ABSTRACT
The project “effect of
Training on the performance of Civil
Servants was an attempt to make contribution to the ongoing debate on the
Nigerian Civil Service training and productivity that has been raging since the
Nigerian Third and Fourth Republics. The study isolated an important internal
functional process within the civil service and investigated the extent and the
general dynamics of its practice within the context of the Enugu State civil
service. It focused primarily on the effect of training on the civil servants
in Nigeria, using Enugu State ministry of Agriculture as point of emphasis. The
primary instrument for data collection was the questionnaire. The population of
the study consisted of 6563 staff of the ten ministries and departments in
Enugu State Civil Service. Prominent among the findings of the research was
that although the ten ministries and departments used as case study had
training schools, neither the training programs nor the staff attendance to the
training program were regular. The study also found out that neither the
ministries nor departments saw training of their staff as an investment. Worse
still, the training programs were not restructured from time to time. Based on
the above findings, the study recommended that appointments into the Civil
Service should be reserved for professionals only who know the value of
training of staff for the growth of the organization they preside over.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the
Study
Nigerian employees are
believed to have a poor attitude to work resulting in low productivity.
Commenting on the low productivity of Nigerian employees, Eze (1981:2) observed
that: Many achievement oriented, shrewd observers of Nigerian people at work
have always come out with a common impression that generally Nigerian workers
are lazy, slow, sleepy, reluctant to act, unconcerned, and deceitful in their
approach to work assigned to them. These workers lack the zeal, (Adebayo,
2001), the briskness and the momentum of
hard work and generally, they dislike to hear anybody talk about efficiency,
dedication, honesty, competence, determination, and productivity- all which
characterize achievement people in production oriented society.
The inexorable march of
time and the ceaseless clamour for social change combined to make adaptability
and continuing preparation of the workforce as inevitable as the initial
acquisition of knowledge and skills. This cannot happen if staffs training do not
occur in an organization. In order to maximize productivity and efficiency of
the organization, every executive, manager or supervisor in a public or private
organization has the responsibility and indeed the bounding duty to ensure the
training of men and women who have requisite knowledge and expertise. The aim
is to enable them to contribute their full measure to the welfare, healthy and
productivity level of the organization.
A according to (Harper
and Row Croft, L.1996), Enugu State, the need to train skilled personnel in the
civil service arise principally because of the need to provide necessary
practical training required to make newly recruited graduates from ministries
and technical institutions effective administrators and skilled technicians. There
is also need for some orientation courses for those promoted from lower to
higher technical and managerial positions. Furthermore, there is need to step
up the training of Enugu State civil servants as quickly as possible in order
to reduce the gap in the demand for and supply of skilled manpower, thereby
reduce the reliance on foreign supply in accordance with federal government
Nigerian Policy. Finally, comprehensive training is necessary to remove the
main deficiencies in indigenous workers’ general attitude to work and working
relationship with other worker. These deficiencies include lack of initiative,
inadequate educational or professional background, unwillingness or reluctance
to take decisions, unduly concerned with personal prestige, reluctance to do
manual work etc.
Enugu state has several
schools for the training of her workforce in the civil service. These include
Staff Development Centre, Training School for Government Press, School of
Health Technology Oji and School of Health Technology, Nsukka, among others. In
spite of these training schools, myriads of problems still confront staff of
these ministries: Agriculture, Land, Survey, Human Development and Poverty
Reduction, Government Press, Board of Internal Revenue, Head of Service, Health,
Science and Technology and Gender Affairs and Social Development.
The concept of
productivity underlies most discussions of the civil service in Nigeria, like
other formal organizations. Thus, criticism of and allegations against the
service centre on its productivity and performance. This perhaps explains why
the concept of productivity is very difficult if not the most controversial
concept in economic and business world. The difficulty arose mainly from the
problems associated with the yardsticks used in measuring productivity and the
statistical data and other variety of issues involved. The problems are much
more compounded with regards to measuring productivity in the public sector of
the economy (Simons G.I, 1975 and Balogun, A1983).
Our understanding of
productivity as a concept can be enhanced by examining it from two perspectives
namely, the economic and instruments. Due to over emphasis on profit making,
particularly in the
However, some business
executives tend to reject this rather too “economistic” and narrow view of
productivity. Rather this school of thought sees productivity as a measure of
overall production efficiency, effectiveness and performance of an individual
organization.
They insist that such
issues, as quality of output, cost of labour, adherence to standards, absence
of disruptions and strikes, customer satisfaction and turnover rates as well as
such qualitative measurements as units produced in volume of sales are
important matters that must be taken into consideration. Some scholars have
even defined productivity as output per performance in an organization
(Udo-Aka, 1983).
The above variations of
productivity are all premised on the economic perspective of the concept. And
as already observed, there are major problems in viewing productivity in the
public sector from the economic perspective, problems largely connected with
the social costing of the concept in the sector (Uluocha, 1983).
This leaves us with the
instrumental view of productivity. The instrumental concept of productivity is
essentially associated with the attainment of objectives and goals. Thus, an
instrumental action is concerned on one hand with desired outcome (achieving
results) and on the other, with the belief about cause/effect relationship. Its
essence is the employment of specific action or means to produce the desired
results. In this regards, the instrumentally perfect” tool is one that meets
such results (Thompson, 1978:14). Viewed from this perspective, an organization
is productive or instrumental in as much as the goals and objectives for which
it is established are achieved.
Hence the concept of
productivity in Enugu State Civil Service and indeed in this study shall be
along the instrumental perspective. In this regard, the Civil Servant in Enugu
State shall be regarded as productive, if the goals and objectives for which
the government is established Aare achieved. The reverse shall hold if its
goals and objectives are not realized or being realized. The central task of
this study is to determine the effect of training on productivity in Enugu
state civil service between 1999 and 2006.
1.2 Statement of
Problem
After an employee has been recruited and inducted, his
skills must be updated and developed to better fit into the job and the organization. The need for training and developing the
employee not only arises from the fact that he might not fit in the job posses
the necessary skill needed in the job but have the effect of the dynamic nature
of the society influenced by changes in the field of science and technology
necessitated the continuous improvement of worker’s skill and the sill he
expected to have in order better fit into the new job demands is bridged by
manpower training.
Many organizations have over the years established good
manpower training and development programmes in order incite better employee
performance at work and increased productivity.
Good development programmes have not always been easy to attain in
organization because of the forces that impede against the achievement of their
objectives. Some of the impeding forces
include selections or recruitment problems, training procedure and inadequate
facilities, government policy, the economy and labour legislation. The crucial problems this research will
address includes:
1.
The
problem of inadequate manpower resources in the Enugu state civil service.
2.
The
lack of functional manpower development programmes.
1.3 Objectives of Study
The broad objective is
aimed at establishing the impact of staff training programs in Enugu State Civil
service within the period under review.
The specific objectives
of the study are as follows:
1)
To determine whether the use of training
schools by management of civil servants impact on the productivity among civil servants in Enugu State.
2)
To evaluate whether inadequate attention
to staff training impact on performance among civil servants in Enugu State.
3)
To asses if the failure of ministries
and departments in Enugu State
civil service to organize regular staff training accounts for the inability of the civil servants to
perform their statutory functions.
1.3 Research Questions
We shall therefore
attempt to provide valid answers to the above and hence fill the lacuna within
the contexts of the questions stated below:
1.
Does the use of training schools by
management of state ministries
impact on productivity among civil servants in Enugu State?
2.
Does inadequate attention to staff
training impact on performance among civil servants in Enugu State?
3.
Does the failure of ministry and
departments in Enugu State civil
service to organize regular staff development training programs accounts for
the inability of the civil servants to perform
their statutory functions?
1.5 Research
Hypotheses
This study is guided by
the following hypotheses:
H1: The use of training schools by management of
state ministries has impact on
productivity among civil servants in Enugu.
H0: The use of training schools by management of
state ministries does not have
impact on productivity among civil servants in Enugu
State
H2: Inadequate
attention to staff training has impact on performance among civil servants in
Enugu State.
H0: Inadequate
attention to staff training has no impact on performance
among civil servants in Enugu State.
H4: Failure of ministry and departments in Enugu
State civil service to organize
regular staff development training programs
accounts for the inability of the civil servants to perform their statutory
functions.
H0 Failure of ministry and departments in Enugu
State civil service to organize
regular staff development training programs
does not accounts for the inability of the civil servants to perform
their statutory functions?
1.6 Significance of the
Study
The value/benefits that
can be derived from the study is as follows:
This study will attempt
to effectively fill that gap void for well-rounded knowledge of the entire
dynamic of administration at the state level in Nigeria. To this extent, the
study will be of immense benefit to various scholars and practitioners alike on
state administration.
Enugu State Government
within the period under study and beyond and other states stand to benefit from
the work as the study will enable them to appreciate in no small proportion the
gains of trained manpower.
Furthermore, the study
will guide the scholars and policy makers on civil service administration in
Nigeria on how best to run civil service.
The study will also be
of immense assistance to civil service commission across the country and state
and civil service office of the presidency Abuja, as they design and execute
relevant training programs for the Nigerian civil service.
This study will significantly improve the morale of the
civil servants as it will enable them to appreciate the gains of the training.
And finally, the study will critically evaluate the
allocation and usage of funds by Civil Service Commission for the purpose of
manpower training.
1.7 Scope of the Study
The study will focus
primarily on training and productivity of staff (junior and senior) in the ten
ministries and departments in Enugu State Civil Service. These ministries are
the ministries of Agriculture, Health, Gender Affairs and Social Development,
Survey, Lands, Human Development and Poverty Reduction, Government Press, (Elto
,1933) Science and Technology, Board of Internal Revenue and Head of Service.
These ministries and Departments in Enugu State Civil Service are known to have
training schools for their staff.
The study will examine
the Training and Productivity among the staff of these ministries and
departments to ascertain the extent the use of these training schools by their
management, has impact on the workers performance.tt
1.8
Limitations of The Study
The researcher had some
challenges like, time factor, which was due to doing the research work,
alongside with class work, lectures and homework. Some more limitations are the
financial constraints and individuals attitude towards the research work .But,
I, the researcher was still able to achieve a good research work/project
despite the challenges I faced during the research process.
1.9
Operational Definition of Terms
STAFF: A
staff can be defined as an employee of a business organization.
TRAINING: It
can be seen as the activity of impacting and acquiring skills.
STAFF TRAINING:
Staff training is therefore the formal procedures which an organization uses to
facilitate employee’s learning so that their resultants behaviour contributes
to the attainment of the organization’s as well as the individual’s goals and
objectives.
PRODUCTIVITY OR PERFORMANCE: means the
cost of or value of an output, whether in terms of product, skill, money,
equality of service etc.higher than the cost of input used in the production
process, including manpower and technology (Thompson 1978:14).
AGRICULTURE:
It is defined as the art or science of cultivating the ground, including the
harvesting of crops, and the rearing and management of livestock, tillage,
husbandry and farming.
ORGANIZATION: This
is referred to as a group of people or other legal entities with an explicit
purpose and written rules working together with same mutual interest in order
to achieve a particular aim or objective.
GOVERNMENT: The
body with the power to make and/or
enforcing laws to control a country, land area, people or organization.
MINISTRY: Government
department, at the administrative level normally headed by a minister (or
equivalent rank, e.g. secretary of state), who holds it as portfolio, especially
in a constitutional monarchy.
1.
CIVIL SERVICE:
This is defined as a permanent professional branche of a state's
administration, excluding military and judicial branch and elected politicians.
CIVIL SERVANT: This
is seen as a public servant, government official, government worker, or
civil-sevice employee.
REFERENCES
Adebayo,
A. (2001), Principles and Practice of Public Administration in Nigeria. Ibadan:
Spectrum Books.
Eze,
N. U. (1981) Public Administration in Nigeria, Ikeja, Longman
Publishers.
Balogun,
M.J. (1983)’ “Trends in Public Sector Productivity” In A. M Osoba, (ed) Productivity
in Nigeria. NISER.
Harper
and Row Croft, L. (1996), Management and Organization. London: Bankers
Books Limited.
Simons.
G.I (1975) and Balogun. A (1983), Comparative Management. Englewood
Cliffs; New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
Udo-Aka.
P.F. (1983) Task responsibilities Practice. New York: Harper and Raw
Publishers.
Thompson,
G.A (1978) Current Status of the Technology of Training. AMRL, Document
Technical Report 64-86 Sept.: 3
Uluocha.
S.A (1983), Managing the Nigerian workers. Onitsha: Nigeria Publishers
Ltd.
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