ABSTRACT
Productivity improvement strategies and competitiveness are key issues for enterprise development in any country. Organizations across the globe have an important role in underpinning this in their policy work and in providing services to their customers/clients. Productive enterprise development means that enterprises can create both new and additional jobs, which in turn is one of the most concrete and important contributions to national efforts on poverty reduction as per International Labor Organization (ILO). Many people think that the greater the production, the higher the productivity. This is not necessarily true. Production is concerned with the activity of production of goods and services (output), whereas productivity is concerned with the effective utilization of resources in producing goods and/or services (outcome). Outcome-based conscious improvement strategies assist the organizations in managing their resources effectively. If the organizations in a country are not productive enough to sustain their essential products and services, then the country has to depend on other countries for imports. The greater the dependency, the lesser is the political leverage, particularly in times of war and crisis. If the productivity game were played consistently well by each of the countries in the world, we would have lesser problems from inflation, fewer wages, exploitation, and employment. Countries that have a high growth rate and higher level of labor productivity tend to exhibit a higher standard of living. National economic power further depends upon the level and growth rate of its labor productivity. The factors that affect productivity are the investment of capital per worker, research and development, capacity utilization, government regulation, age of plant and equipment, energy cost, workforce mix, ethics, fear about job losses, and union influence.
