Abstract
The Civil Service as the machinery of Government performs the unique role of governance and National development as such government everywhere in the world have come to terms with the need to train and re-train it’s human resource for them to be better equipped to maximize productivity levels and meet the challenges of governance and management.
This work makes use of the system theory as the theoretical framework and data gathered from secondary sources. My chapter one began with the general introduction where we have the background of study, statement of problem, objective of study, significance of study, literature review, significance of the study, theoretical framework, hypotheses, method of data collection and analysis, scope and limitation of study, operationalization of concept. In chapter two, we looked at human resource and productivity in the Nigerian civil service: a historical perspective. In chapter three, we looked at how impediments such as corruption, faulty implementation of the principle of federal character, inadequate fund and experienced training staff all impede in productivity. Chapter four dealt with the strategies for human resource development and productivity in Kogi State Civil Service. Finally chapter five, ended this work with summary, conclusion and recommendation. Using Kogi State Civil Service as a point of appraisal, this work hopes to link human resources training and development to their productivity level.
In consequence I am of the view that lack of adequate training and re-training of staff has resulted to low productivity. In view of this I recommend that impediments such as godfatherism, corruption, nepotism should be repudiated in order to increase the level of productivity and quality service delivery.
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Table of Content
Title Page
Approval Page
Dedication
Acknowledgement
Abstract
Table of Contents
Chapter One: General Introduction
1.1 Background of the Study
1.2 Statement of the Problem
1.3 Objectives of the Study
1.4 Literature Review
1.5 Significance of the Study
1.6 Theoretical Framework
1.7 Hypotheses
1.8 Method of Data Collection and Analysis
1.9 Scope and Limitation of Study
1.10 Operationalization of Concept
Chapter Two: Human Resource and Productivity in the Nigerian Civil Service: A Historical Analysis
2.0 The Civil Service in the Colonial Era
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2.1 The Civil Service under the Military
2.2 The Civil Service Under the Civilian Administration
Chapter Three: Impediments to Human Resource Development in the Nigerian Civil Service
3.1 The Menace of Corruption
3.2 The Adoption of Quota System and Federal Character
3.3 Inadequate Funding and experienced Training Staff
Chapter Four: Strategies for Human Resource Development and Productivity in the Kogi State Civil Service
4.0 The Strategy of Merit – based Recruitment and Selection
4.1 The Strategy of Regular Staff Training and Capacity Building
4.2 The Strategy of Regular Promotion and payment of Allowances.
Chapter Five: Summary, Conclusion and Recommendations
5.1 Summary of Findings
5.2 Conclusion
5.3 Recommendation
Bibliography
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Chapter One: General Introduction
1.1 Background of the Study
The problem of human resource development and productivity in Nigeria civil service has become very severe such that the civil service is at the point of collapse due to challenges of civil service delivery, over centralization amongst others.
To Collins and Chan (2009) in addition to fixing many such other key problems of development, Nigeria state has an urgent problem of disposing her workforce to cope with the demands of the society.
The origin, structure and performance of the civil service dates back to the 20th century, with the introduction of the British colonial rule in Nigeria. By 1990, a decentralized colonial service with headquarters in each of the protectorate was established. By 1904, the colony of Lagos state was amalgamated with the protectorate of Southern Nigeria. This was followed by the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorate in 1914 bringing into existence a country called Nigeria.
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By 1914, there were two civil services in the two Nigeria’s (Northern and Southern) headed by a Governor-general in the person of Lord Lugard and two lieutenant Governors each for the North and South respectively, while an administrator was in charge of Lagos. The British imposed a unified civil service in Nigeria, which was mainly concerned with the maintenance of law and order and the mobilization of enough local resources in order to ensure their administration was self sufficient. According to Ciroma (1988:5):
The Nigerian civil service began as a force of occupation designed to facilitate colonial rule and the exploitation of land and its people for the benefit of the colonial masters.
The 2nd World War and the attendant world wide depression left the civil service hopelessly depleted as the civil service played major role of being an essential tool and veritable source of men and material of the allied war efforts.
In 1936, the Walayns committee recommended a new policy of staffing the public service by indigenes and for the
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first time the administrative service which was the cream of colonial services was thrown open to Nigerians.
The Nigerianization scheme went a stage further with the appointment of the foot commission of 1948, the commission observed that the training and recruitment of Nigerians for senior post in the government services was not only necessary to enable Nigerians to take part in the management of their own affairs but also required to enable them keep pace with the constitutional development and programs in the country.
Richard constitution of 1946 marked a significant milestone in the history of the civil service in Nigeria, first, it marked the beginning of the regionalization of the hitherto unitary civil service as some attempts were made to regionalize the central department. Regionalization of the civil service took the form of transforming some of the central departments operating in the three regions into non-central departments headed by deputy directors responsible to the director in Lagos.
The Macpherson constitution of 1951 further extended the regionalization policy as more Central Departments were
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regionalized. The 1954 constitution provided for a full fledged regional civil services as well as the central (federal) civil service. It brought in the wake many structural changes which were of great significance in the public service commission in the regions as well as at the center. These commissions were granted full powers by the same constitution to appoint, promote, dismiss and discipline junior civil servants.
The nationalist agitation for independence brought about the introduction of the Nigerianization policy. The essence of this policy was to make Nigerian civil service entirely staffed, managed and controlled by Nigerians themselves (Omotosho, 2001). To Okunade(1990: 26):
The civil servants that occupied positions were unprepared. They lacked the necessary training initiative and administrative acumen.
Consequently, the level of productivity in the civil service waned dangerously. Also, Nicolson (1969) noted that Nigerians administrative legacy was one of chaos rather than order and tidiness. There was excessive centralization and absence of delegation. Above all, civil servants for the
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first two decades after independence were corrupt, inefficient and unproductive.
In the face of this alarming decrease in productivity in the civil service, several steps have been taken by successive Nigerian government to strategically position and reposition human resource administration in the country. Such steps include but are not limited to the setting up of the various commissions for reforming the civil service including the Morgan constitution of 1963, Adebo commission of 1971, Udoji commission of 1974 amongst others.
Following the 1974 Udoji report, the civil service was reformed comprehensively, strategically readjusted and strengthened to respond effectively to the demands of developed. Abubakar (1992: 42) opined that:
Human resource development is the sin-quo-non for the attainment of efficiency and effectiveness which are the two major goals/objectives of a good civil service.
The implication is that, the government of the Nigeria civil service before 1994 had been very low. Therefore, utmost need was for qualified and motivated staff at the right place and at the right time to achieve the objectives to
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transfer paper plan into actual achievement of all aspect of personal management.
Accordingly, the Udoji reform of 1977 saw human resource development as the main vehicle for enhancing efficiency in the civil service.
While the 1978 civil service reform favoured professionalism through human resource training and development as a way of getting into the top cadre of the civil service.
To Ayeni (1991: 123):
These reforms saw human resource training and development for the professionalization initiative of government.
This according to him is because,
It is through experience and training and familiarity that an administration can build any measure of expertise that will set him apart from his colleagues in or outside administration.
Furthermore, to him, the 1988 civil service made it imperative for every incumbent or office holder to possess requisite knowledge and skill and attitudinal tendencies in job activity was instructed and recommended in government
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services. Accordingly it is agreed that in order to enhance socio-economic development and facilitate efficiency and effectiveness in government business, the performance standard of employees must be uplifted to the minimum level of proficiency.
To this therefore ministries are to establish, operate and maintain programmes or plans for the training of employees in or under the ministry.
In the wake of democracy, after decades of military rule, the Obasanjo regime in 1999 set up a body to reform the public sector/services especially in the employment of qualified graduates.
The Bureau of pubic service chaired by Mallam El-Rufai was empowered to review the public service to ensure effectiveness.
The reform led to the retrenchment of about thirty thousand workers (unqualified, incompetent and dead wood) and the employment of about one thousand, five hundred graduates with first class and second class university degrees. Unlike in the past, it became dynamic and effective, as civil servants were allowed to perform their
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traditional duty which is to advice and to implement policies of government (The Punch, May 2, 2000).
The current administration has not done much to improve on what Obasanjo did during his time, except the eighteen thousand naira minimum wage for civil servants which has not yet been adopted by most states in Nigeria. Moreover, the civil service is still considered stagnant and inefficient as the attempts made in the past have had little effect on the promotion of sustainable human resource development and productivity in the civil service.
This study therefore attempts to assess the impact of human resource development on productivity in the civil service in Nigeria using the Kogi state civil service commission as a point of appraisal.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
At independence in 1960, so many British officials were replaced with Nigerians but in spite of this, the colonial method of doing things was still predominant in the civil service.
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In order words, the whites were replaced by Nigerians, yet the West-Minister-patterned general orders and financial institutions remained the operational codes in the Nigerian civil service.
The emergent civil servants were inexperienced consequent upon the indigenization policy as most of them occupied positions that their abilities and capabilities in terms of experience, training and qualification can not cope with.
Thus, the quest to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the civil service has always occupied the attention of successive governments. This is because the civil service is the brain box of the modern governments yet the civil service in Nigeria has been characterized by poor performance and inability to translate government policies and programs to reality. Beginning from the period of indigenization of the civil service in 1960’s many things went wrong. For instance, Njoku (1984) believed that the indigenization exercise was done without regard to the interest of the services as the beneficiaries of the policy failed to adhere to the weberian principle that a bureaucrat
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should neither appropriate his office nor the resources that go with it. On the contrary, the Nigerian civil servants under Gowon’s regime, according to Elaigwu (1986) used their positions to acquire wealth by irregular methods. They became corrupt and in the view of Balogun (1983), they could no longer hide under the cloak of anonymity, impartiality and economic neutrality.
Even in situations where the need for employee training and development is needed and a lot of time and money is committed to staff training and development, the exercise were often inappropriate, haphazard or premised on a faulty diagnosis of organizational training needs.
In other situations were training happened to occur, civil servants are deployed without regard to the skill acquired leading to frustration of personnel so trained and also general inefficiency in the system.
In Nigerian civil service, the workers are generally under-trapped, underutilized, poorly motivated and consequently perform low below their standard to ensure effective productivity.
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It is against this background that this work seeks to provide answers to the following pertinent questions.
1. Is there any link between human resource development and productivity in the civil service?
2. Is corruption an impediment to human resource development in the Nigerian civil service?
3. Can merit-based recruitment, selection and regular staff training engender productivity in the Kogi State civil service?
1.3 Objectives of the Study
The broad objective of this study is to examine the basic challenges facing human resource development and productivity in Kogi State civil service commission from its establishment to date.
Specifically however, the study aims at the following:-
1. To establish the link between human resource development and productivity.
2. To ascertain if corruption is an impediment to human resource development in the Nigerian civil service.
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3. To determine if merit-based recruitment, selection and regular staff training can engender productivity in the Kogi state civil service.
1.5 Significance of the Study
The study is significant from the point of view that no available literature or study so far his specifically focused on human resource development and productivity in Kogi State civil service, none has examined the extent to which the civil service as an agent of government has contributed to the development and training of civil servants in Kogi State.
Thus, it is going to add to existing body of literature and extend the frontiers of knowledge practically. This research work will be a guide to scholars, policy makers, policy implementers and researchers and evidently serve as a guide to the government on how to promote effective
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human resource development and productivity in the civil service particularly Kogi State civil service.
1.6 Theoretical Framework
This work adopts the systems theory as the theoretical framework of analysis because the systems theory considers all elements and views the organization as constituting of many parts, furthermore, system theorist see an organization and its environment as inter-dependent; each depending on the other for sustenance.
A system is a set of elements of units which interact in some way and are supported from their environment by some land of boundaries (Young 1960, Eminue 2001:98). Scholars of system see it as the most popular concept that applies to systems regulation and maintenance, system equilibrium or homeostasis which is the ability of system to maintain its internal balance even while undergoing a process of change.
The development of the systems theory as a method of political analysis is traced to David Easton and Gabriel Almond. The mustered seed was sewn when the view originated that in the study of a given social and political
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system, at was not so important to try to find out how a pattern of behavior had originated as to find out the part it played in maintaining the system as a whole. The system theory is a derivative of behaviorism, based on the assumption that everything must be just as it is for the total society to be just as it is.
Thus a person may be considered a system of organizations, a molecule may be thought of as a system of individuals, implicit in this concept as a degree of totality of wholeness that makes something different from another (Tilles, 1965).
According to Hicks (1972) the system theory of an organization has been defined as a structured process in which individuals interest for objectives.
Idemudia (1990) defined the two terms “system” and “theory” separately in order to elucidate the implication of their meaning. To him, a system is an entity made up of a separate but inter-dependent part with set goals and functions while a theory on the other hand is an abstract generalized statement, summarizing or linking together a number of propositions into a unified logical structure. Put
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together, system theory means how inter-related social entity is organized into testable propositions.
The systems theory is an integrative theory that attempts to present an organization as a unified purposeful system composed of inter-dependent parts. It also consist of inter-dependent parts with distinct boundaries which interacts with the environment by importing inputs, while it exports output in order to maintain itself in a permanent state of equilibrium.
A special feature of the system approach is the fact that arising from the outputs some new imputs are generated, which are once again fed into the system for processing and conversion.
The basic concept developed under the broad framework of the general systems theory can be divided into three categories;
1. Concepts which are of a descriptive nature
2. Concepts which try to highlight the factors responsible for regulating and maintaining the system.
3. Concepts which focus on dynamics of, or change in the system.
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Under the first category we have open and closed systems. Systems can also be defined under this category in terms of hierarchy of subsystems and their order of interactions. The working of the internal organization of the system and the interaction of the system with its environment also come within this category and in this case we find that some systems follow a pattern of development as determined by themselves and others have to depend upon external factors.
The systems interaction with the environment implies the concept of boundary, imputs and outputs.
Under the second category where we seek to understand the factors responsible for the maintenance and regulation of the system we find concepts as stability, equilibrium and homeostasis connected with the issue of regulation and maintenance, also are the concept of feedback, repair, reproduction etc.
Finally, under the 3rd category are concepts connected with dynamics and change, change which can be descriptive or non-descriptive. Non-descriptive change can be brought about through responses to attend environmental
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conditions. This brings into focus the concept of adaptation, learning and growth.
Change can also be descriptive involving the distinction between the notions of description, dissolution and breakdown as well as the notion of systematic crisis, stress as strain and overload and decay.
The systems approach to the study of organization focuses on the system as a whole, the environment of the system, the interdependent relationship between parts of the system and the dependency for the system to strive and survive by negotiating with its environment as Kontaz et al (1980:23) puts it:
The advantage of approaching any area of energy in any problem as a system is that at enables us to see the critical variable and constraint and their interactions with one another, it forces scholars and practitioners to be constantly aware that one single element, phenomenon or problem should no the treated without regard to its interacting consequences with other elements.
The major concept involved in the system theory can be summarized as follows:
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1. A system can be perceived as a whole with it part and their independent relationship.
2. A system has its boundary and can be viewed in terms of its relationship with other systems.
3. A system has sub-systems and is also a part of a super-system.
4. A system can be regarded as either open or closed. According to Kontz et al, (1980) a system is regarded as open if it exchanges information, energy and material with its environment as it happens with biological or social systems.
It is regarded as closed if it does not have such interactions within the environment.
5. A system interacts with the environment in terms of processes that invites imput, conversion and output of energy, information and material. A system tends to re-energize or modify itself through the process of information, feedback from the environment.
6. In order to survive, an open system moves to arm the entopic process by importing more energy from its
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environment than expected and by strong energy it
can acquire negative entropy.
As Kartz and Kahn (1966) further explain, the
entrology process is a universal law of nature in which all
form of organization move toward disorganization or death.
Source: Gauba Op (2003) An Introduction to Political Theory.
In applying the system theory to the study at hand, the
civil service is seen as an open system which comprises of a
whole entity with sub-systems that interact within itself and
within the outside bodies, the larger society.
Hence the various sub-systems (department) are not
autonomous within the guild structure, rather they are
independent part of the unitary organization.
Environment
(imput)
Demand Output
Political
System
Support decision
Environment
Feedback
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Accordingly, the civil service as an organization receives imputs (men, skills) etc in the form of demand and supply from the people. Demand could be regarded as positive and negative expression of individuals towards the activities occurring in the environment of a particular political system.
The fundamental idea here is that the staffs are the life-blood and the success of the civil service ultimately depends on them. The individual staff therefore requires a planned development and training programme to improve their skills and knowledge in their various levels and areas of operation so as to respond effectively to the demand of the people and also to achieve the objectives of the civil service.
To make for efficiency in human resource and achieve increased productivity, workers in the system are trained and developed in the best method so that productivity can be achieved at a very minimal time and reduced cost, if they fail to do this the reverse will be the case which might lead to the total collapse of the civil service.
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Since the civil service is a system with various sub-system both the senior and junior executives need development and training programmes that will prepare them to occupy a position especially for a position vertically higher than he/she was.
The demand and supply are critically analyzed in the conversion process and are passed out as output in the form of authoritative allocation of values, laws, regulations and services that will determine if the productive level of the civil service is enough to achieve their objectives.
Human resources development and productivity in Kogi State civil service will lead to efficiency among the workers and effectiveness in reaching their stated goals.
1.7 Hypotheses
1. There tends to be a strong link between human resource development and productivity in the civil service.
2. Corruption impedes human resource development in the Nigerian civil service.
3. Productivity in the Kogi State civil service depends on merit based recruitment, selection and staff training.
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1.8 Method of Data Collection and Analysis
In the course of this research work, data would be gathered from secondary sources such as textbooks, journals, internet materials, and any useful document relating to the study.
The method of data analysis used will be quantitative analysis, data presented will be analyzed in order to make accurate recommendations.
1.9 Scope and Limitation of the Study
The scope of the study will be limited to the impact and effect of human resource development and productivity in the civil service as it posses a threat to Kogi State and Nigeria as a whole.
Thus, it will focus on all efforts of government to increase human resources development and productivity in Kogi State civil service.
1.0 Operationalization of Concept
Civil service: According to the 1999 constitution section 218, subsection 1, the civil service can be defined as:
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The service of the federation in a civil capacity as staff of the office of the president, the vice-president, a ministry or department of the government of the federation assigned with the responsibility for any business of the government of the federation; while in respect to state civil service of the state in a civil capacity as staff of the office of the Governor, Deputy Governor or a ministry or department of the government of the state assigned with the responsibility for any business of the Government of the staff (FRN, 1999).
Human resource development: Human Resource Development is a process through which employees in an organization are assisted to realize their full potential for their present and future jobs.
Productivity: Productivity is the volume of goods and services produced for work within some specific unit of the hour, day, week, month, year etc.
Training: Training means to give teaching and practice in order to bring a desired stand and behavior efficiency or physical condition. Thus it is the act of teaching in the industrial or business concept. It is the act of reaching a particular level of the expectation of the employer.
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Nepotism: Implies favoritism shown by somebody in power to relations and friends, especially in appointing them to good positions.
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