enterprises, where only market is the guiding factor. Apart from this, 

the associated enterprises in an MNE system are guided by the „group‟s objectives‟, which may differ 

from the objectives of the associated enterprises. This makes transfer pricing a complex exercise, 

different from price determination by an enterprise in its transaction with another independent 

enterprise under uncontrolled conditions. 

Owing to complexities involved in intra-firm transactions, tax authorities often find examination of 

transfer prices a difficult exercise. In many cases, depending upon the method of transfer pricing, 

different values of transfer prices can be arrived at. In such situations instead of one price, a range of 

transfer prices has to be identified. 

Apart from the reason stated above, factors responsible for making transfer pricing a dominant issue in 

international taxation include: 

 

 

 

 

 

The on-going (re)location of production of final products and of components to 

appropriate territories for taking advantage of reduced production costs, better 

infrastructure, skilled labor forces, greater tax incentives, etc.; 

Concentration of service functions within MNEs; 

The emergence of e-commerce, where by time and geographical barriers have lost 

significance; 

The widely held impression especially on the part of tax administration that transfer 

pricing is used for shifting profits out of their jurisdictions; 

Realization by MNEs that getting transfer prices wrong would lead to double taxation. 


Factors influencing Transfer Pricing 

As mentioned, transfer prices, per se, are amount charged by one associate of an MNE for 

goods or services that it supplies to another associates of the same MNE. In this sense, transfer pricing 

enables managers to decide whether to buy or sell goods and services inside or outside the group. 

Consequently, transfer pricing becomes a tool that mangers can use to evaluate performance of various 

associates of the MNE. If management of the group wants its branches and subsidiaries in different 

countries to operate as independent profit centres, then it may set these prices as close as possible to 

market transaction between unrelated purchase and sellers (hamaekers 1996; McCarten 1995; hamid, 

1995; stern 1994). In such situation, managers of the associates would be free to negotiate prices as 

two independent enterprises would do for finalizing a transaction. Thus, transfer prices should be seen 

as no more than administrative prices set by management of an MNE. According to this view open 

market prices are charged internally because the firm evaluates each foreign associate on the basis of 

its individual profits performance, that is, as separate profits centre. It is further argued that another 

possible reason why the firm might not adapt discretionary transfer prices is the enforcement of arms 

length pricing guidelines by tax and customs authorities in home and host countries (Ernst & Young 

1997). Thus, it is claimed that transfer pricing is tax neutral in nature and that an MNE and its 

associates usually act as a group of unrelated parties by setting arms-length prices in intra-firm 

transaction. 

However, the matter is not always as simple or straightforward as that. There are several factors, which 

are known to influence the seemingly internal and therefore innocuous matter of transfer prices. A 

comprehensive study to identify the relative importance of various factors responsible for transfer 

pricing was undertaken by Arpan, who conducted a study of non-US transfer pricing system (Tang, 

1981). The subject of his questionnaire survey were the wholly owned U.S. subsidiaries of foreign 

firms. One of the important findings of his study was that all large MNEs consider essentially the same 

external variables when they formulate their guidelines for transfer prices. The study highlight that 

income tax has been considered as the most important factor by most of the respondents. There are, 

however, distinguishable national differences in the number of variables considered and their relative 

importance. 

Lall & Streeten (1977) summarized the factors influencing transfer pricing into two groups: 

a) Those that arise from the desire to increase global post-tax profits such as: international 

differences in tax and tariff rates, multiple exchange rates, quantitative restriction on 

profit remission, existence of local shareholders, exchange-rate instability, and the 

overstating of apparent costs as a mean to obtain higher protection against imports. 

b) Those that arise from the need to reduce risk and uncertainty over the long term, such as 

present and anticipated balance-of-payment difficulties, political threats to profit 

repatriation (or to survival) in a particular country, trade union pressures, and the risk of 

attracting competition from other (mainly multinational) firms. 

Thus, MNEs have fiscal as well as non-fiscal incentives to engage in discretionary transfer pricing 

practices (Kopits, 1976). Though no study has been undertaken to estimate the exact influence of each 

factor on transfer pricing, studies show that the variations of transfer prices from market prices are 

substantial. Vaitos (1977) observes this variation in Columbian pharmaceutical, rubber and electronic 

industries. She refers also, to lall‟s observation of particularly high incidence of overpricing ranging 

from 33 percent to more than 300percent of the international market prices. This massive manipulation 

arises because MNEs can control transfer prices; they may fix these at levels different from the prices 

which would be obtained in arm‟s length transactions with a view to shifting profits artificially from 

one area of operation to another. 


Findings of certain studies focused on transfer pricing abuses in individual countries or within specific 

industries, led UN (1998) to conclude that MNEs are inclined to take advantages of the opportunities 

that exist for transfer pricing manipulations. A glaring instance of tax avoidance through transfer 

pricing is provided by the case involving the renowned Swiss-based Hoffmann-La Roche and its two 

highly successful drugs: Libirium and Valium. (Tang, 1981) 

Tax authorities fear that MNEs „use‟ transfer pricing as an instrument of global profit optimization. 

They argue that transfer pricing provides opportunities to MNEs to shift profits from a high tax 

country to a low tax regime. In recent years, the tax administrations and policy makers of several 

countries have become alarmed at the growing volume of international tax evasion, some of which is 

the result of transfer pricing abuses. 

Transfer Pricing in Indian Context 

In the last few decades, involvement of MNEs in the economies of developing countries has resulted in 

a substantial improvement of such economics- both qualitative and quantitative. The developing 

countries are no longer seen only as a source of raw material, but as big markets for the product of 

MNEs. Further, owing to cheap labor available in these countries, labor intensive industries are being 

shifted there by MNEs. Apart from these, the developing countries are adopting more liberal and proexport 

economic policies. Consequently, the MNEs are being encouraged to enhance their involvement 

in their economies of those countries. The format used by MNEs for investing in developing countries 

include 100 percent equity investments, long-term debt, technological licenses and management 

service agreement(UN-1988). 

The inflow of FDI into these countries during the last two decades has increased almost fourfold. 

Obviously, with the growing MNEs, interest in developing countries, it has become imperative for tax 

authorities in these countries to become alive to transfer pricing issues. It is sometimes argued that the 

problem of transfer pricing abuses peculiar to developed countries and developing countries are not 

much affected. The reason advanced for this view are that MNEs may refrain from manipulative 

transfer pricing practices in developing countries basically owing to two reasons: 

Developing countries have softer tax regimes than developed countries. 

In cases where the parent enterprises in resident in a country with a foreign tax credit system, 

corporate taxes paid in host country can be credited against the tax liability imposed by the home 

country on remitted profits. 

However, these assumptions suffer from several serious flaws. 

These are: 

The assumption that marginal corporate rates in developing countries are lower is not always 

true. 

Tax administrations in developing countries are typically lax, which reduce the risk that such 

abuses in developing countries will be detected. 

Even where tax rates are low, tax havens provide incentives for shifting profits away from 

developing countries. 

Thus with the emergence of a global market, and growth in international trade being increasingly 

carried through MNEs, transfer pricing becomes as much an issue in developing countries as it is in 

developed countries. 

Similarly, in India too, it is sometimes argued that transfer pricing is not an issue to be worried over by 

tax administrations. The primary reason for this view is that the existing channels for inflow of capital 

and technology are restricted and that safety mechanisms are built into various laws governing flow of 

foreign exchange. It is also argued that high customs tariff discourage over pricing import of goods in 

India. 


However, the above arguments no longer hold good. Since early nineties, the Indian economy is 

undergoing major restructuring and opening up. It is rapidly getting integrated into the global 

economy. 

There has been a spurt in the inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) in India. Over the years, the 

yearly inflow of the FDI has increased multifold and the most rapid growth has been since 1993. To 

encourage inflow of funds laws governing flow of foreign capital of being amended to bring them in 

line with the international perceptions. Tariff rates are also being overhauled to make them competitive 

and in line with world rates. Consequently, customs duty may not exceed the income tax rates if 

transactions are routed through tax havens or complex tax avoidance mechanisms. This concept needs 

immediate and serious attention by the authorities in India is revealed, albeit indirectly, by the results 

of a study conducted by Zdanowicz et al. (1996). Analyzing the figure of capital flight from India to 

US, the author concludes that the economic benefit of detecting and deterring capital outflow related to 

abnormal transaction prices can be very substantial. Comparing the prices of India‟s imports from US 

to the average import prices of similar product imported from the US by other countries in the world, 

and India‟s export prices to the US to the average export prices of similar exported to the US from 

other countries in the world, it has been estimated that the income shifted from India to US ranged 

from $1662 million to $4423 million. This figure includes transactions within and outside the MNE 

system. In other words, the flight is not only due to intra-firm transactions. However, these are 

indicative enough of the fact that substantial transfer pricing abuse would be very substantial. In these 

circumstances, it is indeed natural for Indian tax authorities to engage in devising a system to 

discourage abuse of transfer pricing without adversely affecting international trade in goods and 

services and inflow of international funds. 

Conclusion 

India has to have certain additional obligations to meet while deserving appropriate transfer pricing 

system. While formulating a transfer pricing system, the authorities will have not only to safeguard 

their revenue, but also to keep in mind that abusive transfer pricing practices affect us in different 

ways. It may affect a very small proportion of tax revenue in large industrial country but it can affect a 

very significant proportion of the tax revenue for us especially when there is significant foreign 

investment in our country. Developing countries like India may find themselves in difficult situations 

while dealing with multi-national enterprises. While they host only a small portion of the overall 

activities of MNEs, the presence of MNEs in the developing countries may be extremely important as 

they need them for investments and technology, which generates employment opportunities and earn 

foreign exchange of critical importance to the host economies (UN, 1988). This dependence on MNEs 

puts us in a delicate position if we want to curb transfer pricing abuses without adversely affecting 

foreign investment flows. If we introduce harsh effective transfer pricing policies, the multinational 

enterprises may respond by shifting their investments to jurisdictions with relaxed policies on transfer 

pricing. On the other hand, if they become lenient in enforcing the provision on transfer pricing, they 

lose substantial revenue. Obviously, the solution does not lie with the introduction of simple antiavoidance 

legislative provisions. UN (1988) suggests that in order to introduce more effective transfer 

pricing policies without discouraging foreign investment, developing countries should follow two 

ways. First, in the establishment of new transfer pricing rules, developing countries must ensure that 

the legitimate interest of the MNEs are safeguard. This means most importantly that the developing 

countries will have to recognize that determination of arm‟s length prices is not a science and there 

cannot be unanimity in this matter. 

Second, to compensate for the disincentive effect of rigorous transfer pricing rules, along with 

introduction of such rules, the developing countries should take steps to improve their investment 

climate through non-fiscal measures. It needs to be appreciated that MNEs would want to have smooth 

operational environment and easy conditions for repatriation of their profits from branches to parent 


entities. If such conditions are created, then new transfer pricing rules would be less likely to receive a 

hostile reception. Hence developing countries should introduce a general overhaul of the government 

bureaucracies dealing with foreign investment with particular emphasis on streamlining the procedures 

that multinational enterprises have to comply with to invest and operate in the country (Un,1988). 

Hence, we can say that transfer pricing in India in no longer a distant concept. 

References 

• Chaudhuri S., "Financing of Growth of Transnational Corporations in India, 1956-75", 

Economic and Political Weekly, 14 (33) 1976. 

• Chaudhuri S., "FERA: Appearance and Reality", Economic and Political Weekly, 14 (16), 

1979. 

• Chandra N.K., "Role of Foreign Capital in India", Social Scientist, 57:1, 1979. 

• Chenoy K.M., "Industrial Policy and Multinationals in India", Social Scientist, No. 142, 

March 1985. 

• Dunnings J. (ed.), International Investment, Penguin 1972. 

• Dunnings J., International Production and Multinational Enterprises, Allen and Unwin, 1981. 

• GOI, Ministry of Law, Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1973. 

• GOI, Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act, 1969. 

• GOI, Ministry of Industry, Statement on Industrial Policy, July 1991. 

• Goyal S.K., The Impact of Foreign Subsidiaries on India's Balance of 

Payments, IIPA, 1979. 

• Goyal S.K. and Kabra K.N., Import of Edible Oils under Free Licensing Scheme,1977. A 

report submitted to the Ministry of Commerce GOI. Dec.1977. 

• Gulati S.K., "Capital Flight: Causes Consequences & Cures", Journal of International 

Affairs, Vol. 42 No. 1. 

• Hanson J.S., "Transfer Pricing in the Multinational Corporation, A Critical Appraisal", 

World Development 1975. 

• Helliner G.K., Intra Firm Trade and Developing Countries, Macmillan, 1981. 

• Krishna S., "A Note on Transfer Pricing - Some Theoretical Issues and Empirical 

Evidence", Social Scientist, Vol. 12 1984. 

• Dhinal A. Shah, “International Taxation”, Chartered Accountants Association, Ahemdabad 


Strategic Customer Retention through CRM; 

A Study of Perception of Insurance Officials 

Biswamohan Dash, 

Asst prof, DRIEMS, Cuttack, Odisha, India 

& 

Dr.Sabyasachi Das, 

Lecturer, Utkal University, Odisha, India 

Abstract: 

This research study is based on impact of customer relationship management practices on insurance 

sector in Odisha market. The research study mainly focuses on the the pattern of service and the 

facilitation process for the sake of customers adopted by the CRM driven insurance companies in 

Odisha.Customer Relationship Management(CRM) practice is now becoming imperative and need of 

the hour in the cut throat competition held in the insurance sector. Initially LIC of India was the sole 

insurance player having larger market share but after liberalization, privatization and globalization so 

many private insurers came in to the picture. Then they adopted many customer centric strategies to 

satisfy and retain the customers to gain market share and to survive.CRM is a customer focused 

strategy adopted by many insurers in India and Odisha.To recognize the perception of insurance 

customers in terms of service standard, innovation and quality of products, the efforts have been 

undertaken through this research study. In this study customer’s opinions have been collected through 

a structured questionnaire to understand the effectiveness of CRM implementation in relation to the 

companies like AVIVA, LIC of India, ICICIprudential, Birla sun life and Reliance. Here to measure the 

customer retention gained by above insurers; factor analgroup statistics have been used. 

Key words: service standards, customer focused strategy, customer retention, innovation. 

1-Introduction: 

Customer relationship management is an imperative measure in any service sector.it is the main tool in 

marketing management to acquire more numbers of customers and to create one to one interaction 

with transparency and honesty. Today the companies have to move from managing a market, to 

managing specific customers. But managing the customers and retaining them for long time is not easy 

task in a competitive market. Besides coping with changing psychology, preferences and needs of the 

customers is becoming challenging one. So the business organizations now a day are taking the help of 

data base management system for customer retention and e-CRM is the out come of such system. 

The requirement of relationship marketing is prominent in the service sectors especially in Indian 

market to create trust and valuable strategic customer care. This will definitely raise the concept of 

customer relationship management for long term relationship and value added service. This study will 

focus on CRM application for insurance sector related to their communicating channels for customers, 

customer satisfaction and customer retention. Insurance is an upcoming sector, in India the year 2000 

was a landmark year for life insurance industry. In this year the life insurance industry was liberalized 

after more than 50 years. Insurance sector was once a monopoly, with LIC as the only company, a 

public sector enterprise. But now-a-days the market is opened up and there are many private players 

competing in the market. There are above 30 private life insurance companies have entered the 

industry. After the entry of these private players, the market share of LIC has been considerably 

reduced. In the last five years the private players are able to expand the market (growing at 30% per 

annum) and also have improved their market share to above 18%.For the past five years private 

players have launched many innovations in the industry in terms of products, market channels and 

advertisement of product, agent training and customer services etc. 


2-Importance of CRM: 

The focus in CRM is not to try to mold the customers to the company‟s goals but to listen to the 

customers and trying to create opportunities beneficial to each. It is important to offer customers what 

they are currently demanding and anticipating and what they are likely to demand in the future. This 

can be achieved by providing a variety of existing access channels for customers, such as e-mail, 

telephone and fax, and by preparing future access channels such as wireless communication. 

Provides Greater efficiency and cost reduction: Data mining, which is the analysis of data for 

exploring possible relationships between sets of data, can save valuable human resources. Integrating 

customer data into a single database allows marketing teams, sales forces, and other departments 

within a company to share information and work towards common corporate objectives using the same 

underlying statistics (epiphany.com, 2001). 

Improved customer service and support: An E-CRM system provides a single repository of 

customer information. This enables a company to serve according to customer needs quickly and 

efficiently at all potential contact points, eliminating the customer‟s frustrating and time-consuming 

“hunt” for help (epiphany.com, 2001a). 

More effective marketing: Having detailed customer information from an E-CRM system allows a 

company to predict the kind of products that a customer is likely to buy as well as the timing of 

purchases. In the short to medium term, this information helps an organization to create more effective 

and focused marketing/sales campaigns designed to attract the desired customer audience 

(epiphany.com, 2001). ECRM allows for more targeted campaigns and tracking of campaign 

effectiveness. Customer data can be analyzed from multiple Perspectives to discover which elements 

of a marketing campaign had the greatest impact on sales and profitability (Greenberg, 2001). In 

addition, customer segmentation can improve marketing efforts. Grouping customers according their 

need similarities allows a company to effectively market specific products to members of the group. 

Increasing Market Share: Customer relationship management techniques are also used to increase 

the overall market share of the business. Essentially, treating customers well adds to the value of the 

business products and services. If the business impresses customers, it tends to attract more people, 

increasing its pool of customers. Loyal customers will then attract others through word of mouth. 

Online Business: Online business is a popular and often necessary component for many companies; 

the CRM tool can be responsible to respond the customers who are trying to purchase the products 

through online. 

3-Literature review: 

Swift 2002; stated that companies can gain many benefits from CRM implementation. Such as lower 

cost of acquiring customers, to acquire so many customers to preserve a steady volume of business. 

CRM can help to retain the customers for long range. Apart from this he stated, the cost regarding 

selling are reduced owing to existing customers are usually more responsive. In addition with better 

knowledge of channels and distributions, the relationship becomes more effective as well as that cost 

for marketing campaign is reduced. According to Maoz 2003, Research director of CRM for the 

Gartner group, CRM is a strategy by which companies optimize profitability through enhanced 

customer satisfaction and retention. “.CRM is a business strategy, not a technology, says Maoz.”It 

involves process, technology and people issues. All three together really captures what CRM 

is.Burnett-2001; discussed that the objectives from CRM generally fall into three categories; cost 

saving, revenue enhancement and strategic impact and having the benefits of improving level of 

customer retention, increasing margins and decreasing marketing administrative costs. Wilson 2001; 

claimed that organizations are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of moving closer to 

their customers and extending their enterprise units. CRM objectives are to; improve the process to 


communication with the right customers, providing the right offer for each customer, providing the 

right offer through the right channel for each customer, providing the right offer at the right time for 

each customer. By doing this, organizations can receive the following benefits; like increasing 

customer retention and loyalty, higher customer profitability, creating value for customer. Greenberg 

2001 stated that the following objectives seem reasonable for an organization implementing CRM such 

as; it focuses the sales force on increasing organizational revenues through better information and 

better incentives to drive top line growth, it improves global forecast and pipeline management to 

improve organization. 

4-E-CRM soft wares and Insurance Organization: 

LIC of India has implemented the e- CRM software by the help of Wipro and IBM .This CRM project 

is the largest of its kind in india.Wipro and IBM work together to compile the data of over 15 crore 

policy holders of LIC.The data would reflect consumer behaviour of policy holders, nos of customers 

going for loans, nos. of customers paying premium within the due date and defaulting in premium 

payment. All efforts aim to provide the faster and better services to the customers with right offers to 

the right customers. ICICI prudential has ambitious plans for its retail business and has implemented 

the CRM software by the help of SAS and Teradata solutions By implementing this project they aim to 

reduce the cost of service, to effectively use the customer‟s data, to increase the customer retention, 

up-selling and cross selling. AVIVA life insurance entered in 2002 and deployed Talisma e-CRM 

suite. AVIVA got the success by recognizing the potential customers and bringing out products and 

services tailored to the customer requirements. Also e-CRM developed multistep marketing campaign 

and superior services across multiple channels. With this CRM project the company aims to achieve 

the organized data base system, superior service standards, quick access to customers, upgrading offers 

to customers, integrating the efforts of insurance agents and officials and ultimately to obtain 

customer satisfaction. Birla Sun Life Insurance has selected Talisma CRM software due to its wide 

acceptance in customer relationship sphere. Moreover its modules summarize all possible requirements 

associated with customer interaction. The deployment of CRM is addressing all 50 branches spread 

through out the country. This CRM solution includes sales automation-mail management, web service 

management, data compiling, customer centric sales process and customer service with timing. 

Reliance life insurance has an excellent web enabled IT system for superior customer services. They 

aim to increase better customer interaction, to predict customer behaviour, sales management, and 

consumer groupings and faster spread of information among the customers through CRM software 

5-Objective of the study: 

To study the impact of CRM implementation in increasing the customer retention through testing the 

perception among the respondents 

6-Scope of the study: 

This study is conducted in the capital city of Odisha where major five insurance companies like LIC of 

India, AVIVA life insurance, ICICI prudential, Birla sun life insurance, and Reliance life insurance 

have been taken. They have managed their customer relationship through e-CRM. 

7-Research methodology: 

A well structured questionnaire was prepared to obtain the opinions from the respondents of the 

selected insurance companies. In total 92 officials from insurance companies were selected on random 

basis and views were taken for analysis with the help of 5 point likert scale. The data are analysed and 

interpreted by using the statistical tools like factor analysis and group statistics. 

8-Data Analysis 

This research deals with primary data collected from officials through a structured questionnaire. 192 

officials have responded from five selected insurance companies in Odisha market. All officials are 

from the undertaken five companies like, LIC, ICICI prudential, AVIVA life insurance, Birla sun life 


insurance and Reliance life insurance. These insurers have already implemented CRM in their 

operation. Officials‟ opinion and perceptions have been collected and analyzed, where the officials 

were selected randomly having better idea about CRM. To prove the hypothesis, various statistical 

techniques have been used like, factor analysis and ANOVA. The opinion of respondents are measured 

in a 5-point likert scale where, not preferred at all is taken as 1,mostly not preferred is taken as 2; 

sometimes preferred is 3; mostly preferred is 4; very much preferred is 5. 

Respondent’s profile: 

Data collected from 192 respondents are presented in Table 1 showing the sample profile. 

Table 1: 

Sl. Demographic factors Sample profile Insurance Organisations 

No. 

1. 

Age 

Gr.I (Below 30) 

Gr.II (30-40) 

Gr.III (Above 40) 

LIC AVIVA Reliance ICICI Birla Total 

20 06 16 11 18 71 

29 07 15 12 12 75 

20 06 07 05 08 46 

Total 69 19 38 28 38 192 

2. Education Upto Grad. (Gr.I) 

Above Grad. (Gr.II) 

30 

39 

13 

06 

19 

19 

08 

20 

15 

23 

85 

107 

Total 69 19 38 28 38 192 

3 Occupation Gr. I (private service) 

Gr.II (govt. service) 

00 

69 

19 

00 

38 28 38 123 

69 

Total 69 19 38 28 38 192 

4. Monthly 

Income 

Gr.I (below 20 th) 

Gr.II (20-30th) 

21 

28 

08 

05 

21 

10 

14 

09 

21 

09 

Gr.III (Above 30th) 20 06 07 05 08 

Total 69 19 38 28 38 192 

CRM Implementation and Retention of the customers: 

Absolute insurance (2009) has indicated that CRM has enhanced customer retention in different 

insurance organizations. The data were collected from the respondents on 14 parameters of retention; 

subsequently they were reduced to 7 factors of retention by using the factor analysis. 

Factor Analysis: 

The tables 2,3 and 4 below depict the results of factor analysis, which helps in identifying different 

components of retention. 

Table 2: Extractions sums of Square loadings 

Component Initial Eigen values Extraction Sums of Squared Loadings 

Total % of Variance Cumulative % Total % of Variance Cumulative % 

1 1.768 13.598 13.598 1.768 13.598 13.598 

2 1.527 11.749 25.348 1.527 11.749 25.348 

3 1.425 10.962 36.310 1.425 10.962 36.310 

4 1.178 9.064 45.374 1.178 9.064 45.374 

5 1.120 8.617 53.991 1.120 8.617 53.991 

6 1.064 8.84 62.174 1.064 8.184 62.174 

7 1.035 7.962 70.137 1.035 7.962 70.137 

8 .983 7.561 77.698 

9 .844 6.496 84.194 

10 .692 5.320 89.514 

11 .545 4.196 93.710 

12 .445 3.422 97.131 

13 .373 2.869 100.000 


The eigen value is the total variance explained by each factor.any factor that has an eigen value of less 

than 1 does not have enough total variance explained to represent a unique factor and is therefore 

85 

61 

46 


disregarded.the components after 7 down have eigen value less than 1.so they are eliminated from the 

rest of the analysis.it is observed that,the cumulative percentage is less than 100%,that is 70.137.this is 

because not all of the variance is explained,when only some of the factors are retained in the final 

analysis. 

Table 3: Rotation sums of Square loadings 

Rotation Sums of Squared Loadings 

Component 

Total % of Variance Cumulative % 

F 1 1.611 12.393 12.393 

F 2 1.455 11.195 23.588 

F 3 1.310 10.074 33.662 

F 4 1.220 9.385 43.047 

F 5 1.208 9.293 52.340 

F 6 1.204 9.260 61.600 

F 7 1.110 8.536 70.137 


Table 4: Rotated Component Matrix 

Component 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 

o4a .612 .079 -.042 -.080 .002 .203 -.205 

o4b -.142 -.263 -.145 .587 .471 -.053 -.287 

o4c .147 -.042 .067 -.301 .066 .768 -.218 

o4d .047 .824 -.129 -.059 -.097 -.054 -.142 

o4e -.093 -.170 .848 .063 .051 -.009 -.072 

o4f .000 .007 .060 -.102 .819 -.081 .107 

o4g -.047 -.053 -.044 -.074 .098 -.058 .886 

o4h .043 -.498 -.058 -.139 -.384 -.275 -.212 

o4i .161 .054 .114 .762 -.142 -.054 -.010 

o4j .071 .554 .628 -.009 .021 -.077 .071 

o4k -.040 .049 -.223 .333 -.346 .655 .206 

o4l .824 .171 -.184 .076 -.039 -.179 .025 

O4m .683 -.280 .218 .196 -.009 .109 .151 

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis 

The above tables depict, out of fourteen parameters of retention, seven factors are extracted which will 

represent 70 percentage of characters of the whole parameters, it is because the cumulative percentage 

in the square loadings is 70 %. So it indicates that, the seven factors will be the valid factors and can 

be responsible for representing almost all the characters associated with fourteen parameters of 

retention. Besides all the fourteen parameters are based on the CRM practices and sustaining and 

developing the relationships among customers and company officials. Thus these factors are the part of 

the outcome of CRM implementation and can build customer relationships. Now, we can discover 7 

factors out of the rotated component matrix table. Those are; Factor 1 is named as quality service to 

retain customers. Factor 2, can be named as behavior prediction. Factor 3 can be named as web 

based sales. Factor 4 can be named as promotion and distribution of the products. Factor 5 is 

named as achieving sales target. Factor 6 is named as integration among officials. Factor 7 can be 

named as value proposition. 


ANOVA across components of retention: 

This table 5 depicts the components of retention in creating better relationship with the customers and 

retaining them. 

Table 5: ANOVA across Components of Retention: 

Components (Factors) Sum of Squares Df Mean Square F Sig. 

Quality service 

(F 1 ) 

Behaviour prediction 

(F 2 ) 

Web based sales 

(F 3 ) 

Promotion, distribution 

(F 4 ) 

Sales target 

(F 5 ) 

Integration 

(F 6 ) 

Value proposition 

(F 7 ) 

Between Groups 5.674 4 1.419 8.267 .000 

Within Groups 32.089 187 .172 

Total 37.763 191 

Between Groups 3.470 4 .867 3.759 .006 


Total 46.624 191 

Between Groups 3.779 4 .945 3.952 .004 


Total 48.479 191 

Between Groups .246 4 .061 .436 .782 


Total 26.583 191 



Total 45.953 191 



Total 47.061 191 

Between Groups 6.681 4 1.670 3.691 .006 


Total 91.313 191 

Table 5 depicts the results of ANOVA for different factors of satisfaction between the selected 

companies and within the respondents. It is observed for the factor1 (quality service), the F-ratio is 

8.267, which is statistically significant. Hence, it may be interpreted that the variation among the 

responses of the officials towards different insurance companies in terms of „quality service‟ is 

significant. Similarly for the 2 nd factor (behavior prediction), the F- ratio is 3.759 which is statistically 

significant and it may be interpreted that the variation among the responses of the officials towards 

different companies in terms of „behavior prediction‟ is significant. For the 3 rd factor (web based 

sales), the F-ratio is 3.952, which is statistically significant and the variation among the responses of 

the officials towards different companies in terms of web based sales is significant. For the 4th factor 

(promotion and distribution), the F-ratio is .436, which is statistically not significant. Hence it may be 

interpreted that the variation among the responses of the officials towards different companies in terms 

of „promotion and distribution‟ is statistically not significant. For the 5 th factor F ratio is .496 which is 

statistically not significant. Hence it may be interpreted that the variation among the responses of the 

customers towards different companies in terms of „achieving sales target‟ is not significant. For 6 th 

factor F ratio is .340, which is statistically not significant. Hence variation among the responses of the 

officials towards different companies in terms of integration is not significant. For 7 th factor, the F ratio 

is 3.691, which is statistically significant. Hence the variation among the responses of the officials 

towards different companies in terms of „„value proposition „is significant. 


9-findings: 

Through factor analysis factors are extracted which will facilitate the customer relationship 

management process to retain the customers for the long range. These factors are; quality service, 

behaviour prediction, web based sales, promotion and distribution, achieving sales target, integration 

and value propositions, which are all meant for customer retention and are practiced by five insurance 

companies. In case of ANOVA across the organizations, it is proved that, promotion and distribution, 

achieving sales target and integration are proved to be the most influential factors to retain the 

customers for long range. 

10-Conclusion: 

It is concluded that, the adoption of CRM by these five insurance companies in Odisha market is 

proved to be successful in case of product awareness, sales target achievements, customer centric 

approach, integrated sales effort, satisfaction and retention of customers. So the CRM implementation 

has brought the huge change in case of customer engagement and making the customers a part of 

organization. It has also brought the changed perceptions of customers towards the service standard of 

the insurance companies. This CRM implementation is not only beneficial for the insurers to get profit 

and value but for the whole community of Odisha by experiencing the honest and transparent process 

of insurers. 

11-References: 

Kotler, Keller, koshy and Jha, (2010) Marketing Management, PHI, New Delhi. 

Dyche, jill, (2002); the CRM hand book, Pearson education, Singapore. 

Sheth, jagdish N and Parvatiyar, (2003); handbook of relationship marketing, sage publication, New 

Delhi. 

Kothari C.R, (2009); research methodology, New Age International Publisher, New Delhi. 

Subramanian, V. (2007); life assurance management; insurance institute of India, Mumbai. 

Ramaswamy VS and Namkumari.s, (2006); Marketing management; Macmillan, India ltd, New Delhi. 

Sheth, jagdish. And Rajendra S .Sisodia, (2000); improving marketing productivity. 

Xavier, M.J ;( 2002) Marketing in the new millennium, Vikash publishing, New Delhi. 

Khurana, B.S,(2002) Building relationships that last. 

Gaur S sanjay, review and comparative assessment of CRM solutions for key verticals, CRMemerging 

concepts, tools and applications, Tata Mc Graw Hill publications. 

Mandell, Maurice, Marketing 3 rd edition, PHI, New Delhi 

Bayon.t, Gutsche.j; (2002), Customer equity marketing; touching the intangible; European 

management journal; vol.20, no.3, pp-213 -222. 

www.latec.uff.br/mestrado/sg-qualidade/ 

Greenberg, (2002), managing e-business projects; www.hicbusiness.org. 

Galbreath,J and rogers,T;1999,CRL,TQM ,,vol.11,no.3,pp.161-71; 

www.bizresearchpapers.com 

Wilson,(2002);factors for success in CRM ,journal of marketing management,vol.18,issue1/2,pages 

193-219. 

www.mendely.com/.../hugh-wilson-mcdonald-factors-success-customers-relationship-management 

Ryals, L and Knox, S, (2001), cross-functional issues in the implementation of relationship marketing 

through CRM, European management journal, vol.19, no.5, pp534-542. 

www.crmcommunity.dynamics.com/product 

www.crmdynamics.com 

www.microsoft.com/../microsoft-dynamics.insurance. 

www.crm.dynamics.com/financials-services 

www.gatewayforindia.com/technology/crm.htm 


Communication and Decision Making in Nigerian Family System 

Ajayi, Johnson Olusegun, 

Department of Sociology, 

Faculty of The Social Sciences, 

Ekiti State University, 

Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria. 

delight_top@yahoo.com 

Toyin Adefolaju, 

Department of Sociology, 

Ekiti State University, 

Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria. 

toyinremi1954@yahoo.com 

Abstract 

Nigeria is culturally a patriarchal society, communication system in the family seems to follow 

autocratic pattern and decisions are mostly that of the head of the family-the husband and father of the 

house. This pattern of relationship is also helped by the two most distinct religions (Christianity and 

Islamic) practiced in the land. Since the man dominates decision-making process, it therefore means 

the pattern of communication within the family will also be shaped by him. The low or non 

participation in decision-making at home and in the community by women limits their access to 

economic resources, information and empowerment leading to high rate of poverty in Nigeria. Women 

and children are always at the receiving end of all odds in the family system in Nigeria. This paper is 

therefore interested in looking at the pattern of communication and decision making in the family 

system in Nigeria and how these have affected the development of the family and empowerment of 

women. 

Keywords: Patriarchy, Family System, communication, Decision making, Women 

Introduction 

Several studies on spousal communication and decision making in the family have 

demonstrated that interaction within the family set up is influenced by education, place of residence, 

spousal age difference, religion, age at marriage, type of union, wife rank (in polygamous marriages) 

and mate selection (Gage, 1995, Meekers and Oladosu, 1996; Oyediran, 1998). In Nigeria society, 

traditional norms and practices limit women‟s autonomous decisions on issues that affect their lives; 

men due to the patriarchal influence of the Nigerian society exercise significant influence in the 

household decision-making processes (Kola, Oyediran and Odusola, 2004). Kola et al posited that the 

economic crisis of the early 1980s and the associated worsening poverty have made men‟s resources to 

dwindle in an increasing fashion. To meet the various needs of their household have been extremely 

difficult. Invariably women‟s contributions to the family purse have increased tremendously. 

Within an integrated family structure, the strength of the dominant party may be influenced by 

personal wealth, access to resources of other family members and cultural preferences particularly in 

patriarchal societies. It is understandable that the focus of household decision–making and the flow of 

communication are both determined by who controls and allocates economic resources within the 

family (Kola et al: 7). In Nigeria and in most patriarchal societies it is the man that has the economic 

power and like the popular saying “he who pays the piper dictates the tunes”. The man dominates 

decision-making process and this go a long way to shape the pattern of communication within the 

family. 


THE STRUCTURE OF THE FAMILY 

People probably have different views and definitions of what constitutes a family. What an 

individual might consider part of his family might be different to someone else. A family can consist 

of individuals who have some connectivity whether by science in which genetics are at play, or by 

giving an individual, animal, or object attributes that will make them part of your family. It is difficult 

to have a concrete definition of what actually makes a family but it is clear that throughout time many 

aspects of the family have remained the same. As society becomes more advanced and open the 

vision of the family has changed and will continue to do so in the future. 

The function and structure of the family has changed throughout centuries from conservative 

and interdependent into a more liberal and independent one. Throughout history the father was the 

main figure in the family responsible for the education of the children, wellness of the family and 

economic support. A family can be seen as an organization in which the father is the most important 

figure responsible for the wellness of the family. Throughout time the role of the father has 

diminished rapidly in the family. Today it is not only the father that runs and makes decisions for the 

family; the role of the mother has expanded as she takes control over some of the responsibilities that 

the father used to have. 

There are many factors that explain why the role of the father has diminished in recent decades; 

one of the major reasons is the increasing economic strength and opportunities available to family 

members which have led to more independence. 

THE ROLE OF THE FATHER IN THE FAMILY 

Social scientists often emphasize the role of fathers in the family system, and how their actions 

affect the entire environment and context in which a child grows. One of the most important ways a 

father influences that environment is in his interaction with his spouse. This is because the 

relationships which children observe and experience at an early age influence their own relationships 

later in life. It is also because family relationships are interrelated-the way the mother and father 

interact affects the mother-child relationship as well as the father-child relationship. Because of this 

interrelatedness, parents who have a strong and happy relationship have a head-start to being good 

parents (Cummings and O‟Reilly, 1997). 

The man is the head of his family in Nigeria whether in the north which is predominantly 

Islamic or in the Christian dominated south. His roles in the family is all embracing, his decision in all 

things is sought by all the members of the family, he may or may not seek the opinion of his wife on 

issues bothering on the welfare and survival of the family even when he does it does not mean he will 

follow the spouse‟s advice. Even issues that affect the wife reproductive health are left in the hand of 

the husband, no wonder then women lives are in jeopardy in a patriarchal system like Nigeria. 

The women folks are subjugated, disempowered and pauperized. In most societies in Nigeria 

they are seen as an object that can be owned as a property not as co-owner or as a partner in the 

progress and survival of the family. The father sees himself in the mirror of his culture that gives him 

power over everyone in his family; hence he does as he pleases with no one to put him in check 

whenever his decision runs contrary to that of the majority in his family. His roles in the family which 

are socially and culturally defined and prescribed are that of caring and providing for all the members 

of the family in all spheres of life. 

The man also sees himself as a protective shield and as a pavilion through which everyone in the 

family view the outside world. In terms of decision-making in general, women‟s inferior status and 

lack of power limit couple‟s communication. When there is lack of free flow of information and when 

communication is restrictive, there is bound to be fear and trepidation within the family which can lead 

to a total breakdown. All these practices are very common in Nigerian traditional family system. 

In cotemporary Nigeria, particularly among the working class, most families rely upon the 

incomes of both husband and wife. But, fathers still provide the lion's share of the family income. 

Husbands are either the sole earners or the main earners in most households. Moreover, fathers' 


earnings are uniquely linked to many positive results for children, even when mothers' earnings are 

taken into consideration. 

It is important to note that if the wife can positively count on her husband help with keeping the 

house clean and in good repair, caring for the children, paying the bills, and planning for the future; 

she probably will be a happier, more effective and more supportive of her husband, but this is not the 

case in most Nigerian family set up. The support a woman receives from her husband can even help 

her be more competent and sensitive during the time she attempts to feed and care for her baby. 

Mothers seem to gain the most security when they are married and know the father is committed to a 

lifelong relationship to her and their child (Pleck, 1984; Durrett, Otaki, and Richards, 1984). 

In an affectionately warm atmosphere, where the father and the mother have effective and 

evaluative system of communication, decision making is less autocratic and more democratic, the 

mother tends to provide more emotional warmth for her husband, children and other relatives alike. 

The husband provides a strong sense of security for everyone in the family. While children usually 

depend on their mothers for unconditional love, they often must earn their father's approval. While 

mothers soothe their children more often, fathers often provide more stimulation. All parents-both 

mothers and fathers-have important roles in rearing their children. The better the appreciation of where 

fathers figure fits in the family system the better and happier the family, leading to productive children. 

Fathers' affection and increased family involvement help promote the wife‟s and children's social and 

emotional stability and development. 

EFFECTS OF WHO MAKE DECISION IN THE FAMILY 

Scholars, like Kola et al have argued that change in income generating capacity of partners 

precipitates a change in household decision-making prerogatives. They see poverty at the core of 

household decision-making and communication determinants. An important determinant of poverty, 

on the other hand, is low women participation in decision-making at home and in the community (UN, 

2000), this pattern limits their access to economic resources and empowerment. 

This seemingly feminization of poverty has aggravated the gap between women and men 

caught in the web of cyclical poverty in Nigeria. The scenario has not only increased the clamor for 

more autonomy and improved status for the women folks, within the household and society, but has 

also increased the desire of women for gainful employment in areas regarded as preserves of men. 

Nigerian society is patriarchal and the male or husband is the major decision-maker, especially 

in issues relating to the family matters (Isiugo- Abanihe, 1994; Feyisetan, 2000; Oyediran, 2002). 

Within a patriarchal dominant structure, a woman has virtually no decision-making authority while 

communication pattern seems to be vertical in nature - a kind of master servant model - the man or 

husband dictates the flow of communication. His mood dictates the pattern and nature of 

communication flow within the family. He is the one everybody in the family looks up to for 

sustenance. The woman receives the least with respect to resource allocation (Oyediran, 1998; 

Cladwell and Cladwell, 1987). 

Nigerian society is heterogeneous but it is at the same time homogenous in according low 

status to women; and societal norms convey little need for marital partners to communicate their 

desires to each other (Kola et al, 2004). Because of this, decision-making on family-related issues are 

prone to external influences (relatives, friends), whereas wives preferences are probably shaped to a 

large extent, by familial norms and pressures (Cladwell and Cladwell, 1987). 

According to WHO (1995) Nigerian couples tend to come under pressures form husbands, 

mothers or other female relatives into starting or increasing their family. The nuclear family in the 

present day Nigerian operates outside the traditional extended family control structure, but despite this 

family life is dominated by the male. Some cultural practices have been restructured as a result of 

education but the conventional family relationships and gender roles have not been completely 

overhauled even among the most urbanized and westernized citizens (Isiugo-Abanihe, 1994; and 

Makinwa- Adebusuyi, 1992). 


In patriarchal society, women according to Fapohunda and Todaro, (1988) and Feyisetan 

(2000), are seen as exercising little or no control over their economic or reproductive lives. 

Nevertheless, the amount of control men have over their wives varied from place to place; this might 

change over time and could be influenced by several factors. 

Literature evidently shows that the Yoruba women of southern Nigerian traditionally generate 

autonomous incomes from their involvement in such economic activities as petty trading and faming. 

It is apparent today that women venture in to occupations originally considered the preserve of their 

male counterparts. This according to Fapohunda and Todaro (1988) and Fayisetan (2000) permits them 

to assume primary financial responsibility for their children. This situation howbeit avail them the 

opportunity to take independent decisions on certain issues or participate in decision –making, and 

initiate effective communication within the family system. It is note worthy that with decision-making 

in general, women‟s inferior status and lack of power limit couple communication. 

For many women traditional female gender roles means they have little say in sexual matters 

and lack the status to influence their partner‟s behavior. Even when men and women discuss 

reproductive health issues, it is usually not unequal terms. Evidently WHO (1995:9) shows that men‟s 

views are more dominant than women views in making family decisions. 

Traditional cultures often discourage married women form initiating discussions about 

contraception, as men may feel there is nothing to discuss or no need to take account of their wives 

feelings and opinions. Male dominance in countries like Nigeria, India and Kenya is a major obstacle 

to spousal communication and decision-making concerning family planning. It is not unlikely, that 

unfaithful if she tries to discuss contraception with the husband (Fort, 1986) the degree of adherence to 

this position varies form are ethnic group to another. Kritz and Makinwa – Adebusoye (1992) show 

that adherence is very low among the Yoruba, Ibo and Ijaw. 

Literature is still replete with the centrality of the control and allocation of economic resources 

in spite of the prevalence of cultural factors in domestic communication and decision-making 

(Fapolunda and Todaro, 1988), changes in income generating capacity of spouses re-directs 

reproductive decision–making prerogatives. Women with greater control of material and social 

resources tend to make more inputs into household decision –making (Dixon, 1993). 

Poor women participate less in household decisions relative to the non-poor. Communication 

with their spouses is low because of their low economic status. The patriarchal culture rarely 

encourages communication between marital couples but to a large extent promotes male dominance in 

terms of decision-making in various aspect o human lives. 

The domineering role of men in decision-making processes principally resulted from their 

control of resources and their desire to lead in all spheres of the family endeavors. The submissive 

position of women as well as their relative „confinement‟ and societal norms that convey little need for 

interaction between husband and wife are also outcomes of the patriarchal family structure. 

However, contact with western culture as well as modernization has tremendously affected 

every facet of life in the Yoruba speaking areas of Nigeria, including the family. Some aspects of 

family life affected include familial decision-making process. The reforms that are taking place in 

Nigeria and most especially among the Yoruba have also been advanced by the rapid spread of 

universal education as well as participation of women in the former sector of the economy (Oyediran, 

2002; 59). 

Many women have been empowered to participate in decision-making that affect their family 

in general and themselves in particular especially on economic, family size, and other planning issues. 

It is evident in literature that spousal communication about family size and the use of contraceptives 

for example is rare among substantial proportions of cou0ples in sub-saharan African societies 

(Salway, 1994; Isiugu-Abanihe, 1997b; Meekers and Oladosu, 1996). The extent and nature of 

husband-wife interaction has been found according to Oyediran (2002) to vary according to 

demographic, cultural and socio-economic profiles of individuals and the couple. 

Studies have shown that people living in the urban areas are more likely to have access to 

radio, television and other sources of mass communication, which are more likely to influence or 

enhance egalitarianism between couples (Meekers and Oladosu, 1996). Others related works have also 


shown that communication and decision making on family matters were more common in the cities 

than in rural areas among the Yoruba of Nigeria (Donovan, 1995: Kritz and Makinwa – Adebusoye, 

1995). 

The status of women within the household is not only influenced by their ability to procreate, 

but also by how marital partners are selected as well as the rank of the wife within a marriage (this 

applies to polygynous unions). The rank of a wife may also determine the influence she wields within 

a marriage, with the first wife typically having an edge over subsequent wives (Mott and Mott, 1985; 

Otite, 1991); Entwiste and Coles, 1990). 

According to Otite (1991) a senior wife in a polygynous family among the Igbo is usually 

consulted an important issues affecting the family. In addition the type of marriage may also influence 

a woman position within marriages, women in polygynous unions are often much younger than their 

spouse (Mott and Mott, 1995), leading to subordination of the wife and this makes communication and 

decision-making difficult due to culture of age related difference (Feyisetan, 2000). 

In Yoruba culture, the rights to choose a polygynous marriage are the sole prerogative of the 

husband, and it is often associated with low status of women and inequality within the marriage (Boye, 

Hill, Isaacs and Cordis, 1991). It is also pertinent to note that in societies where girls marry at early 

ages ( Gage, 1995) leading to a wide age gap between spouses, communication and decision-making 

processes may be inhibited thus perpetuating a situation of male dominance in the marriage and in the 

family (Isiugo- Abanihe, 1994b). The younger the woman, especially if she is much younger than her 

husband, the less the potency of her effective communication and her possible involvement in decision 

–making in the family processes. 

Some studies (Gage, 1995; Oyediran, 1998) have suggested that the pattern of mate selection 

also affect the level of interaction between husband and wife. In traditional African society, women 

had little freedom of choice in matters pertaining to marriage and role in spouse‟s selection. Though, 

there is a decline in the prevalence of arranged marriages in Nigerian society today (Meekers, 1995; 

Pilon, 1994; Isiugo-Abanihe, 1995). 

Intellectuals have also related religion to communication and decision making within the family. 

Religion is a system of beliefs and practices, which for its adherents has significant impact on their 

behavior and position within the family system. The husband largely decides where to worship and the 

roles the members of the family are to play in a chosen place of worship. 

CONCLUSION 

In Nigeria even up till now poor women participate less in household decisions relative to the 

non-poor. Communication with their spouses is low because of their low economic status. The 

patriarchal culture rarely encourages communication between marital couples but to a large extent 

promotes male dominance in terms of decision-making in various aspects of human lives. 

The domineering role of men in decision-making processes principally resulted from their 

control of resources and their desire to lead in all spheres of the family endeavors. The submissive 

position of women as well as their relative „confinement‟ and societal norms that convey little need for 

interaction between husband and wife are also outcomes of the patriarchal family structure. 

Women in Nigeria need to be empowered educationally and economically to be able to face the 

various challenges and responsibilities in the family, while husbands must be re-oriented towards care, 

good and enduring marital relationships with their wives, for proper nurture and upbringing of their 

children. Gender roles differentials should be replaced with gender mainstreaming in Nigeria social 

life so as to catch up with global changes in women participation in all spheres of life where men were 

formerly dominant. Men and women should no longer be regarded as 'opposites'. The important thing 

to remember is that mothers and fathers often bring different strengths and styles to their parenting 

roles. These roles complement each other, and are each necessary for healthy childrearing. 


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