AN APPRAISAL OF MANAGEMENT TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT TECHNIQUES IN NIGERIA
chapter 1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Staff training and development as a concept is subsumed under the rubric of
personnel management; while personnel management falls within the general
principles and practices of management. Jucius (1966. 23) defined Personnel
Management as “the field of management which has to do with planning,
organising, directing, and controlling various operative functions of procuring,
developing, maintaining and utilising a labour force such that:
a) Objectives for which the organization is established are attained
economically and objectively;
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b) Objectives all levels of personnel are served to the highest possible
degree; and
c) Objectives of community are duly considered and served.
The central aim of any training program should include increase in the
effectiveness of the sponsoring organization. Halsey (1949), writing on the
definition and scope of training, said that before an activity can be regarded as
training, it must be designed to increase the effectiveness and efficiency with
which the functions of an organization are carried out through motivating and
increasing the productive capacity of the personnel of that organization. This
means that training must be a purposeful undertaking which is aimed at ensuring
that the end result is worth-while and effective in terms of its contribution to
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solving organizational and management problems and also raising the productivity
of workers.
2.1.2 The Importance of Staff Training and Development
The importance of staff training and development is self-evident to most
organizations. In fact, following the process of matching the needs of the
organization with the needs of the employee through the employment process, the
next stage should be that of training and developing the employee’s capacity to
perform. In his research, Flippo (1980. P 181) is of the view that:
After the employee has been recruited, selected and
induced, he or she must next be developed to better fit the
job and the organization. No one is a perfect fit at the time
of hiring, and some training and education must take place.
No organization has a choice of whether to develop
employees or not, the only choice is that of method.
Accordingly, many organizations have come to realize the importance of
training so much that some large corporations now operate training and
educational facilities that are equal, and in some cases even superior to many small
colleges and some departments of universities. In Nigeria, much training
facilities as the Petroleum Training Institute (PTI), the Training School of the
various Banks, the P.H.N. Training School etc, are good testimonies to the
Importance that is accorded to staff training by such organizations. Pigors and
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Myers (1981) were apt when they asserted that: “No organization can choose
whether or not to train employees. All new employees, regardless of their
previous training, education, and experience, need to be introduced to their new
work environment and to be shown how to perform specific tasks.”
Training is also an important tool for bringing the gap between the worker
and the management. It does this by marrying the interest of the two. On one hand,
the average young worker wants an opportunity for growth or advancement while
the old worker wants security; both categories of workers want to feel that their
contributions are appreciated and useful and for which they expect rewards in the
form of incentives. On the other hand, management wants increased productivity at
lower costs. Employees who can easily understand and appreciate the limitations
and problems of management are also wanted. A host of these lofty organizational
goals can be achieved by an intelligently planned and skillfully executed staff
training and development programs. As Nasir (1990) put it staff training “is a
process of aligning workers to their working environment to make them realize
their full potentials to the advantage of the individual and the organization.
Training and motivation is principal actor in this regard.”
It has already been established that work can be made a more rewarding
thing, and organizations can be made more effective, if approaches to management
treat employees as individuals. Staff training and development can achieve such
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desirable objectives because it ultimately ensures full utilization of the developed
talents of workers, both to their mutual benefits as well as that of the organization.
This often results in job satisfaction amongst workers, from an organizational
point-of-view, many psychologists, particularly Vroom and Yetton (1973), have
argued that job satisfaction of workers can increase the effectiveness of
organizations, and can also reduce turnover and worker alienation.
At the individual level of the, employee, Stahl (1962) posited that staff
training, “seeks to keep employees abreast of new developments in their fields of
activity, in government aims and strategy, and in national and world-wide
conditions that affect their work. It helps to equip them for higher responsibilities
or to diversify their skills. The postulations of Stahl are of particular relevance to
the universities where staff should not only “seek,” but are required to keep
abreast of new developments in their fields of specialization. In this respect, Stahl
further argued that training “is the process through which specialists can keep
abreast of their specialties as well as avoid the limitations of the narrow expert.
This has said as much on the need for and importance of staff training in the
Colleges.
2.1.3 Staff Training and Development in the Public Service
Available literature on staff training and development in the Nigerian Public
service is scanty particularly because research into public service Issues is
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generally limited. The public service In Nigeria adheres strictly to such practices
like the classification of documents as “Top secret”, “Secret”, and “Confidential”.
In any case, the dividing line between which document is secret and which
document is not, is often very thins in the public service which, therefore, makes it
more difficult to get the necessary data for any management research work.
Nevertheless, there are few available published and unpublished works that are of
relevance to this research.
One such pioneering work is Adedeji’s (1970) article on staff development in
the public service. In It, Adedeji traced the history of staff development In the
Federal Public service of Nigeria in Its bid to produce qua1ified manpower for the various
sectors of the services. He linked the history to the report of the Gorsuch
Commission on the Public Services of the Governments of the Federation of Nigeria
(1954-1955) which expressed the view that training was a prerequisite for an efficient
public service. The Commission, according to Adedeji recommended that: –
…It will be necessary for each government to undertake a
comprehensive review of training facilities throughout its service.
There is a distinction as well as a relationship between pre-service
and in-service training. The recommendation is that each
government should set up a standing committee on training …to
examine how far the established facilities can be used for In-service
training.
Echoing the above view, Adedeji emphasized the role of staff development in the
effective Implementation of national development program and called for an evaluation
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of the achievements so far-made in that aspect. This, according to him is necessary
for revising a sound, comprehensive and forward-looking training program in the
public service. He further stressed the need for greater co-operation between, and
coordination of all those responsible for training programs in the public service.
Idode (1975) studied and employed the historical evolution of staff development
in the Mid-Western State, especially its staff recruitment and training policy and
programs and the achievements of the state in terms of staff development. He found
out that the state had established various training institutions as a step to tackle its
manpower training needs; Idode suggested an increase in government efforts towards
staff development so as to meet the manpower needs of the state and raise the morale
of the personnel.
Juryll (1978) examined the training policies and programs in the Ministry of
Works, Land and Survey of Plateau State. He highlighted many problems that
have contributed to the ineffectiveness of training program in the Ministry. Among
the problems were lack of clearly defined policies on training, little attention paid to long
range planning and the poor training schemes for middle-level manpower in
technical, administrative and professional staff to help them develop their potentials
and also inadequate facilities to execute training programs- As a solution to these
myriad of problems, Juryll called, for a better planning of training courses for all
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category of staff in that particular Ministry, and in the Plateau State Civil Service In
general.
Okhemukhokho (1979) conducted a research on the training and staff
development policies of the then Bendel State Civil Service. He found out that there
was a dearth of fully qualified and professionally trained manpower in the top level
officer cadre of the State’s Civil Service. He attributed this problem to the fact, that the
general administration of the training programs in the Civil Service of the state was not
very satisfactory. Other reasons were that the training programs were not
comprehensive enough in terms of catering for both the administrative and
professional classes in the civil service, and lack of qualified personnel to man the
Training and Manpower Divisions of the Civil Service.
In particular, Okhemukhokho paid some attention in the financial aspect of
manpower training in the then Bendel State Civil Service. He found that the
training budget of the State’s Civil Service for the entire period between 1964/65 –
1978/79 was “less than one per cent” of the total of the state’s recurrent estimates
for each financial year. He concluded that these financial allocations to staff
training and development programs for the period under review” grossly
inadequate” when viewed against the skilled manpower requirements for the
various section of the Civil Service of the state,, He therefore urged the Bendel
State Government to show greater interest in the development of high level
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manpower for the civil service by ensuring that more funds were provided which
should be expended on training in each year. Onivehu (1985) critically analyzed
the staff development and training policy of the then Kwara State Civil Service.
His aim was basically to ascertain the obstacles that militated against the
successful implementation of the state’s staff training and development programs.
Onivehu found that the Kwara State government appreciated and. Indeed,
articulated the role of training and re-training of staff for effective performance and
increased productivity in the state’s civil service. The state had therefore
continuously made financial provision in its annual recurrent estimates to meet the
cost of the training. The state had also patronized local and non-local institutions
and also established its own Institutions to cater for the training needs of its staff.
These achievements notwithstanding, Onivehu found that the effective
implementation of the state’s training program was however inhibited by the
following:
i) Inadequate funding;
ii) Lack of Integration and cohesion of training policies with
other management process such as recruitment, placement,
promotion, incentive system, and staff appraisal; appraisal;
iii) Failure to identify training needs; and
iv) Administrative malpractice in implementing training policies
which led to discontent and consequent frustration on the part
of civil service.
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Onivehu, therefore,, recommended that the state government should
vigorously pursue ‘its stated policy arid programs of exposing officers to one type
of formal training or the other within the first five years of joining the service- This
he concluded would heighten their morale and raise-their productivity to the
desired level .
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