Business Inventory Management Skills Required Of Workers In The Face Of Covid-19 For Effective Management Of Small Scale Businesses Asaba

ABSTRACT

This study examined business inventory management skills required of workers in the face of Covid-19 for effective management of small scale businesses in Asaba.  A descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprised of six hundred (600) small-scale business owners in Asaba, Delta State while the sample of the study was sixty (60) small-scale business owners in Asaba, Delta State drawn through simple random sampling technique. The instrument used for data collection is a structured questionnaire, which was structured by the researcher and face validated by two experts, one in Business Education and one in Educational Measurement and Evaluation Departments of Federal College of Education (T) Asaba. Sixty (60) copies of the validated instrument was administered to the small scale business owners by the researcher with the help of 2 research assistants and 56 were retrieved and analyzed using mean statistics. They study found that business inventory management skill required of workers in the face of Covid-19 for effective management of small scale businesses in Asaba are sales report, physical relocation and database count. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that business organizations should organize seminars and workshops to educate workers on the business inventory skills they require to effective manage their businesses and workers should be encouraged to take advantage of online platforms to equip themselves with the relevant skills.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

In the history of the world, infectious diseases have wreaked havoc among countries. The continuous and emerging global convergence has also influenced the speed of the spread of these infectious diseases. According to the World Health Organisation (2020), the world has witnessed emergence of several disease outbreaks and epidemics caused by more than 20 infectious agents over the past decade. The emergence of coronavirus-associated diseases (SARS and MERS) inflicted global challenges to public health systems. SARS-  CoV-2 (the causative agent for Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) is the latest addition to this expanding list of novel agents. WHO declared COVID-19 a public health emergency of international concern on 30 January 2020 and a pandemic on 11^th March, 2020. It is noted that this corona-virus has affected many individual in their various place of works and small scales workers are not left out because the countries has been on lock-down for almost one year and this made most small scale business owners to spend their capital and cannot continue with the business anymore.

However, it will be important to understand the basic concept of business.  business is any activity performed or service rendered which provide goods or services to satisfy human needs and desires Olatunji (2015) asserted that it  should be noted that any business activity must be legal and must bring a reward  or profit. The goods and services provided in any business activity must result in the provision of tangible or intangible goods. Tangible goods are products you can see physically “or hold e.g biro, shoes, dresses etc while intangible goods are what cannot be seen or touch, it involves service rendered by teachers, doctors, engineer, etc. While management is an art of getting work done through people. Ezeanyanwu (2015) defined management as the process undertaken by one or more individuals to co-ordinate the activities others and achieve results not achievable by one individual acting alone. Obed (2016) stated that all modern managers essentially face managerial tasks: managing work and organizations, managing people and managing production and operations. No matter what an organization or business engages in, its managers face these three tasks. Thus, managing is more than solving behavioural problems. It is more than solving technical problems; it is more than managing individual works; it is more than planning a department’s future. Obayi (2011), observed that to manage, entails organizing the establishment and seeing that the different people employed by it perform their various functions, so that the main objectives of the establishment may be realized.

Nwafor (2015) stated that inventory is the goods that a company handles with the intention of selling. It might be raw materials that the company buy and turn into something entirely new, or it might be a bulk product that the company break down into its constituent parts and sell separately. It could even be something completely intangible: software, for instance. The author went  further that stated the business inventory management skills as follows inventory  sales reports, physical relocation of inventory, physical and inventory database  counts among others.

According to Breuer (2016), inventory includes all types of stocks. For effective working capital management, inventory needs to be managed effectively. Agara (2015) defined inventory (stock) as the physical units of goods that a business trades on or manufactures for sale. For effective management of inventory, the level of inventory should be such that the total cost of ordering and holding inventory is the least.

Therefore, a small business is any business that is owned, managed and controlled by one-man or partners of about two persons with total assets of fifty million naira, and a relatively small share of the market and does not have more than fifty employees. Therefore, for business education graduates to efficiently    manage small businesses, they must learn and develop inventory managerial  skills  aside their basic knowledge of study (Mugo, 2014).  The emergence of COVID-19 pandemic brought about changes worldwide including Nigeria. The changes are summarised as: increased sickness, death, poverty, effect on health, food production, security, money supply, reduced inflow of foreign exchange resulting from lack of export and import of goods and services except for essential products, lack of patronage  resulting from restrictions in movement and access, changes in mode of  business operation from physical contact to online and many others. The SMEs suffered and are still being affected by the emergence of the pandemic since year 2020. Patronage and cashflow of the SMEs evaluated was seriously impacted by the novel virus plaguing the world economy. This experience triggered negative survival, excitement and sentiment on the continuous infection of this pandemic. Businesses have collapsed and many more are on the verge of extinction due to prevalence of COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, most SMEs with insufficient capital outlay went into economic shock and it is highly unlikely to recover from this shock in the short run.

The various hardship caused by this novel virus informed many countries in the world to enforce containment measures which led to the restrictions on  movements nationally and internationally, total lock down and closure of  business activities, border to border movement restrictions among others.  As SMEs are vital to economic growth and also contribute to the development of the world economy generally and specifically in developing economies, the  SMEs play major role in economic development as employers of  labour. Ajieefun (2013) summarised that. the SMEs in Nigeria play pivotal role in the economic development resulting from their capacity to stimulate welfare of the people, reduction of unemployment  and productivity.

Austin (2017) earlier noted that pandemics pose negative impacts on economic performance, through poor health. The prevalence of COVID-19 has instigated various researches in economics, health, environment, manufacturing, agriculture and many more. It is expected that these research work will postulate possible coping strategies or mechanisms and guidelines that will mitigate  against future effect of pandemic on SMEs and world economy. The effects of pandemics to terrorist attack, which inhibit trade  and business activities within affected areas, and has the capacity to lower  productivity. Goodell (2020) indicated that the pandemic has posed the greatest impact on stock markets around the globe, and has caused worst economic meltdown since the 2008 global financial crisis. In recent times, Goodell (2020) agrees that natural disasters and terrorist attacks are similar to the effects of COVID-19 on economic performance. because it inhibits trade and production within places affected. Aderemi (2020) attests to this, noting that the emergence of COVID-19 has created panic in the financial system, causing high volatility in several markets. Aderemi (2020) affirms by stressing that many financial and non-financial firms across the globe have been adversely affected by the  COVID-19 pandemic, as stock returns are trending downwards these  days. Busari and Jaiyeoba (2021) noted that even if the pandemic is resolved, its  effects on business and economic performance will linger in the short run. It is against this background that it becomes imperative for the researcher determine  the business inventory management skills required of workers in the face of  COVID-19 for effective management of small scale businesses in Asaba.

Statement of the Problem 

The importance of business inventory management skills cannot be underestimated in business education students because business education students are seen as the bedrock of every organization and they are to possess the required business inventory management skills within an organization they found themselves after graduation. The acquisition of this business inventory management skills by business education students is also important to them because with the knowledge, they can establish a small scale business for themselves while in school and after graduation. Despite the importance of these business inventory management skills to business education students, some students failed to avail themselves from acquiring these skills which made them not to effectively manage a small scale business after graduation.

It is against this background that arouse the researcher to investigate on business inventory. management skills required of workers in the face of COVID-19 for effective management of small scale business in Asaba.

Purpose of the Study 

The broad purpose of this study is to examine the business inventory management skills required of workers in the face of COVID-19 for effective management of small scale businesses in Asaba.   The specific objectives are:

1. To find out inventory sales report skills required of workers in the face of COVID-19 for effective management of small scale business.
2. To find out physical relocation of inventory skills required of workers in the face of COVID-19 for effective management of small scale business.
3. To find out inventory database counts skills required of workers in the face of COVID-19 for effective management of small scale business.

Research Questions

In order to attain the objectives of this study, the following research  questions were formulated for the study:

1. What are the inventories sales report skills required of workers in the face of COVID-19 for effective management of small scale business?
2. What is the physical relocation of inventory skills required of workers in the face of COVID-19 for effective management of small scale business?
3. What is the inventory database counts required of workers in the face of COVID-19 for effective management of small scale business?

Significance of the Study 

This study could be of immense benefit to business education students, small scale business owners/entrepreneurs, curriculum planners, society at large and other researchers.  This study could be of immense benefit to business education students  because it could enable them understand the basic skill required to learn  entrepreneurship while in school that could make them function properly after   graduation and become good entrepreneurs with a difference that will make  them perform better than others in the society without entrepreneurial skill.  This study could also be of importance to business owners/entrepreneurs because the finding could provide data that would make them to become more productive and creating high value of knowledge on the areas of economy and equally ascertain those entrepreneurial skill sucked in a chosen business. Curriculum planners and developers could equally benefit as it will help them to know the necessary facilities needed to put in place in other to enhance the productive and entrepreneurial skills of business education students so that they can become self-employed immediately after graduation.

Educational institution of higher learning would also benefit in that, it would provoke the convening of academic discussions, conferences, workshops and seminars targeted revising the curricula for the production of business  education graduates that would be competent in creating and managing their  own business.

Moreso, the study will be of immense benefit to the society at large because it will help to reduce poverty, hunger, unemployment etc. because the  knowledge of business education will help the graduate to be self employed and  also be an employer of labour.

Finally the study will be of immense benefit to other researchers because it will acquit them with the background on business inventory management skills required of business education students for effective management of small  scale business so that they can concentrate on modifying the topic instead  writing a new one.

Scope of the Study

This research study was delimited to small scale business in Asaba. Based on the study, it was restricted to determine the inventories sales report skills required by business education students for effective management of small scale business, physical relocation of inventory skills required of business education students for effective management of small scale business and inventory database counts required of workers in the face of COVID-19 for effective management of small scale business.

Pages:  50

Category: Project

Format:  Word & PDF               

Chapters: 1-5                                          

Source: Imsuinfo

Material contains Table of Content, Abstract and References.