Description

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

This research is on Impacts of Manpower Training and Development on Productivity of Workers in an Organization: A Study of Selected Firms in Enugu: Access Bank Plc, Nigerian Breweries Plc, First Bank Plc, Emenite Limited Nigeria Bottling Company Ltd]. There are a number of factors that contribute to the success of any organization, these factors include: capital, equipment, manpower, etc. All these factors are important but the most

significant factor is the human factor. Since it is the people that will put the other resources to work, it should be viewed as such by management by giving it due attention in order to achieve its organizational goals and objectives.

Manpower planning aimed at ensuring that the right person is available for the right job at the right time. This involves formulating a forward looking plan to ensure that the necessary human effort to make it possible for the survival and growth of the organization, it becomes imperative to develop the employee.

Udeze (2000:90), posits that training is like sharpening of an existing skill in order to reflect the trends in technology and other socio-cultural environment of an organization. The major object of training and development is to increase the efficiency of the employee with resulting increase in corporate productivity.

Diejemoah (2001:23), Manpower development is a process of intellectual and emotional achievement through providing the means by which people can grow on their jobs. It relates to series of activities, which an enterprise would embark upon to improve its managerial capacity. Manpower development is important in any discussion of strategic human resources management.

These emphasis on manpower and development is influenced by the belief that it is now desirable to focus more attention on areas which in the past has been relatively neglected because every organization regardless of its size must provide for the needs, interest and desire of its employee within the work environment if it is to earn loyalty, dedication, involvement and commitment necessary to compete effectively.

Since the early 1960, the human factor of production of manpower as it is alternatively called, has increasable been recognized as the most critical resource of the factors without which an effective utilization of all other factors remain a dream. Although, it might to tempting to attach more importance to the availability of physical resource such as capital and equipment undermining that they are mere passive factors of production, which depend on human intellectual which is the active agent to exploit them in order to achieve the objective of the organization. Thus, the human factor (manpower) is the main stay of the organization. In other words, the success of an organization depends on the ability and expertise of those who operate it both at the managerial and lower levels of operation, such abilities and expertise usually stems from the knowledge they possess and training received.

Graham (2001:19) says human being constitutes the ultimate basis of a nation’s wealth. This proposition applies to the organization, which implies that with daily increase and complexity in the organizational activities and the problem ensuring optimum productivity which is fast becoming a challenge as well as imperative for the management of organization, thus, training and development of staff on whom the huge responsibility of furthering these goals rest, must take top priority if the organization must continue to enjoy maximum performance from the staff. The main objective of setting up a company is to make profit and to achieve this organizational goal; adequate manpower planning and development programmes should be put in place to enhance performance.

1.2     STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The human resources (manpower) is considered the most

critical to any organizational survival of a truism that adequate supply of material and financial resources that utilizes these available resources to bring about the desired goals. However, most

organizational plans meticulously for their investment in physical and capital resources and these plans are reviewed with utmost attention to detail while rarely do such organizations pay attention to human investment in which the capital and equipment will be in vain. Not many organizations consider the necessity for a well-defined and sustained training and development for staff in order to upgrade their performance or they are not able to cope financially with training and development programmes.

The very few organizations that give thought to this very important aspect of staffing functions do so with lack of seriousness; all round attention and continuity. The programmes are carried out not only once in a blue moon but are also lopsided in terms of content and staff participation. As a result of this, lackadaisical attitude of management towards training and manpower development. There had been a progressive decline in the ability of manpower to cope with the challenges that attend the over unfolding new dispensation in the industry, in the circumstance, what we find is that the rise in industrial output is inconsequential in spite of the enormous wave of modern technology that now exist in industrial activities.

It is the opinion of industry observes that the poor performance of the organization-workers follows from their inability to keep abreast with the new technological current as a result of the absence of appropriate and sufficient staff training. It is against this background that the researcher considered the impact of performance training and development on organizational performance of this mission, however, the researcher used some selected firms such as : Access Bank Plc, Nigeria Breweries Plc, First Bank Plc, Emenite Limited and Nigerian Bottling Company Plc.

1.3  OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY ARE AS FOLLOWS:

• To highlight the need for manpower planning and development in these organization.
• To determine the nature of the relationship between personal training and development and staff performance.
• To ascertain the impact of training on productivity of employees and organizations.
• To know if there are social and personal benefits resulting from the training.
• To find out if manpower planning, training and development provide job satisfaction to employees.

1.4   RESEARCH QUESTIONS

3. Is there relationship between manpower training  and development and staff performance?
4. Does training improve productivity on employees and organizations?
5. Are there social and personal benefits resulting from the training?
6. Is there any need for manpower planning and development in banks and manufacturing companies?
7. Do manpower planning, training and development provide job satisfaction to employees?

1.5   RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

The testable hypotheses of this research study are the following:

training.

Ho:  Training does not improve the productivity of employees and the organization.

H₁:     Training improves the productivity of employees and the organization.

Ho:   There are no needs for manpower planning and development in both banks and manufacturing companies

H₁:  There are needs for manpower planning and development in both banks and manufacturing companies.

Ho:  Manpower planning, training and development do not provide job satisfaction to employees

H₁:  Manpower planning, training and development provide job satisfaction to employees

1.6   SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

In spite of all efforts geared towards improving the services of that banking and manufacturing industries, there are some doubts as to the quality of services rendered by both industries to its customers in particular and the nation in general. It is in light of this that the researcher through the work intend to look into the factors militating against Access Bank Plc, Nigerian Breweries Plc, First Bank Plc, Emenite Limited and Nigeria Bottling Company Ltd in achieving its sets objectives, by this, the study will look into the manpower base and quality of staff of the selected firms and assess their suitability with the aim of developing training programmes to enhance their performance since the progress of an organization is a function of the quality of those directing its affairs. The importance of this cannot be overemphasized especially in these periods when most companies are international standard complaint. It therefore improves a company to plan and train its workers for the best quality of work to be relevant in the scheme of globalization.

This is particularly directed to establishment that are prone to think that the intractable problems of their organization is finance and not manpower planning and development it will also evaluate aspects of the recruitment, selection and training process, which bear strong relevance to corporate image, productivity efficiency and morals. For the management of these selected firms, the benefit of training and development is that quality of work, life of the employees will reciprocate with increase performance on the job.

This will go a long way in providing job satisfaction and services as motivation towards the realization of individual aspiration; it will also be relevant to the human resource development department in the formulation of policies relating to training and development of personnel and for the government, to ensure adequate training and know-how to improve the economy as a whole.

Finally, this research work when completed will be of great importance to the researcher for the partial fulfillment of requirement for the award of Master in Business Administration (MBA). It will also be useful to other students and researchers in general.

1.7   SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study is done in Enugu State. The researcher used five firms, from banking and manufacturing industries. There are:

Access Bank Plc,

Nigerian Breweries Plc,

First Bank Plc,

Emenite Limited

Nigeria Bottling Company Ltd

All the steps involved in this research were completed within some months period ( 2013 to 2014).

1.8    LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

Some banks and manufacturing firms were selected for this study. The study was also limited to employees of these firms. One of the problems the researcher encountered was that some officers were either too busy for interviews or cleverly avoided certain questions for the fear that the information given might put their jobs in jeopardy. Those who responding to questions tend to make their answers to reflect what ought to be rather that what is, this undoubtedly affected the quality and accuracy of information collected during the study.

A large population of the staff falls among the junior staff and as such, it is difficult to really get their opinion as regards manpower development as they are shy to respond and do not really appreciate the importance of development. A lot of finance was also required in making this project a reality, thus, the researcher was faced with the problem of finance and time.

These difficulties notwithstanding the researcher made concert efforts to ensure that the research was comprehensively carried out to meet the desired needs.