WRITE COMREHENSIVELY ON HUMAN RESOURCES PRACTICES IN

NIGERIAN INDUSTRY.

CASE STUDY: THE CIVIL SERVICE

THE PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS OF MANPOWER DEVELOPMENT

IN NIGERIA’S CIVIL SERVICE.

INTRODUCTION

The development of indigenous manpower to serve as the propelling force for national

growth and development is no doubt a key to Nigeria’s socioeconomic and political

development. Manpower utilization could be defined as “the existence of skilled and /or

unskilled humans that need training or re-training to perform specific task in society”.

Thus, manpower development could be seen as organizational specific. This is because it

is largely a function of organizational manpower needed or job specification. That is, it

could be viewed as the adaptation of the human resources available in the country to the

needs, objectives and orientation of a given organization.

There are organizational tools that can be used to achieve manpower development. The

first method an organization has to adapt towards achieving this goal is by ensuring that a

new employee is given the best orientation of his/her job functions and environment. This

method is an integral part of recruitment exercise in that once an employee has been

appointed, it is expected that that such an employee need to be positively oriented in line

with the vision and aspiration of the organization for effective discharge of function.

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Other effective tools are on-the-job training, apprenticeship and vestibule training

methods. This is a process through which knowledge and experience are acquired over

time either formally or informally. On-the –job could take different forms such as

coaching, job-rotation, in-house training and in-service training. Apprenticeship method

involves acquisition of skills through extensive practice for over a period of time by the

trainee .Under vestibule training method, the trainee practices his skill with identical

equipment that he uses or he is expected to use at work.

However, it is important to state that the lack of adequate emphasis on manpower

development as a tool of development in Nigeria’s civil service on the part of government

as well as the organized private sector could not be far-fetched from the lack of

understanding of both concepts and methods for manpower development in a Nigerian

State. The focus of this paper is to unfold problems of manpower utilization and

suggesting solutions to alleviate it in Nigeria’s civil service.

Manpower Development is a relatively new subject among academic and

professional circles. In the past, managers fulfilled the functions of Manpower

Development within the workplace. Manpower Development was not viewed as a central

part of an organization’s success. But in the last ten years, the roles and benefits of

Manpower Development have received wider recognition.

Manpower Development is a loosely defined term, which is becoming a vital part

of organizations. Nadler (1984) suggests that Manpower Development is the notion of

developing Human Resources. He also expands on this by defining it as “organized

learning, over a given period of time, to provide the possibility of performance change” (

Nadler 1984). It is also said, that “…Manpower Development is about the combined use

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of learning and interpersonal strategies and practices within an organization to

accomplish high levels of individual and organizational effectiveness” (Sofo 1999). In the

late eighties, the field of Manpower Development began to move from the focus of

individual learning to organizational learning. The constant changing environments of

organizations are resulting in new roles emerging within the practice of Manpower

Development (Sofo 1999).

The main role of Manpower Development practitioners is to train and develop

workers, enabling them to achieve an organization’s strategic goals. According to

McLagan, Manpower Development practitioners will create ways to aid managers, teams

and individuals to fulfill the function of Human resources; rather than just responding to

the organizational needs. This will result in the decentralization of the traditional Human

Resource functions, giving managers more responsibilities. McLagan has also outlined

nine roles Manpower Development practitioners fulfill. These are:

 HR Strategic Advisor – In this role, the Manpower Development

practitioner’s address’s the issues that affect people outside and inside an

organization, by showing how these influences affect an organization's

strategic goals.

 HR Systems Designer and Developer – Manpower Development

practitioners design and implement HR systems to help support and reinforce

management’s decisions within an organization. The goal of this activity is to

maximize organizational performance, development and adaptability.

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 Organization Change Agent – This Manpower Development role involves

facilitating change within an organization by designing and implementing

strategies.

 Organization Design Consultant – Manpower Development practitioners in

this role identify the work that is required to fulfill organizations strategic

goals. This role also involves designing jobs so that an organization can

achieve greater efficiency.

 Learning Program Specialist – Manpower Development practitioners in this

role identify learning needs within an organization. They design learning

programs and determine the best forms of media to deliver the learning

programs.

 Instructor/Facilitator – This role is the traditional function that Manpower

Development practitioners play. It involves presenting information and

organizing groups to allow structural learning.

 Individual Development and career Consultant – In this role, Manpower

Development practitioners help people determine their values and goals as

well as their skills, knowledge and attitudes. This results in helping people

identify, plan and implement their learning and development activities (e.g.

Tertiary education).

 Performance Consultant – Manpower Development practitioners assist

individuals and groups to increase their working performance. It involves

coaching and consulting.

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  Researcher – This role involves evaluating Manpower Development practices

and programs and their effects. This also involves communicating results of

findings so that the organization can determine their strategies (Visser 2001,

para.2-4).

Ulrich also describe the roles of Manpower Development practitioners. They are

as follows:

 Administrative Expert – this role aims to build efficient systems by ensuring

efficient performance of organizational processes.

 Employee Champion – this role aims to increase employee commitment and

competency by listening and responding to employee opinions.

 Change Agent – Manpower Development practitioners aim to develop and

train organizations by managing change.

 Strategic Business Partner – in this role Manpower Development

practitioners aim to support and achieve organizational strategy by aligning

Manpower Development activities such as training and development with an

organizations strategic goals

(De Cieri and Kramar 2003).

The above roles have been quite different to the ones in the past. This is evident

with Nadler (1984) who gave examples of Manpower Development functions in the

eighties. These roles are more traditional and have been determined, “… researched,

tested and found useful” (Nadler 1984, p.1.28). The main roles Manpower Development

practitioners have played in the past are:

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  Facilitator of Learning – The facilitator uses a variety of approaches to

create learning and generally uses the lesson plans provided by the designer of

programs.

 Designer of Learning Programs – in this role, Manpower Development

practitioners identify learning needs and organizational problems and apply

learning theories to design a learning program.

 Developer of Instructional Strategies – Manpower Development

practitioners in this role identified methods, material and techniques that

would be useful to specific training and development programs.

The following roles suggested by Nadler are the roles Manpower Development Unit

Managers play. The term Manpower Development Unit managers, refers to the manager

of the Manpower Development department within an organization.

 Developer of Manpower Development policy – In this role the Manpower

Development manager would produce the policies which help the Manpower

Development unit of practitioners design training and development programs

that would aid workers in achieving an organizations strategic goals.

 Supervisor of Programs – Manpower Development managers in this role

would be responsible for assigning the appropriate Manpower Development

staff to develop and implement a training program.

 Maintainers of Relations – Manpower Development managers in this role

communicate and collaborate with an organization’s internal and external

partners. The aim of this role is to help others in the organization to

understand the contribution of the Manpower Development unit.

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  Developers of Manpower Development Personnel – Manpower

Development managers in this function evaluate the Manpower Development

personnel and determine developmental plans for their staff to grow in the

expertise of Manpower Development.

 Arranger of Facilities and Finance – the Manpower Development manager

in this role arrangers and determines the use of facilities for the benefit of the

organization. Facilities including training and conference rooms. Manpower

Development managers also manage the budget given to the Manpower

Development unit by the organization to maximize the “Return on

Investment”.

Nijhof (2004) states that there has been a change of roles within the field of Manpower

Development in the Netherlands. In his study, the role of trainers has risen from 11.4% to

25% within the field of Manpower Development from 1993 – 1999. But still, “67 per

cent of the roles were covered by the traditional roles of managing, planning, co-

ordination and execution of training”(Nijhof 2004, para.35) But between the period of

1993 and 1999, new roles have emerged such as competence managers, knowledge

managers, quality managers and purchaser of training.

The general expectation of Manpower Development practitioners from senior

management has been that they should be assisting in the implementation of strategic

goals. Manpower Development practitioners should also address any learning and

developmental issues of staff. Sofo (1999) argued that senior management’s expectations

of Manpower Development personnel are that:

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 They must understand the internal and external factors that impel

the need for organizational transformation…. assist in the setting

the overall strategic direction in relation to Manpower

Development…. establish appropriate and support structures that

communicate, reinforce and institutionalize the new behaviors,

values and attitudes, and ensure the success and sustainability of

the change effort (Sofo 1999, p.103).

Manpower Development practitioners are also expected to provide the “Return on

Investment” (ROI) from their training and development activities. This concept refers to

the training’s monetary benefits (e.g. greater efficiency) which should outweigh the cost

of the actual training program. (De Cieri and Kramar 2003). Ulrich also suggested that

senior management expected Manpower Development practitioners to help a company

to be competitive by developing behaviors, attitudes and values that would create a

culture that would increase an organization’s capacity for change. Manpower

Development practitioners are also expected to be flexible and to be able to adopt

multiple roles (i.e. a researcher being able to facilitate a training and development

activity). Senior management also expects Manpower Development practitioners to

develop the intellectual assets of an organization to enable their staff to adapt and

change successfully in a constant changing business environment. In order to achieve

this, Manpower Development practitioners need to continually evaluate, design and

implement strategies to improve the various skills within an organization’s employee

base. Manpower Development practitioners are also expected to provide programs that

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will enable employees to retrain themselves. This would create a learning environment

within the workplace where employees are constantly learning. (Sofo 1999).

Besides the above expectations, managers also expect Manpower Development

practitioners to fulfill the roles and responsibilities within their job descriptions. A

Training Officers roles and responsibilities can include:

 Developing Training modules

 Keep a record of staff competency levels

 Develop a team of employee trainers and assessors that meet national

standards

 Design a training program for management teams with the advice of the HR

manager.

There are many views of what roles Manpower Development practitioners play within

an organization. In the last few years, there has been a wider recognition of the impacts

and contributions of Manpower Development practitioners in organizations. Manpower

Development practitioners contribute to the organization by equipping workers to

achieve an organization’s strategic, long-terms goals in the midst of a changing business

environment. Manpower Development activities such as “…knowledge management,

management development, cultural change and strategic redirection…. create long term

capability and adaptability for the firm” (Di Cieri and Kramar 2003, p.565).

According to Watson (1986), Manpower Development practitioners contribute to the

success of management by providing management training programs. These programs

assist in broadening managers understanding of the latest business theory and practice as

well as stimulating creative and innovative approaches to decision making and problem

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solving. These programs also aid in the communication process within management

circles and also allow managers to assess their career and personal development plans.

Manpower Development practitioners contribute by encouraging workplace learning.

Manpower Development practitioners conduct programs in an effective manner so that

important issues (e.g. changes in legislative requirements) can be easily addressed and

resolved in the quickest and most effective way to give an organization a competitive

advantage over its rivals (Phillips 1984). Sofo (1999) confirms this by stating that

Manpower Development practitioners contribute to the success of an organization by

encouraging organizational learning.

Organizational Learning is critical to an organization’s survival because of the many

different environmental factors that affect it. The current changes in organizational

infrastructure from a hierarchical orientation a to flatter, teams-based orientation

requires the re-skilling of workers. Other factors include skill shortages within the next

generation of workers and also global competition from the world’s most powerful

organizations. Breakthroughs in new and advanced technologies as well as an increasing

need for changes are also demonstrating the importance of Organizational Learning.

The effectiveness of Manpower Development practitioners can be measured in a

number of ways. Fitz-Enz and Davison (2002) suggest that quantitative measurements

(e.g. sales figures) are one of the best ways to evaluate the contributions of Manpower

Development practitioners. They state that if a learner can display a new skill without

any improvements in productivity, service or quality; then Manpower Development

practitioners have failed in contributing to the success of an organization. Di Cieri and

Kramar (2003) suggested two approaches to measuring the contributions of Manpower

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Development practitioners. They are the Audit Approach and the Analytical Approach.

The Audit Approach is a qualitative measurement, which focuses on reviewing the

results of Manpower Development activities.

In this measurement, internal customer (staff) satisfaction measures are used (e.g.

surveys and questionnaires). They also suggested that surveys from senior management

would be a successful way in evaluating the contribution of Manpower Development

practitioners. This is because management can see how Manpower Development

activities are affecting individuals as well as how it contributes to the effectiveness of

the organization in meeting its strategic goals. The analytical approach is a quantitative

approach to evaluating the contributions to Manpower Development practitioners. This

evaluation determines if the training program has reached its intended effect and also

estimates the “Return on Investment” of the program. A “Cost-benefit” analysis can be

used to determine the economic benefits of Manpower Development practitioners. This

analysis involves measuring the cost of a training and development program with the

economic benefits of the results of a program.

CHALLEGES FACING MANPOWER DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA

Poor Manpower Planning: Planning can be defined “as a process for providing a

frequently updated framework of information decision making, with the object of

improving the utilization of resources “ Manpower planning is the process of collecting

data about manpower, analyzing it to help the decision makers to take more rational and

applicable decisions. The data or information to be collected is usually about the supply

sources of manpower as well as the demand, which is the most important and lasting

element in the production process.

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This problem is associated with the poor database that is needed for manpower planning

in Nigeria’s civil service both in rural and urban centers. This problem no doubt

constitutes a major hindrance on effective manpower utilization in Nigeria’s civil service.

The probable future risk of having either surpluses or shortages, or both in particular

kinds of manpower skills, can be reduced by good planning so the balance between

demand and supply can be achieved and then maintained through readjustments and

reassessment of both demand and supply sources.

Poor Reward System: In Nigeria, youths are usually underpaid for their skills because

there is excess supply of labor in the labor market. If employees are not adequately

rewarded for their jobs, it will serve as disincentive to work and development. In quest to

get highly paid job and good working conditions, employees will switch to any kind of

job.

For instance, Nigerian lecturers are not well-rewarded relatively to other classes of labor

which makes the best brains of the university neglect the lecturing as a career and rather

engage in other labor sectors. In the long run, the country and institutions would have lost

brilliant and capable hands whose manpower would have been fully utilized to develop

country. The resultant effect is that there will be untimely change of jobs by employees

thereby eroding manpower long term development

Population Growth: The paucity and unreliability of the demographic statistics of

developing countries like Nigeria is well-known. However, although population data has

been insufficiently accurate for planning purposes, the concept and measures of

population change used by demographers in the developing countries are logically sound.

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Population growth can be a result of either natural increase that is through birth, or

immigration flows from outside or inside the country. In each case a special situation can

be created which determines the manpower structure of this country .Birth control,

immigration control, internal movements control and many other similar actions can be

of great importance.

Although, Nigeria is an example of an over-populated country but there is a problem of

manpower under –utilization. Nigeria has a country suffers from unbalanced situation in

their resources because the system governing the economic activities fails to work out the

degree of balance between the different resources as well as the balance within each

individual resource.

Surplus and Shortage of Manpower: It may be mistakenly thought that Nigeria as an

over-populated country must have abundance of labor. But unfortunately Nigeria

manpower planner does not make provision for educating the active population leading to

abundance of unskilled workers which could be interpreted as shortage of semi-skilled or

skilled workers, or both. Surplus in some skills and shortage in others may also be found.

Nigeria as a case study does have surpluses among educated labor simply because the

manpower planners did not do their job properly-they only did the part of ‘education’.

But the job of the manpower planner is not only educating or training people, but finding

suitable employment for them, otherwise they may go to work in jobs which are

irrelevant to their skills and this, of course, does mean losses and wastage. So

mobilization and utilization of the labor force through reorganizing and reconstructing

the supply sources to match the demand is an important step towards manpower

utilization.

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Urbanization Crisis: This is as a result of rural-urban migration and natural population

increase. In Nigeria, rural-urban immigration is high because government developmental

policies do not give room for even development across the country. Therefore, the high

rate of increase creates urban crisis in that economic growth rate in these areas has been

much less than the population growth rates, and as a consequence of that number of

problems and difficulties have been created. With this high increase immigration to urban

areas, much human potential are not fully utilized because of overcrowding and

congestion in urban areas.

Corruption: High level of corruption in the country has been a detriment to manpower

development. The younger generations are no longer interested in human capacity

building. There is “get rich quickly” syndrome among the youths which inhibits skill

development; rather, youths prefer to engage in politics where there will be free access to

public funds.

Colonial Experience: There have been several arguments regarding the distortions in

manpower development of national growth in Nigeria’s civil service as a result of

colonialism which was fashioned towards economic exploitation. The advent of

colonialism led to the integration of the Nigerian economy into World Capitalist System

thereby placing minimum premium on labor by the colonial government no doubt has

persisted in the post-colonial Nigerian State. As a result, this problem account for a lack

of adequate attention given to labor as a critical part of the production process in

Nigeria’s civil service.

Poor Political Leadership: Closely related to the problem of colonial experience as a

problem of colonial experience in Nigeria’s civil service is a poor political leadership

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which is further deepening the problem of manpower development in Nigeria’s civil

service. This factor has manifested itself in poor funding of education over the years,

disparity or class in manpower development between the rich and the poor.

OPTIONS FOR EFFECTIVE MANPOWER DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA

The options for effective manpower development in Nigeria’s civil service could be

viewed from socio-economic and political perspectives:

1. Training and Education: There is no doubt that improvement in the quality of

people as productive agents has to be one of the main objectives of any

development plans. And “since one of the functions of educational system in a

society is to provide its work force with the abilities required for productivity,

it follows that system must be reasonably well regarded to the production

requirements of the economy. So it is not only teaching or training people to a

job-any job- but to provide them with the knowledge needed for production

requirements, and which is in our case providing useful knowledge to generate

and strengthen the economy.

2. The Ministry of Education should see to the fact that educational systems are

designed meet the requirements and future needs; the manpower planner has

to look at priorities and the resources available to decide the actions needed.

These actions will be dependent upon identifying:

a. The principal critical shortages of skilled manpower in each sector of the

economy, and analysis of the reasons for such shortages;

b. The surpluses, both of trained manpower as well as unskilled labor, and

reasons for the surplus;

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 c. The setting of forward targets for human resources development based

upon reasonable expectations of growth

In realization of this objective, the Federal Office of Statistics and Manpower

Planning Board should put all hands on deck in collecting reliable data on all

kinds of skills in the labor force present in Nigeria’s civil service.

3. Wage Regulatory Body: Government should ensure that wages rates are fixed

for all labor to prevent exploitation of labor by employees. When there is

wage rate control, employees will be encouraged to devote their time to a

particular skill. The rate at which youths change jobs will be reduced and

every able-body will be interested in developing and utilizing his/her

manpower in a particular area of interest.

4. The Nigerian Directorate for Employment needs to play a greater role in

manpower utilization. The role of manpower planner is not to plan for having

adequately trained labor only, but to create suitable opportunities for them to

use their skills. The agency can also plan to narrow the gap within the

manpower structure that is between different categories, by training and

retraining schemes. These programs can be for all ranges of skills. Switching

certain numbers from one category to another or from sector to another is

another important job manpower planner can do to fulfill the needs.

5. In the case of Nigeria where youths have left neglected agricultural sector for

industrialized sector, the ministry in charge of youths and employment and

other relevant agencies should ensure that retraining facilities are put in place

for those who are engaged in industry and those who are left behind in the

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 agricultural sector to substitute the emigrant farmers. This can be done by

training the farmers to use new methods, new equipment and new seeds.

These training can benefit the whole economy through rebalancing both

industrial agricultural sectors.

6. The option of an enhanced regulatory capability on the part of government for

effective enforcement of manpower policies. This is quite indispensable based

on the need to ensure quality manpower development irrespective of sex,

class, ethnic affiliation to mention a few. This point could best be appreciated

considering the liberal nature of most government policies which tend to

snowball into elitist benefit in terms of policy outcome.

7. The need for government to be persuasive in making organizations embraces

well designed policies at improving the development of manpower in

Nigeria’s civil service. This could be done both internally and externally.

Internally, organizations should be made to see reasons why a careful

manpower development plan should form part of plans and objectives for the

year. As a matter of fact, the success of organizations should not only be

measured in terms of the magnitude of profit through the adoption of outdated

personnel administration technique, but, basically on the contribution of the

organization in enlarging the confidence of its workers through manpower

development.

The external factor involves the contribution of organizations to the

development of manpower through financial support meant to boost adult

education, vocational education, and specialized research institutes.

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 8. Fight against Corruption: Government should act more on campaign against

corruption. EFCC and ICPC should ensure that people found guilty are

punished severely. Law should not be above anyone, no matter class or tribe.

With minimal level of corruption in Nigeria’s civil service, more attention will

be paid to manpower development as that will be the major component of

economic growth in the country.

CONCLUSION

This paper have been able to relate what could be referred to as manpower

underdevelopment to socio-economic and political problems in Nigeria’s civil service by

looking at such factors as poverty, political instability and economic underdevelopment.

Against this background, it is important to conclude that manpower development as a

concept and method should be used as a tool for development in Nigeria’s civil service.

Manpower Development is a term, which is not exclusively defined. The reason for this

is that this industry is a relatively new field of work. In the last ten years, the roles of

Manpower Development practitioners have changed quite substantially in order to

provide organizations with the ability to adapt to the changing business environments.

This paper has also highlighted that senior management expects Manpower Development

practitioners to aid in the development of staff to achieve organizational strategic goals.

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