PARTICIPATIVE MANAGEMENT AND EFFECTIVENESS OF ENTREPRENEURIAL FIRMS IN OWERRI (A STUDY OF MANGERO TABLE WATER)

This study examined “Participative Management and Effectiveness in Entrepreneurial Firm in Owerri (A Study of Mangero Table Water).” The researcher discovered a problem that despite rapid growth in Nigeria’s table water market, many SMEs face plateauing productivity, inconsistency in quality routines, and variability in team execution. Studies across African and emerging contexts suggest that employee participation remains under‑leveraged, limiting idea capture and timely problem solving; simultaneously, Entrepreneurial Orientation capabilities are unevenly diffused in smaller firms, constraining effectiveness. In Owerri, anecdotal evidence suggests Mangero Table Water operates under the same constraints facing many SMEs in Imo (skills, systems, quality assurance cadence), yet there is little firm-level empirical work quantifying how `participative management and Entrepreneurial Orientation jointly predict organizational effectiveness in this context. This study fills that gap by testing the specified model and estimating the marginal contributions of participative management and entrepreneurial orientation to effectiveness outcomes. Three research objectives, three research questions and three research hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. Related literatures were reviewed based on the study. The descriptive survey was adopted for the study. The sample size was determined using Yamane’s sample size formula, the sampling technique adopted was stratified random sampling, the population of the study was 60 workers of Mangero Table Water, Owerri, Imo State. The instrument used for data collection was structured questionnaire with sections A, B and C. A comprised of the letter to the respondents, section B comprised of demographic characteristics and section C comprised of research questions and its responses. The analysis was done using descriptive statistics for demographic data and variables, multiple regression analysis to determine the combined effect of participative management and T-tests for individual regression coefficients and F-test for the overall model significance at a 5% level of significance and Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26 to test the hypothesis. The findings show that X1 (Participative Management) has a positive coefficient (0.1943) but is not statistically significant (p = 0.146) and X2 (Entrepreneurial Orientation) has a positive and statistically significant coefficient (0.3208, p 0.01), implying higher entrepreneurial orientation is associated with increased organizational effectiveness. It was recommended among others that; Organizational managements should foster a culture of trust, providing employees with a safe space to share ideas and feedback without fear of reprisal. Offer training in decision making and leadership skills to support employees’ ability to contribute effectively.