EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT AND ORGANIZATIONAL RESILIENCE OF MANUFACTURING FIRMS (A CASE STUDY OF PORT HARCOURT, RIVERS STATE)

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The nature of the business environment has made modern organizations become aware of the need to prepare for the unexpected. The dynamic nature of the environment makes it imperative for organizations to embrace proper human capital development so as to achieve resilience. The attacks of September 11th recorded a great shock causing the stock market to drop sharply. It destroyed about 18,000 small businesses and almost 3,000 people died (New York City Officer of the comptroller 2001). According to Iwan (2000) the Indian ocean Tsunami resulted to the death of approximately 131,000 people, displacing 37,000 and damaging about 8,000 houses. Organisations are now reminded that the unexpected still happen considering the emerging threat of a pandemic and the Hurrican Katrina (www.resorgs.nz). According to Wildarskey (1988) the ability to handle unexpected dangers after their occurrence is resilience. Advanced organizations that have an embedded resilience capacity may be able to seize opportunities in addition to invoking protective activities – bouncing toward as opposed to bouncing back. In the present environment where the unimaginable is getting at its peak, organizations and their various units may not have all it takes to anticipate every challenge that comes their way (Weick, Sutcliffe & Obstfeld, 1999). Organizational resilience holds onto practice in risk management and on existing literature. According to Mitroff (2005) organization resilience is a steadily process that supports performance in the organization and crisis situation. A set of four abilities identified by Hollnagel et al (2000) which define the quality of resilience are: the ability to react to different challenges; to anticipate disruptions; to learn from experience and ability to carefully observe what is happening. In order for organizations to gain competitive advantage, they should leverage on employees as a competitive weapon. Organizations focus has been on how to improve on employee’s productivity to drive higher value for them. This improvement can be done through comprehensive human capital development programme which enables for organization's long term survival and sustainability. To effectively operate in an unstable and complicated environment, employees should acquire knowledge, skills and experience. A lot have been written over the years on human capital development and economic growth in Nigeria. (Okorafor & Oforegbunam, 2010; Manmuthu & Arokiasamy ,2009). However, we are not aware of a unified empirical work done on employee development and organizational resilience in manufacturing firms in Nigeria. To cover the knowledge gap, the study seeks to examine the relationship between employee development and organization resilience of selected manufacturing firms in Rivers State.

1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

The Nigerian manufacturing sector is facing challenges such as inflation, decrepit infrastructure, low investment, high cost of production, low level of technology, low capacity utilization and poor power supply (Anyanwu, 2000). In the light of these challenges facing Nigerian manufacturing sector, the interest in exploring organizational resilience is principally to identify the factors that enable organizations resist the negative impacts of crises and adapt in ways that enable them stand in a changing environment.

1.3 AIMS OF THE STUDY

The major purpose of this study is to examine employee development and organizational resilience of manufacturing firms. Other general objectives of the study are:

1. To examine employee development and its importance in organization.
2. To examine measures of employee development.
3. To examine the impact of employee development on organization resilience.
4. To examine measures of organizational resilience.
5. To examine the relationship between employee development and organization resilience.
6. To examine the factors hindering effective employee development in organizations.

1.4. RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. What are employee development and its importance in organization?
2. What are the measures of employee development?
3. What are the impacts of employee development on organization resilience?
4. What are the measures of organizational resilience?
5. What is the relationship between employee development and organization resilience?
6. What are the factors hindering effective employee development in organizations?

1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

H0: There is no significant impact of employee development on organization resilience

H1: There is a significant impact of employee development on organization resilience

1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The study would be of immense importance towards the development of the manufacturing sector as it would unveil the importance of employee development in achieving organizational resilience and growth. The study would also benefit students, researchers and scholars who are interested in developing further studies on the subject matter.

1.7    SCOPE OF THE STUDY 

The study is based on employee development and organizational resilience of manufacturing firms in Port Harcourt, Rivers state.

1.8 LIMITATION OF STUDY

Financial constraint- Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

Time constraint- The researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work. This consequently will cut down on the time devoted for the research work.