CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
The major objective of every organization, whether private or public, is to improve its productivity, and this achievement to a great extent depends on the quality and competence of its human resources. Responsible organizations recognize that human resources are their main resource in achieving the desired objectives. Consequently, workers must be equipped and trained adequately to ensure that their knowledge, skills, and abilities facilitate the attainment of organizational goals and objectives. To corroborate, Singh & Mohanty (2012), posit that training is a central and powerful instrument for the effective achievement of organizational goals and objectives, resulting in greater productivity. As such, the performance of an organization to a great extent relies on the capacity and expertise of the employees at the managerial and lower levels of the organization and such capacities and abilities derive from the knowledge and training they receive (Dialoke, Ukah and Ikoro, 2016). Also, training is fundamental, in view of the evolving technology; the automated work environment; the rapid transformation in administrative settings, accompanied by the demands of diversity management as hallmarks and trappings of globalization. The importance of training has no doubt been recognized in many organizations as the key factor for improved productivity. However, manpower training in the public sector is threatened with a number of problems like the absence of systematic training despite the various reforms that laid emphasis on training (Okotoni & Erero, 2005). This is because, the various reforms in the public sector have not considered it necessary to initiate definite and continuous training programs that will increase employees‟ productivity. This implies that when training need is recognized and resources and time are committed, the training exercise can still be inadequate in addressing the productivity deficit. Sometimes, the training exercise is haphazard or lopsided in design, implementation and participation. At times, training is based on a faulty diagnosis of training needs.
Human Resource Management is the organizational function that deals with issues related to people such as compensation, hiring, performance management, organization development, safety, wellness, benefits, employee motivation, communication, administration, and training. Human Resource Management is also a strategic and comprehensive approach to managing people and the workplace culture and environment. Effective HRM enables employees to contribute effectively and productively to the overall company direction and the accomplishment of the organization’s goals and objectives. Human Resource Management is moving away from traditional personnel, administration, and transactional roles, which are increasingly outsourced. HRM is now expected to add value to the strategic utilization of employees and that employee programs impact the business in measurable ways. The new role of HRM involves strategic direction and HRM metrics and measurements to demonstrate. HRM covers a wide range of activities. The main area of study we will focus on will be incentives and work organization. Incentives include remuneration systems (e.g. individuals or group incentive/contingent pay) and also the system of appraisal, promotion and career advancement. By work organization we mean the distribution of decision rights (autonomy/decentralization) between managers and workers, job design (e.g. flexibility of working, job rotation), team-working (e.g. who works with whom) and information provision. Civil servants have a reputation for being lazy. However, people’s personal experiences with civil servants frequently run counter to this stereotype. We develop a model of an economy in which workers differ in laziness and in public service motivation, and characterize optimal incentive contracts for public sector workers under different informational assumptions. When civil servants. Effort is invariable, lazy workers and working in the public sector highly attractive and may crowd out dedicated workers. When effort is variable, the government optimally attracts dedicated workers as well as the economy’s laziest workers by offering separating contracts, which are both distorted. Even though contract distortions reduce aggregate welfare, a majority of society may be better off as public goods come at a lower cost. Where we depart from several of the existing surveys in the field is to put HRM more broadly in the context of the economics of management. To do this we also look in detail at the literature on productivity dispersion.
Productivity as the output and input ratio within a given time frame and with special attention to quality and the efficient use of resources. The National Productivity Centre in the information booklet defines productivity as doing the right things the right way, getting more output within less input, getting more output with the same input, punctuality and promptness, elimination of wastes in all forms, justifying your pay, improvement in all aspects of life, producing more and more of better quality. The summary of all definitions of productivity is the balance between all factors of production that will give the greatest returns for the smallest efforts. Since human resources are essential in all organizations, especially the educational sector, the effective management of staff personnel no doubt has a great influence on productivity. Based on this background, the study examined the relationship between Human Resource Management and Productivity in the Nigerian civil service.