Influence of unplanned versus planned factory locations on worker commitment to industrial employment in Nigeria

The level of commitment to industrial employment of a purposive sample of Nigerian factory workers is found to be higher among workers in factories located in the unplanned commercial and residential areas than among workers in factories located on specially planned industrial estates. This relationship persists when certain variables were in turn held constant. These variables are (1) the workers gross income, (2) the number of fringe benefits available and (3) their valuation of material possessions. That the original relationship is best interpreted within the framework of the principle of acculturation rather than in the light of an economic theory of motivation is indicated by the tendency for the relationship to decline in strength when a number of socio-cultural integration variables are used as control variables. These variables are (1) the political and economic role of the migrants from the ethnic communities from which the workers originate play in the receiving urban communities, (2) the number of friends and acquaintances workers have in their work neighbourhood and (3) the number of voluntary associations to which workers belong. Implication of finding for economic, industrial and political development of the new nations is indicated.