EFFECTIVE PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT AS A MEANS OF ACHIEVING ORGANISATIONAL GOALS AND OBJECTIVE A CASE STUDY OF AKWA IBOM STATE CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
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1.1Â Â Â BACKGROUNDÂ OF THE STUDY
         Organisation is all about people. They are meant to serve people through people their workers. No organization can excel beyond the capabilities of its workers, hence the need to make them better equipped for the challenges of meeting the needs of those being served by the organization.
Organisation, be it public or private is deliberately structured to achieve a particularly goal or set of goals. According to Drucker (1990:18) one of the enduring truisms of organization analysis is that organization, afterall, are made up of two parts: material and human part. Material in organization has to do with the inanimate objects such as computers, office furniture, files, machines and other office accessories. On the other hand, the human aspect includes the people that in one way or the other contribution to the attainment of the goals of the organization. However, in a quest to have a coordinated and cohesive human labour in organization, Personnel Management Department, which hitherto had been under the general administration division is now a department of its own in many organizations.
According to Agbo (2003:12-13) prior to 1955, the function of the personnel officer was mainly concerned with record keeping for expertise who owned or managed most of the establishment in Nigeria. The officer had no academic preparation nor necessary experience for the job. It was assumed by employers that Nigerians were best suited to deal with labour union leaders and their demands, especially as they were their brothers.
Between 1955 and 1960, the personnel management profession took a new turn. Uninterrupted effort was made to prepare Nigerians to manage their own affairs especially after the Nigerian independence. Many Nigerians were hired either as personnel officers or assistant personnel officers especially in the civil service and large organizations.
Akpan (1982:2) views personnel management like any other form of administration, which is a responsibility of line officials and as such, it is interwoven at all level of hierarchy and in all aspects of the supervision and direction in an organization. The basic functions of the personnel department include: recruitment of staff, career development and counseling, wage and salary administration, training, maintenance of good relationship in the organization, staff evaluation, labour relations and discipline and control of workers. Hence, if we view the basic functions and objectives of personnel management as maintaining effective human resources and human relations in the organization, then it is largely a manner of management. The problem arises on how best to effectively perform these functions considering the fact that human beings, who are primary elements in personnel management, are so dynamic.
The dynamic nature of human beings who are the key element of personnel management makes various organizations to adopt different approaches in dealing with its personnel so as to attain a high level of productivity which is the primary aim of any organization whether it is private or public. In this work the emphasis is on study of personnel policies of organization such as promotions, health facilities, job security and workers relation with the management with a view to arriving at a conclusion on how it affects productivity in organizations.
Akwa Ibom State Civil Service Commission is a statutory body established in consonance with section 197, part 11A of the third schedule of the 1999 Constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria. Its functions include appointments, promotions and discipline of civil servants. It also served as appellate body for appeals/petitions and complaints received from aggrieved civil servant as well as members of the public in respect of appointment promotions, discipline and other personnel matters.
To ensure efficient and effective service delivery, the commission discharged the above functions in respect of officers on salary grade level 07 -17 in the state civil service, while personnel matters in respect of staff on salary grade level 01-06 were in the year 2007 (according to the year 2007 annual report of the commission on its activities) delegated to the junior staff management committees of ministries and extra ministerial departments. In addition, members of commission and senior management staff in the commission served as observers in senior staff management committees and junior staff management committees in ministries and extra-ministerial department respectively.
ORGANOGRAM OF THE CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION
Source: Akwa Ibom State Civil Service Commission 2007 Annual Report
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Powers and Functions of the Commission
The commission is conscious of its responsibilities and functions as spelt out in the 1999 constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria section 197, part 11A of the third schedule with regards to appointments, promotions and the exercise of disciplinary control over persons in the employ of the state civil service. In performing these functions, the commission applied the civil service rules, the schemes of services along side others personnel management tools. The commission also issued circulars, which prescribe guidelines for personnel management in the civil service.
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Functions
Among the functions carried out by the commission within the year were:
- Conducting recruitment interviews, holding regular meetings and taking decision on promotions, transfer, advancements, conversions, retirement, resignations and discipline of civil servants
- Providing general and uniform guidelines on appointments, promotions and disciplinary matters.
- Serving as an appellate body for petitions on personnel matters from senior and junior staff management committees.
- Advising on general principle in the operations and organization of the state civil service.
- Monitoring the activities of ministries/extra-ministerial departments, performing delegated functions on appointments, discipline and promotion of junior staff to ensure strict adherence to uniform implementation of guidelines
- Maintaining comprehensive personnel records of the state civil service.
Personnel Management Strategies in Akwa Ibom State Civil Service Commission
Personnel or workers are perceived to be of critical importance in all public and private organization. Akwa Ibom State Civil Commission as any other industrial organization operates or provides certain incentives to its workers outside the traditional motivational incentives such as payment of salary, allowances and bonus. Such other policies adopted by the commission as narrated by one of the personnel of the commission through personal interview include:
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Meal Subsidy:
To effective motivate workers for increase in productivity, workers are given meal allowance by the government.
Unionism:
Workers in the commission are permitted to organize themselves into union so as to always have a formidable font in presenting issues of their welfare to boast its affairs, subvention is given to the various existing unions by the government and are recognized as pressure group.
Medical Allowances
Workers in the commission are given medical allowance, by this , government is very much concern with the health of its workers, and its intention is to attain its goals and objectives since a worker in good health performs credibly well.
Maternity Leave:
Nursing mothers are granted leave of absence with full salary paid without deduction.
Source: Akwa Ibom State Civil Service Commission 2007, Annual               Report.
1.2Â Â Â STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
         The increase in the number and size of organizations has brought some challenges into the system. The desire of the country to be industrialized brought about the establishment of large scale industries necessitating the employment of large number of employee under one roof. This immediately necessitated the performance of personnel functions of recruiting, training developing, compensating and motivating. However, since these functions were not given the needed attention adequately, its give rise to loss of productivity, tardiness, high turnover rate of employees, excessive complaints, and labour management problems.
It is based on these problems that the researcher is forced to conduct this study on personnel management and efficiency in the public service.
1.3Â Â Â OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDYÂ
The study sought to examine the following:
- To determine why employee act as they do and what social and psychological factors motivate them.
- To determine whether increase wages will inturn boost employee’s morals towards work.
- To find out whether the provision of welfare services such as canteens and recreational facilities will lead to higher productivity.
- To determine if provision of good leadership and giving confidence to the workers will put them to work.
1.4Â Â Â RESEARCH QUESTIONS
         The following research questions will enable us to examine the extent to which effective motivation of personnel by the management led to the achievement of its goals in terms of efficiency.
- Does providing a good working environment, both physical and psychological helps to achieve complete production efficiency?
- Does providing a fair standard of living for the workers lead to the achievement of efficiency in organization?
- Does recognition of workers ability and effort helps managers deal more effectively with employees in their organization?
- Does increase wages and good fringe benefits to workers harness complete production efficiency and work place harmony?
1.5Â Â Â RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
The following hypothesis guided the study
Hypothesis 1
Ho: Â Â Providing a good working environment both physically and psychologically do not help to achieve complete production efficiency.
H1:Â Â Â Â Providing a good working environment both physically and psychologically do help to achieve complete production efficiency
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