CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     Background to the Study

The importance of training and development in organization cannot be over emphasized. This is particularly because of the growing complexity of work environment, the rapid change in technology, among other things.

The achievement of people, whatever their purpose, depend not only on their innate quality but also upon he character and extent of their education and training. It is against this reason that this study is primarily aimed at investigating the effect of training and development on employees of Ughelli south Local Government. Training and development are twin techniques that are inseparable. They are employed to adequately prepare the employees to perform their current job by updating their knowledge and skills that will better their performance both for the now and for fliture challenges and responsibilities.

It is in recognition of the importance of training and development on productivity that the Federal Government in 1967, commissioned a survey on the training needs of employees. The survey was undertaken by C.P. Wholle and his team of the Institute of Public Administration. The survey noted a serious dearth of trained employees and therefore recommended systematic and regular training for employees.

In response to the recommendations of these commission, government establishment necessary machinery and structure designed to implement them. One of such structure was the establishment of the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) in 1971 as amended by Decree No. 37 of 1973, which provided that find realized is to be used to promote and encourage acquisition of skills in the industry.

Following the establish of private universities, thereafter, there are presently not less than 47 universities in Nigeria. Besides, there are polytechnics and colleges of technology which serve as training and \development centres for manpower in Nigeria. In recognition of this, the federal government establish the department of local government studies in Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria and Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ile Ife etc for the training of ever increasing personnel of Local Government Councils in their various catchment areas.

Again, aside the establishment of tertiary institutions which lead to the award of degrees and diploma, there were such notable institutions such as the Administrative Staff College of Nigeria (ASCON), the Centre for Management Development (CMD) and the National Council for Economic Management and Administration (NCEMA) among others. These worthwhile efforts over’s the years appear to be a realization of the need by successive Nigerian governments for manpower training and development.

Training is a very important part of the human resource development (HRD) activity of human resource management practice. For employees to carry out their duties effectively and efficiently they must have the relevant skills, knowledge, values, attitudes and competencies and well as understand their organization’s culture.

More often, newly employed do not have all the competencies usually required for successful or excellent performance on their jobs.

Again while on the job, employees need to be updated through training and development to acquire competencies they did not have at the time of appointment. This is why an organization might need training and development department, often referred to as Human Resource Development (HRD). When suitable job candidates have been selected and appointed, they must be given the appropriate orientation and in addition they must be trained and developed to meet their career needs of the organization.

According to Ivancevich (2010), training and development is a process that attempts to provide employees with information, skills and understanding of the organization and its goals. Additionally training and development aids an employee to continue to make the necessary positive contribution to the success of employing organization in terms of his / her good performance on the job. To start this whole process is orientation and socialization of employees into the organization.

Cole (1997), says further that training and development is faced by every organization, even though the quality and intensity of the training carried out may from one organization to another. He goes on to list the factors that tend to influence the quality and quantity of the training and development activities of various organizations as follows:

1. That the degree of change in the external environment e. g. technology, legislation and so on has influence on training and development.
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While in some organizations there are no plans and systems in respect to training and development, others have training and development policy that are document and hence goes through the cycle of identifying training needs, design training activities, facilitate training and measure or evaluate training results.

1.2     Statement of the Problem

It is in this view that this study is primarily aimed at investigation the effects of training and development on the employees of Ughelli south Local Government. Even though ughelli south local government is described as the premier institution by its management and employees, it appears that it (ughelli south local government) does not currently have a staffing policy, training and development policy as well as a succession plan. Training and development is therefore more or less unplanned and unsystematic. It looks like the majority of the employees are not trained (orientation) upon appointment. As a result, administrative employees’ skills and abilities have over the years not been enhanced to enable them become effective and efficient. it seems it does not have any laid done policy which directs members in their work. Therefore implementation of “training” plans (which is mainly granting of study leave without or without sponsorship for either a masters or a doctorate degree) has been based on precedence and discretions

1.3     Objectives of the Study

The main objective of the study is effect of training and development of employee’s performance in Ughelli South Local Government of Delta State.

The following are the specific objectives of this study:

1. To assess the relationship between training and development and employee performance in Ughelli South Local Government Area.
2. To assess the relationship between training and development and productivity.
3. To find how training and development of employees contribute to the achievement of the goals of Ughelli South Local Government.
4. To find out whether there are organizational issues that constrain training and development in the institution.
5. To investigate how training and development needs of employees are determined.

1.4     Research Question

In order to facilitate data collection so as to arrive at the correct conclusion, the following questions will be used as a guide to this study.

HYPOTHESIS

In view of the above stated problems, the understated hypothesis formulated.

Hypothesis One:

Ho: There are no positive benefits derivable to Ughelli South Local Government from the various training and development employees.

H1: There are positive benefits derivable to Ughelli South Local Government from the various training and development of employees.

Hypothesis Two:

Ho: There are no significant relationship between training and development of employee of Ughelli South Local Government Area and efficiency in service delivery.

H1: There are significant relationship between training and development of employees of Ughelli South Local Government Area and efficiency of service delivery.

Hypothesis Three

Ho: There are no significant relationship between training and development of employee of Ughelli South Local Government and the attainment of goals.

Hi: There are significant relationship between training and development of employee of Ughelli South Local Government Area and the attainment of goals.

The findings of this study will enable policy makers in Nigeria to support the design of viable training and development programme for their workers, so as to meet future challenges posed by new technological advancement of the 21 century. It will also enable public and private organisations to identify and assess the training and development needs of their employees and make the indispensable organisation activity part of their regular investment.

Since the study investigated the impact of training and development on employee performance in Ughelli South Local Government Area, the scope of the study is Ughelli South Local Government Area.

Firstly as a worker, the researcher was very much constrained with time. This is because from Monday to Friday, the researcher has to be at work which also sometime included travels into the other regions for weeks and months. At other times the schedule of work took closing time from the office very late. This made it very challenging for the researcher to find enough time to go to the library for research. The time constraints also made quite challenging in following up on respondents to collect questionnaire feedback for the necessary required data for analysis as well as meeting with supervisor for consultations. Additionally, the length of time (4 months) available for this project work from the programme schedule to complete the course made it impossible to cover every aspect of interest to the researcher in minute detail as would have been expected.

Furthermore, busy schedules of respondents at work coupled with their individual social responsibilities made it very challenging for them to respond to the questionnaires in time and to return them for the researcher to continue with data analysis. This further reduced the returns rate of questionnaire.

Finally, financing the research was very challenging because ughelli south L.G.A as an institution was neither sponsoring the researcher’s education at the University, nor was it supporting the research financially. The financial challenges were compounded by some respondents demanding honorarium form researcher as motivation before they responded and returned the questionnaires.

Well trained employees are key to a business’ success. It has been shown that the most successful and productive employees are those who have received extensive training and development. These groups of employees can be described as the “cream of the crop” that often has the strongest stake in an organization’s future.

According to Dessler (2008), even when employees are carefully selected, it does not still guarantee totally acceptable performance from the employees. This is because while the potential of an employee to perform is one thing, performing is another and therefore an employee with a high potential to perform may not still perform his job if he does not go through training and development. This is why training of newly employed starts with organizational orientation.

Cole (2004), postulates that human resources are the most dynamic of all the organization’s resources and therefore they need considerable attention from the organization’s management, if the it human resource are to realize their fhll potential in their work. Training and development activities just as most other activities in an organization depended on the policies and strategies of the organization. An organization with a well organized training would refer to it as “systematic training” which is why job descriptions are inevitable during the recruitment and selection process. Further more, in establishing what training and development needs an organization has must start with ajob description and later performance appraisal.

In part III (Protection of Employment) of the Labour Act 2003, Act 651 section 10 (Rights of a worker), it states that “the rights of a worker include the right to be trained and retrained for the development of his work and to receive information relevant to his work.

Meaning of training

DeCenzo & Robbins (2000), explain training as a “learning experience, in that, it seeks a relatively permanent change in an individual that will improve his ability to perform on the job”. This mean training must be designed in such a way that, it will involve the either the changing or enhancing of skills, knowledge, attitudes, and social behavior. This change or enhancement of skills, knowledge, attitudes, and social behavior could involve what the employee knows, how he works, his relations and interactions with co-workers and supervisors.

Training thus consists of planned programmes designed to improve performance at the individual, group or organizational levels, Cascio (1992). With an improved performance on the part of the individual, group or organization means, there have been measurable changes or enhancements in the knowledge, skills attitude and social behaviors.

Monappa & Saiyadain (2008), define training as “the teaching or leaning activities carried on for the primary purpose of helping members of an organization to acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, abilities and attitudes needed by that organization. It is the act of increasing the knowledge and skill of an employee for doing a particular job”.

Training therefore needs to be seen by managements of every organization as a long term investment in its human resource.

Dessler (2008), sees training thither, as the means of giving new or current employees the skills they need to perform at their various jobs. Continuing, he sees training as the hall mark of good management and thus when managers ignore training, they are doing so to the great disadvantage of the organizations they are managing.

Performance: This is about employee effort. Employee performance is measured in terms of input-output relationship. It is the measure of the efficiency with which inputs or resources are utilized to create outputs. Performance is employee productivity.

Competency: A competency is not a physical resource. It is an innate or acquired characteristic of a person which facilitates effective or Superior Performance. It may be a motive, value, knowledge, skill, attribute or personality trait which a person possesses.

Staff/Employee/Worker: A person employed under a contract of employment whether on a continuous, part-time, temporary or casual basis. (Labour Act 2003, Act 651)

Management Development: An attempt to improve managerial effectiveness through a planned and deliberate learning process (Mumford, 1987).

Efficiency: The amount of resources used to achieve a goal. It is based on how much raw materials, money, est. are necessary for producing a volume of output. It is calculated as the amount of resources used to produce a product or service. It is concerned with ‘doing things right’.

Effectiveness: The degree to which the employee achieves a stated goal. It means that the employee successes in accomplishing what he/she tries to do. It is concerned with ‘doing things right’ and relates to the output of the job and what the employee actually achieves.

Development: Preparing individual through learning and education for the future needs of an organization. Its focus is on learning and personal development.

Traditionally, lower — level employees were “trained” while higher — level employees were “developed”. This distinction focuses on the learning of hands — on skills as against interpersonal and decision making skills.

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