CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1   BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

In recent times, world attention is being focused on the importance of human resources development as panacea to problems associated with economic growth of nations. This is due to the fact that the growth of tangible capital stock of a nation depends to a considerable degree on human capital development. Without adequate investment in developing human capital which is the process of increasing knowledge, skills and the capacities of people in the country, the possibility of the growth of that nation might be minimal (Gyang cited in Sowunmi et al., 2015).

The success of any organization in the contemporary business world depends on the quality of human resources available to it to initiate and implement its policies and programmes. According to Solkhe and Chaudhary (2011) human resource is the most vital factor of production and labour productivity. They also maintained that a positive future-oriented human resource development is essential for the efficiency and effectiveness of employees whether in the public or private sectors.

In line with this, Appah, Coleman and Busine (2011) pointed out that organizations especially in the developed world often invest several millions of money on training and development of their human resources for the performance of their respective organizations. This demonstrates the importance organisations attach to their human resource in the achievement of their corporate goals. However, in the developing world like Nigeria little or nothing is being done to train and develop employees in most organisations, as employees often become obsolete like machines thereby hindering their ability to effectively and efficiently perform their duties (Odumeru and Ilesanmi, 2013).

According to Saraswathi (2010) human resource development in organizational context is a process by which the employees of an organization are aided in planning a way to: obtain or hone capabilities required to perform various functions associated with their present or expected functional roles; develop their general capabilities as individuals and discover and exploit their own inherent potentials for their own, and, or organizational development processes; develop an organizational culture in which supervisor-subordinate relationship is positive or strong; teamwork and collaborations among sub-units are strong and contribute to the professional well-being, motivation and the pride of employees.

Human resources include knowledge, skills, abilities and experience controlled by an organization that enables it to improve upon its performance, competitiveness, innovation, efficiency and effectiveness. This is because, employees skills, knowledge and abilities are among the most distinctive and renewable resources upon which an organization can draw their strategic management and comparative advantage (Anlesinya, Bukari and Eshun, 2015). Development must embrace all employees in the organization and must aim at challenging all to growth and self-development (Anlesinya et al., 2015).

Human resource development is a way of empowering people by fostering the contributing capacities that they can bring to the development of their own quality of life and that of their families, communities, enterprises and societies. Human resource development is also concerned with the provision of learning, development and training opportunities in order to improve individual, team and organizational efficiency (Armstrong, 2003).

On the other hand, organizational efficiency refers to the organization’s capability to implement its plans using the smallest possible outflow of resources. It is an important factor in the firm’s organizational effectiveness, this being the ease and degree of success with which the organization is able to achieve its aims, the success of an organization depends largely on how employees effectively and efficiently perform duties assigned unto them (Sowunmi et al., 2015).

In Nigeria, this critical resource (human) has not been fully developed, managed and utilized in such a manner that would generate development. Development of human resource has been considered an expendable luxury in terms of financial restrictions. The importance of human resource development in an organization cannot be ignored because it is the most vital key to achieving organizational efficiency (Janet al., 2013, Gidado Kusairi  and Muhamad, 2014).

On this premise, Nwuche and Awa (2009) argued that human resource development does not only improve the knowledge base of organizations members, but a vital precursor for achieving organizationalefficiency. In fact whether human resource development is positively or negatively related to organizational efficiency is an empirical issue that this study anticipates to unravel.

1.2   STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

From research, it has been discovered that most Nigerian organizations fail to realize the importance of human resource development and most organizations in Nigeria don’t want to spend their financial resources on training and development. Human resource development is achieved through training, and training has a price. The organization has to be willing to spend to ensure their employees are well trained and in the long run the value of their money would be realized (Ebimobowei, Felix and Wisdom, 2012).

While we recognize the need for the investment in training and development and to provide the appropriate learning opportunities and facilities, the major responsibility for development rests with the individual, who will be given the guidance and support of his/ her manager and members of the human resource department as necessary. This brings us to the problem of commitment of the employees to the development process and the willingness of the employees to learn. The workers themselves have to be fully committed else the main purpose of the development would not be achieved.

For effective human resource development to be achieved, the employees have to be willing to learn and we have to take note that this development does not only pertain to the employees of the organization, it also involves the management. The capability of an organization to achieve its goals and objectives depends largely on the capabilities of its management. This shows that even the management is not above the need for development, so the people referred to as “the management” have to discard the notion that they know it all (Chay et al., 2003).

Many of the studies on the link between human resource development and organisational performancewere done outside Nigeria. These studies particularly focus on workers in the public sectors. Researches on human resource development and organisational efficiency are very few. Moreover, these researches were also theoretical studies whose findings were subjectively based on researchers’ personal opinions. It is noted that the past studies did not give adequate attention to human resource development and organisational efficiency, as well as highlighting plausible strategies that can stimulate corporateefficiency in the private organisations in Nigeria. It is against this backdrop that this study seeks tocritically examine the effect of human resource development on organisational efficiency, with a special reference to Guinness Nigeria Plc.

1.3   RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

This study is being conducted with the following objectives:

        i.            To examine the effect of human resource development on organisational efficiency.

     ii.            To investigate the relationship between employee training and organisational productivity.

   iii.            To explore the link between manpower training and development and corporate competitiveness.

1.4   RESEARCH QUESTIONS

These are the questions that will guide this research

1.      What is the effect of human resource development on organisational efficiency?

2.      Is employee training significantly related to organisational productivity?

3.      What is the link between manpower training and development and corporate competitiveness?

1.5   RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

The following research hypotheses will be tested in the course of the study:

Hypothesis One:

Ho:      There is no significant relationship between human resource             development and            organisational efficiency.

Hi:       There is a significant relationship between human resource development and    organisational efficiency.

Hypothesis Two:

Ho:      Employee training is not significantly related to organisational         productivity.

Hi:       Employee training is significantly related to organisational productivity.

Hypothesis Three:

Ho:      There is no significant link between manpower training and development             and    corporate competitiveness.

Hi:       There is a significant link between manpower training and development and        corporate competitiveness.

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