INFLUENCE OF DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES OF EMPLOYEE PRODUCTIVITY IN SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES IN NIGERIA (A CASE STUDY OF UMUAHIA METROPOLIS ABIA STATE)
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Training and development of employees is among one of the tools of competitive advantage of organizations. Economic process has place incessant pressure on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) for them to adapt to alter in order that they will stay competitive (Fassoula, 2006). This suggests that small and medium enterprises ought to train and develop their workers in a very bid to satisfy each to meet both national and international challenges. As noted by Oforegbunam and Okorafor (2010), any attempt to prepare workers for the delicate demands of the 21st century ought to be joined with constant coaching and development packages. Rothwell and Benkowski (2002) additionally intimate the requirement to take care of reputable human capital is met through
talent differentiation, enhancing worker motivation, and higher focus on employee training and development. Training and development is, thus, very critical to an organization because once workers are equipped with requisite skills, they are bound to produce quality goods and render quality services, thereby reducing waste and cost, increasing productivity and reducing supervision (Vinesh, 2014). Organizations faced inflated competition as a result of economic process, changes in technology, political and economic environments (Evans, Pucik & Barsoux 2002) and thus prompting these organizations t coach their employees united of the ways in which to organize them to regulate to the will increases on top of and thus enhance their productivity. It is necessary to not ignore the prevailing proof on growth of information within the business company world within the last decade. This growth has not only been brought about by improvements in technology nor a combination of factors of production but increased efforts towards development of organizational human resources. It is, therefore, in every organizations responsibility to enhance the job productivity of the employees and certainly implementation of training and development is one of the major steps that most companies need to achieve this. As is evident that employees are a crucial resource, it is important to optimize the contribution of employees to the company aims and goals as a means of sustaining effective productivity. This therefore calls for
managers to ensure an adequate supply of staff that is technically and socially competent and capable of career development into specialist departments or management positions (Afshan, Sobia, Kamran & Nasir 2012). Bearing in mind that human resources are the belongings of the firm, workers persuade be an honest supply of gaining competitive advantage (Houger 2006), and coaching is that the solely method of developing structure belongings through building workers competencies. So as to succeed, Organizations ought to get and utilize human resources effectively.
Organizations, therefore, got to style its human resource management in ways in which can work into the organization’s structure as this can build the organizations bring home the bacon their goals and objectives. It is important for organizations to assist their workforce in obtaining the necessary skills needed and, increase commitment. The management of human resources in Nigeria in general and Umuahia in particular is rather challenging as most organizations have difficulties finding proper human resources. This may partly be a result of the different kinds of problems, for example, political instability, corruption, bureaucracy, poor infrastructure,
low levels of education and purchasing power, diseases and famine known to prevail in the African business context (Kamoche 2002). Training and development is usually associated with large firms because they have the financial wherewithal. For SMEs, the owner-manager has been the focus as far as training is concerned (Fatoki, 2011). Additionally, small and medium enterprises are susceptible to informal coaching (on-the-job) through
the interaction of expertise, social interaction and feedback (Anderson, Boocock & Graham (2001). SMEs are formal or informal business organizations, regardless of their position, that have up to 250 workers. In step with ILO (2015), there are concerning450 to 510 million SMEs within the world.
SMEs, as well as chop bars, are the bedrock of all economic science within the world. For instance, small and medium enterprises contributed concerning eighty-fih of total employment growth worldwide between the years 2002-2010 (de Kok et al., 2011). Additionally, SMEs’ share of permanent and full time employment in ninety nine countries is concerning sixty seven (Demirguc-Kunt & Maksimovic, 2002). Therefore, this study is, thus, a
contribution to the training and development literature that suggests that every stage of the coaching and development method influences completely different worker performance variables
