AN EVALUATION ON THE EFFECT OF MANPOWER TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT IN SERVICE ORGANIZATION
ABSTRACT
The study investigated the effect of manpower training and development in service organisations. The objectives of the study include among others to highlight the advantages of employees training and development in service organization and to examine the current training and development of employees in the organization and PHCN Enugu Zone in particular; the researcher adopted survey research, in which oral interviews were conducted by the researcher within the office and premise of the Power holding company of Nigeria(PHCN) Enugu and structured questionnaire administered to relevant staffs of PHCN. A total sample size of 154 was obtained from a total population of 250 workers using Taro Yamane. The main instrument was questionnaire. The study used descriptive statistics to answer the questions posed for it. The non parametric test method (chi – square (x ) were used to test the two hypotheses that guided the study. The study revealed that training and development improve productivity and better performance; also, that training and development improve skills and knowledge of the manpower in service organization. Against these background therefore, the researcher concluded and recommended that (1) The organization should restructure their training by including administrative courses into it so that the high cost of going outside for similar courses will be minimized. There should be free flow of information to enable all the staff aware of the training and development programme available both internally and externally. (2) Each section should draw up a roster of training programme for each year so that every staff of the organization would at least be sent on course in a year. This will erode the situation whereby only some chosen few are sent on course.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
Manpower training and development must be based on a need analysis derived from a comparison of “actual performance” and behaviour with “required performance” and behaviour. Manpower training and development is one of the major ways organization invests in the workforce for greater return today and even in the foreseeable future. Organizational effectiveness rests on the efficient and effective performance of workforce that make up the organization. The efficient and effective performance of the workforce inturn, rest on the richness of the knowledge, still and abilities possessed by the workforce. Manpower training and development most organizations is a continuous act/exercise. The inexorable march f time and the ceasless glamour for social change combine to make adaptability and continuing preparation of the workforce as inevitable as the initial acquisition of knowledge and skill. This cannot happen if employees training and development do not occur in an enterprise. In other to maximize the productivity and efficiency of the organization, every executive manager or supervisor in a public or private organization has the responsibility and induced the bounding duty to ensure the development of their employees whoc have requisite knowledge and expertise.
Training is like sharpening an existing skill in order to reflect the trends in technology and other social cultural environmental changes of an organizational, productivity is the goal of today’s competitive business world and training can be a spring board to enhance productivity. The aim is to enable them contribute their full measure to the welfare, health and development of the organization (Onah, 1993). The main objective of training and development in service organization is to increase efficiency of employees with the resulting increase in corporate productivity. This accounts for why a large number of fund and time is expected by organization at one period or the order in the improvement of the skills of their employees at various levels. The principal intention of training according to Akpan (19982: 128), is to equip people with the knowledge required to qualify them for a particular position of employment, or to improve their skills and efficiency in the position they already hold. Manpower development on the other hand, implies growth and the acquisition of wide experience for future strategic advantages of the organization.
Manpower training and development therefore, improves the effectiveness and efficiency of the employee. Therefore, the aim of this research is to know the current state, nature, procedure and method of training and development used by the power holding company of Nigeria (PHCN) for their employees and let’s not forget that any organization that has no plan for the training and development of its staff is less than dynamic for learning is a continuous process and acquired skills get obsolete when the environment changes. Also, a popular capital in the field of personnel management says, “f you think training and development are expensive try ignorance”, whereby training and development prosper organization, ignorance destroys it. Therefore workers like machines must be constant basis or else, they end up becoming obsolete or misfit.
Historical Background
Origin of Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) Around the world, Electric Industries are undergoing extensive restructuring. The trend, which started in the United Kingdowm and chile in the 1980, has rapidly spread to many countries in Latin America, Asia, Europe and Africa. The main motivation of driving forces for restructuring the electric industy in different countries are not the same. In some countries, such as the United Kingdom and the Latin America countries, privatization of the electric has provided a means of attracting funds from the private sector to relieve the burden of heavy burden of heavy government subsidies. In the country formerly under centralized control (central and eastern Europe), the process follows a general tend away from centralized government control towards increased privatization and decentralization.
In the United States and se\veral other countries where the electric industry has for the most part been owned by the private sector, the tend is toward increased competition and regulation. Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) formerly known as National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) is a public corporation owned by the Federal government of Nigeria to general, transmit and distributes electricity to the populace. The history of electricity (power generation) in Nigeria dates back to 1898 when electricity was first produced in Nigeria. Therefore, several other towns established electricity supply by the installation of isolated generation in each town.
In 1946, the “Nigeria government electricity undertaking” was established within the then public works department to take over the responsibility of electricity supply to Lagos Area. In 1950, however, a central body was established by the legislature council ordinance No 15 of 1950 which transferred electricity supply and development to the core of central body known as the, “Electricity Corporation of Nigeria (ECN)”. Other bodies also had licenses generate electricity in some locations in Nigeria. Significant among such were the Nigeria electricity supply company (NESCO) in Jos and the African timber and plywood limited in Sapele. The first 132kv-transimission line under the management of ECN was commissioned in July, 1961 and was 146km long connecting Lagos with Ibadan via Shagamu.
In 1962, another body known as Niger Dams Authority was established by an act of parliament. The authority was responsible for the construction and maintenance of dams and other works on the River Niger and elsewhere generating electricity by means of water supply thereby improved navigation. National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) was established in April 1972, with the amalgamation of the Former Electricity Corporation of Nigeria (ECN) and the Niger Dams Authority (NDA) with the headquarters in Lagos. As a government parastatal, its employees and customers seriously hamper NEPA’s operations due to several government directive and fraudulent activities. In order to reduce this anormaly the authority was granted partial autonomy as a quasi-commercialized organization in 1992 while this gesture has granted some powers to the authority, it is still under the control of the government hence the authority could of the government hence the authority could still not take some necessary drastic and far-reading measures to improve its revenue collection and reduce the incidences of fraudulent activities. Like most state-owned enterprises, NEPA has suffered from several under-funding and under capitalization inappropriate capital structure, excessive executive interference and sub-optimality and decision making.
NEPA equipments are subjected to vandalism and theft by group of cabals in different part of the country. The hydro power stations suffer from low water level during dry season and the generation output capabilities of thermal stations are often hampered by shortage of fuel. Equipments are expensive to repair, mostly due to their obsolete status. NEPA as we know is a government ran entity as earlier stated that enjoys a lot of the financial transfers, subsides grants and tax and import duty naives from the government. These social incentives form the government were counterproductive for NEPA’s efficiency. It resulted in an under trained and unmotivated manpower and lack of will to operate as a profitable entity.
Nepa was formally changed to Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) in January 2004 in readiness for privatization. To provide the legal framework for the restructuring of Electric Supply Industry )ESI), the electric power sector reform bill was signed into law on the 11th of March 2005. The bill seeks to provide for the formation of successor companies to take over the functions, assets, liabilities and staff of NEPA, develop competitive electricity markets, establish the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission, provide for the licensing and regulation of the generation, transmission, distribution and supply of electricity, enforce such matters as performance standards, consumer rights and obligation, provide for the determination of tariffs, and to provide for matters connected with or incidental to the forgoing.
An Initial Holding Company (IHC) has been incorporation as provided for the act. The name of the IHC is Power Holding Company (PHCN) planed it was incorporated on 31st May 2005. The PHCN has taken over all NEPA assets and liabilities. Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) Enugu zone was officially opened many decades ago. The office is responsible for the distribution and sales f electricity to Enugu and its environment. The office maintains an undertaking office and service center and cash offices in many government areas of Enugu state. Just like any other PHCN office in the country, it has all the departments such as administrative and service, Technical/service, customer service, finance and accounts, and Audit department each headed by a manager. As a zone, the office reports directly to the chief executive officer Enugu. It alos has direct communication with PHCN Headquarters Abuja.
Enugu Zone PHCN has a total staff of 250 including top management. Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) accounting system is uniform throughout the country and that f Enugu zone would not be left out. The classification of the branch is the same other branches nationwide. The zone has fourteen (14) business unit under it and its responsible for everything that happens in the unit.
Statement of the Problem
This research as it deals with the training and development of employees in service organizations is intended to find out the efficiency and effectiveness of training and development programme in service organization with reference to Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) Enugu zone. Since Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) is an organization governing the use of electricity in Nigeria serves as a source of electricity supply distribution and maintenance round the Nation for this reason, it encounters numerous problems which range from.
i) Lack of qualified instructors and consultants undertake training courses.
ii) Lack of essential training tools
iii) Lack of effective communication within the organization which makes it impossible for most employees to know about training opportunities available to them.
Objectives/Purpose of the Study
The purpose for this research is to probe into the evaluation of the effect of manpower training and development in service organization using Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) Enugu zone as a case study with a view to find out how the organization is performing in terms its employees training and development. The following are the specific objectives of the study.
1) To increase the general knowledge and understanding of individual member
2) To highlight the advantages of employees training and development in service organization.
3) To rise efficiency and effectiveness of employees with the resulting increase in corporate productivity.
4) To examine the current training and development of employees in the organization and PHCN Enugu zone in particular.
5) To recommend appropriate measures that could help improve the current manpower training program
Research Question
a) What method of training and development does your organization use?
b) What is the category of staff level in your organization (PHCN)?
c) What is the major problem in the organization.
Significance of the Study
The research will be beneficial to all service organization especially in Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) Enugu and their staff as it emphasized the need and encourage the establishment of policy guidelines on the efficient and effective training and development programme. It will help managers of various organization to generate ideas and solution to problems based on the best way to run training in their organization in order to achieve desired goals and objectives. It will be useful to small scale business, large corporations, universities, college of education to government. Moreover, it will help researchers to know more about training programme as a tool for improving employees’ performance. Finally, it will be of great value to students as a point of reference and will equally form the basis for further research study.
Scope of the Study
The scope of the study although very wide if it has been carried out in the entire service organization. For this reason it was necessary to have a concentrated area of study which was restricted to the evaluation of the effect of manpower training and development I service organization using Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) Enugu zone as the case study