CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to theStudy
The highly competitive and changing market of today requires quick and effective response. To be highly competitive, managers are realizing that the success of a business enterprise depends largely on the efficient selection of its Human Resources. In human resource management, recruitment is the foundation for selection process. Recruitment involves using application forms, resumes, interview schedules, employment and skills tests and reference checks to evaluate and screen job candidates, (Oyeaghala, 2016).
Moreso, Zweig (1991) defines recruitment and selection as the set of activities an organization uses to select candidates who possess the abilities and attitude necessary for the enterprise especially with the aim of achieving its objectives. In the same vein Kuntz and O. Donnel (1980) saw recruitment as attracting qualified candidates to fill any vacancies. According to them, it is a process of choosing from among the candidates. It goes further to list three aspects of recruitment that must be borne in mind while recruiting officers, namely the recruitment requirement, organizational policies, procedures and organisationalimage. Recruitment is more than merely filling current vacancies. It aims at obtaining requisite personnel and building a strong organisation with effective team work. Therefore, it could be asserted that the public sectors in Nigeria evolved in an atmosphere of suspicion and hostility not only between the colonized and the colonizing authorities but also among the former, some of whom had been co-opted into the colonial system and therefore, alienated from their kith and kin in the society. The situation led to the racial discrimination within the civil service itself, which could not have failed to influence the general perception of the service by the Nigeria people. For example, the Nothernalization policy was introduced to discriminate against the non-northern Nigerians but rather considered the foreign expertises into the northern civil service. In recent years there has been a marked decline in efficiency, selection and recruitment within the civil service. It has lost grip of its traditional roles and has not been able to work out satisfactory programme of action for effective implementation.
However, selection is the process of choosing from numerous applicants a suitable candidate to fill a job position. Selection in modern organizations can be said to be anchored or rooted that; many are called but a few are chosen”. Selection is among the major functions of human resource department and as well an important first step towards creating the competitive strength and the strategic advantage for the organization. Searching for, and obtaining potential job candidates in sufficient numbers and quality and at the right cost is the best way for organization to get the most appropriate people to fill its job positions. (Oyengu, 2009).
According to Ghala, (2016), productivity is one of the most challenging issues related to manufacturing and service organizations. Productivity usually relates to efficiency (how many valuable resources are used relative to what it produced) and effectiveness (measuring the ability of the manufacturing or service process to produce the desired result). This can be achieved if the selection process of an organization is devoid of nepotism and chance to meet the challenging constraints affecting the organization.
Therefore, the importance of adhering to selection process is vital for organizational competitiveness and a failure to approach this function effectively will result to selection of wrong and underperforming employees which will in turn lead to low level of productivity.
1.2 Statement of the problem
The success of organizations depends on the calibre of the manpower that steers their day to day affairs. When the right person is selected, the productivity of the selected person tends to be high or meet the standard set by the organization. Though it is the wish of every organization to attract the best human resource in order to channel their collective efforts into excellent performance, unconventional selection practices can mar attainment of Organizational objectives. (Oyeaghala, 2016).
It is regrettably, many organizations in Nigeria ignore standard selection programmes, this makes selection of personnel inundated with myriad of unethical practices; bias, discrimination and favouritism. It is obvious that hiring someone who does not fit into a particular job or who does not suit the culture of the organization may bring about disciplinary problems, disputes, absenteeism, high labour turnover, fraud, poor service delivery to customers, suppressed creativity, innovations and learning, inability to cope with new challenges or changes, non-competitiveness, poor quality production, waste of organization’s money, time and other valuable resources. All these may culminate to low level of organizational productivity. It is against the backdrop of the above vexing problems, that this study was designed. (Ghala, 2016).
Therefore, this study intends to assess the impact of employees selection process on service delivery in the Nigeria public sector, using a study of Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, Sokotostate
1.3 Research questions
To guide achievement of the aforementioned objectives, the following research questions were developed:
- What is significantrelationship between the employees’ selection processes and service delivery in public sectors?
- Does the selection process employed by the public sectors help them to achieve service delivery or productivity?
- What is significant relationship between the factors influencing the employees’ selection processes and service delivery in public sectors?
