SMALL AND MEDIUM SCALE BUSINESS MANAGERS’ RATINGS OF OPERATIONAL COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS OF ENTERPRISES IN ENUGU STATE

Abstract

The need for SMEs to thrive in the Nigerian economy necessitated the study to
determine small and medium scale business managers’ ratings of operational
communication strategies for success of enterprises in Enugu State. One research
question guided the study and two null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of
significance. The design of the study was a descriptive survey. Population of the study
was all the managers of the 911 registered SMEs in Enugu State. A sample of 220
managers was selected using proportionate stratified random sampling technique.
This comprised 196 managers of small and 24 managers of medium enterprises.
Instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire titled “Managers’
Ratings of Operational Strategies for Success of Enterprises Questionnaire
(MROSSEQ)” validated by three experts. A reliability coefficient of 0.84 was
established using test-retest method and Pearson Product Moment Correlation
Coefficient to obtain the value. Mean and standard deviation were used to analyze
data relating to the research question while z-test was used to test the null hypotheses.
Findings revealed that all the operational communication strategies were highly
relevant to the success of SMEs in Enugu State. Also, gender and years of experience
did not influence the opinions of the SME managers regarding the relevance of
operational communication strategies for success of their enterprises. Consequently,
it was recommended among others that SMEs business managers in Enugu State
should make concerted efforts to adopt the operational communication strategies
identified in this study and also engage themselves in the training that will educate
them more on operational communication strategies in order to keep their businesses
viable.