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THE IMPACT OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT ON EFFECTIVE PERFORMANCE OF WORKERS IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR

ABSTRACT

This study examines the impact of Training and development on effective performance of workers in the public sector. A study of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), it becomes imperative because of the poor selection of personnel's, lack of proper assessment and evaluation of employee's performance in the organization and the need to tackle the problems for efficient and effective performance. The research makes use of chi-square(X2) study design as a sample techniques used in the selection of the respondents from the organization; this makes it easy to generalize the result of the entire employees in the organization. The findings discovers that majority of the staff of the Nigeria Ports Authority understood what Training and Development meant; believed that Training programmes have paramount increase effect on their skills in some particular jobs as well as having a positive contribution to the economic wellbeing of the organization. It is recommended that the importance of training and development is a vital and very indispensable tool in achieving an organizational efficiency and effectiveness. At this vantage point, it is necessary to embrace training and development concept to achieve effectiveness and efficiency in every organization to match with the current technological change and sophistications in the world.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Employers who have the intention to increase their productivity and output must enrich their workers in terms of training and development opportunities to fulfill the employees' ambitions. If these employees see that the organization provides room for them to realize their potentials, personal growth and career, they will be opted to remain and discharge their best performance , otherwise ,these employees will likely leave to fulfill their aspiration elsewhere (Dale, 1970). It is from the understanding of the foregoing that Stoner, (1984) defined training as a process of teaching new and present employees the skills they need to perform their jobs. According to him" training consists of those activities that are designed to improve individual's performance in currently held job or one related to it.

Fajana (1998) put it in a different way when he opted that employee and management development is an attempt to improve performance by impacting knowledge, 'changing attitudes, or increasing skills. It includes In-house programmers like courses, coaching, and rotational assignments; professional and university programmes. The ultimate aim of such development programme is to enhance the future performance of the organization itself. For this reason, the general employee development process consist of

1. Assessing the company's needs (for instance, to fill future executive openings, or to make the firm more responsive.

2. Appraising the employees/manager' performance developing the employees themselves

Employee training can then be referred to as any attempt to improve current or future employee performance by increasing an employee's ability to perform (Greenhaus, Feldman and Hallreigal) (1987). A major purpose of training and development is to eliminate performance deficiencies, whether current or anticipated. It improves the performance of organizations with stagnant or declining rates of productivity. Training is also important to organizations that are rapidly incorporating new technologies and consequently decreases the likelihood of employee’s obsolescence. Another purpose of training and development, especially relevant to organizations that are rapidly incorporating new technologies, is to make the current workforce more flexible and adaptable, if an organization can increase its own adaptability; it can enhance its chances for survival and profitability (Wright and Noe, 1996).

In view of the foregoing, these studies examine the impact of training and development on effective performance of workers in work organization in Nigeria, using Nigerian Ports Authority as a case study. According to Pettman (1988), manpower development is considered as an economic resources, which represents the aggregate of skills and attitude resulting from education and training that equips the labour force with the capacity to plan, organize, carryout economic processes when properly allocated. In other words, Alo (1999) notes that manpower development is a key economic resource, which should demand the same attention from an organization that is planning for its performance, equipment, raw materials, production, sales, investments and profits. Consequently, the best result will be achieved when a company integrates its manpower planning with its overall corporate planning.

Manpower development, therefore, has to do with the art of identifying the lower needs of an organization with a view of setting in motion the machinery to meet up such manpower requirements for that organization to attain maximum efficiency. Hence, an organization will survive if it continues to provide its customers with the expected services. To this extent, Nigerian Ports Authority must perform at an optimal level to satisfy its customers, because of the essential nature of services provided and competition in the maritime industry. But the realization of this level of performance is a direct result of the collective efforts of all members of staff of the organization, which will be enhanced through training and manpower development strategies.

The maritime sector is essential for the economic growth and development of any country. No economy can progress efficiently without flexible and reliable Ports rendering quality maritime services. Thus, since maritime service is essential for business growth and development, training and development of employees becomes a necessary complement. In view of the foregoing, the importance of Nigerian Ports Authority cannot be overemphasized. Thus, training and development is expected to be a continuous exercise. It is not a basis for salary increment, rather to enhance effective performance that will help the organization to achieve its aims and objectives. Through attending special training and development course either internally or externally organized within or outside the country, personalities like Omolayole who read in the University could rise to become the chairman chief executive of liver brothers of Nigeria and Mr Felix Oluwese who read geography could rise to become the chairman and chief executive of the Nigeria brewery Ltd, and Unilever etc.

Training is an integral part of enhancing personnel performance and competence. Though in Nigeria Public service there is no central body or agency that is solely responsible for determining or coordinating training rather each department is responsible for identifying training needs, selecting candidate and even organizing training programmes. To epitomize this in Nigeria are some institutions like (ASCON) Administrative College of Nigeria Badagry. The institution of policy and strategy studies (Kuru), institute of maritime study Apapa.

1.2     STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Many of the problems associated with training and development of employee’s in any business organization can be traced to poor selection of candidates. Other problems are non-competent personnel, lack of proper assessment and evaluation of employee's performance, low productivity and inefficiency. Though, the above statement made about three decades ago in the United States of America seems accurately descriptive of the situation in Nigeria today particularly in the public enterprise, like Nigerian Ports Authority that lack professionalism. The selection of workers, for example, is mostly and haphazardly done rather than by merit and professionalism. In the course of doing this education and training acquirement may not necessarily be considered. In this case, the course studied at University, Polytechnic or Colleges of Education does no matter at entry points.

Similarly, the decrease m the quality of training offered in most of our organizations particularly in public enterprises, is another problem. F or instance, product of existing training schemes may lack the essential skills for development or partly because they were trained in inappropriate clinical settings. The results of these training institutions are usually unable to provide the needed skills, as a result of constraints on their resources. This study therefore, is set to investigate the quality of training and development courses offered by most of our training institutions, the challenges facing such institutions and the prospects.

According to Thomason (1991) the objectives, which are established for the training must be clearly communicated to the trainees to provide them with the first piece of knowledge they need to carry out some self-evaluation. But it is not uncommon for the trainers themselves to have certain objectives for the training process but fail to communicate them to the trainees, assuming that the trainees have their own objectives which must coincide with those of the trainers. This makes training ineffective and irrelevant to the stated organizational goals.

Another noticeable factor is the fact that economic growth implies using a country's scarce resources such as labour, capital and national wealth efficiently. But the problems arise because those who allocate resources and enforce plans are not always the best and the brightest. Aluko (1990) supports this assertion, when he says, "Africa is a continent where the fool rules the' wise". This statement explains why situation in Nigerian Ports Authority as regards selection and training of employee is necessary to see whether meritocracy and professionalism are given consideration. Today just anybody can work in the maritime sector irrespective of academic discipline, background or professional competence.

Similar to this problem, is inability of an organization to afford the cost of training for its staff as a result of socio-economic situation in the country. In line with this, recent studies have shown that organizations in the USA have spent nearly $1.7 Billion while nearly $1 Billion was also spent for the same purpose in United Kingdom each year on training (Daft, 1997). The question now is: can an average organization afford the cost of quality training programmes for its staff in Nigeria? The available statistics of the indigenous companies showed that an organization was only able to send 62 employees for training out of 1520 workforce throughout the year as a result of financial constraints. This is not good enough since training and development makes individual employees perform optimally for overall development of the organization. In view of the foregoing, the Federal Ministry of Manpower Resources in Nigeria in 1993 imposed levy of one percent on payroll for every organizations with more than fifty employees for training of its staff. Although this has resulted in many organizations, which in the past did not have any training programmes to design one, but the level of compliance with this directive is still minimal, since there is no particular measure to evaluate or assess organizations particularly in the public sector like Nigerian Ports Authority, these are the issues this study will critically examine.

1.3     OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The main objective of this research work is to evaluate the extent to which training and development has contributed to the performance of employees of Nigerian Ports Authority, Head Office, Marina, and Lagos. Below are specific objectives set for this study:

1. To identify the role and the need for continuous training and development in acquiring new techniques, so as to respond to the changing needs of the study area.

2.To identify the impact of training and development programmes on effective performance of workers in Nigerian Ports Authority.

3.   To identify major problems facing training and manpower development in Nigerian Ports Authority; and suggest possible solutions for solving the problems.

4.   To evaluate and assess the cost, design and training methods available in Nigerian Ports Authority.

5.   To assess employees perception of gains on training and development, and its contributions to individuals and corporate organization.

1.4     RESEARCH QUESTION

1. Is it difficult to transfer knowledge acquired at Training School to work situation?

2. Do workers that went to Training and Development course perform better than those that did not go?

3. Do you recognize any difference in your performance after Training and development course?

4. What impact has Training and Development on your job performance?

5. Do workers feel confident to handle their jobs after Training and Development course?

1.5     RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

Ho:    Null hypothesis

Hi:     Alternative hypothesis

HYPOTHESIS 1

Ho:    The training and development of workers would not contribute to the growth and development of the economic wellbeing of the organization.

HI:    The training and development of workers would contribute to the growth and development of the economic wellbeing of the organization.

HYPOTHESIS 2

Ho:    Improvement in workers skill and knowledge occasioned by training and development has no significant relationship with workers' productivity.

H1:    Improvement in workers skill and knowledge occasioned by training and development has a significant relationship with workers' productivity.

HYPOTHESIS 3

Ho: Training and Development would not significantly enhance workers' performance.

H1: Training and Development would significantly enhanced workers' performance.

HYPOTHESIS 4

Ho: Adequate facilities for training and development have no significant relationship with effective training and development.

H1: Adequate facilities for training and development have a significant relationship with effective training and development.

1.6     SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This study will contribute to existing knowledge on manpower training and development for public and private sector organization in Nigeria. The rationale of this research is set to help management who find the research useful to design and redesign effective manpower training and development programmes, for their staff, for higher work productivity through recommendations and suggestions offered by this study. This study is also justified on the basis that it will provide relevant information on the relevance of training for organizational growth and development. Thus, individual managers, organizations, governments, multi-national corporations and other government agencies will find this study very useful, most especially in the area of policy formulation and programme implementation. Another undeniable justification for this work is that it will serve as a novel attempt made to improve the growing body of knowledge In Industrial Relations and Personnel Management studies in organizations. This, therefore, implies that future researchers could depend on this research work as a source of relevant data.

1.7     SCOPE AND LIMITATION TO THE STUDY

The aim of this research is to assess the impact of Training and Development on effective performance of workers in Nigerian Ports Authority with special focus on middle management personnel of the organization. The study LS limited to both the personnel and administrative officers of the organization with great emphasis on those between salary grade levels 08 - 12. However, as a result of time, financial constraints, research materials, inaccessibility and unavailability of some vital' information and others, this led to narrowing the scope and intensity of the study. Irrespective of the aforementioned factors, all efforts will be made to carry out a quality study.

1.8     DEFINITION OF TERMS

CARGO: The Freight of good or luggage carried by a ship

EFFECTIVENESS: This means the degree at which the organization achieves progressives and successful result in the bid to fulfill its aims and objectives to the society. It concerned with the extent to which an organization or programme achieve its goals or other intending effects.

DREDGING: To clear mud from a labour or riverbed

EFFICIENCY: This refers to the relationship between the goods and services produced and the resources used to produce them.

MANAGEMENT: This connotes the body of knowledge and people employed to plan, co-ordinate and control all the resources of an organization.

MANPOWER: Manpower is considered as economic resources that represent the aggregate of skills and attitude resulting from education and training that equips a labour force with the capacity to plan, organize, carryout economic processes when properly allocated.

MOTIVATION: This is the desire within a person causing that person to act. It also implies a drive towards an outcome.

ORGANIZATION: A group of people who form a business, industry etc. together in order to achieve a particular aim. It also implies the productive sector.

PERSONNEL MGT: The management that deals with the human aspect of management.

The rate at which a worker, a company or a country produces goods and the amount produced compared with how much time, work and money is needed to produce them. In other words, productivity is the rate or efficiency of work done in industrial production measured by comparing the amount produced with the time taken or the resources used to produce it.

QUAYS: An artificially constructed wharfs lying parallel to or projecting into the water for loading and unloading of ship.

RESOURCES: it refers to collective means of supplying and satisfying needs and wants in an organization i.e, man, materials, machine and money.

RORO: Roll-on, Roll off

SUPERVISOR: This is the nearest worker to the employee and management; he performs the linking pin function.

TRAINING: Training is organized procedure by which people learn knowledge and or skill for a definite purpose. This is done to achieve a change in the behaviour of those trained. Also in the industrial situation this means that the trainees shall acquire new manipulation skills, technical knowledge, problem solving ability, or attitudes .

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