THE IMPACT OF TRAINING ON WORKERS’ PERFORMANCE (A CASE STUDY OF POWER HOLDING COMPANY OF NIGERIA, )

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The effectiveness in realization of an organization’s set goals and objectives is within the framework in which it was set up.  Human and material resources in every organization should not be over-emphasized, and therefore, must be harnessed and oriented for the achievement of the set goals and objectives.  It is true that material resources form an integral part of the desired goal but human resource is more important in the sense that they help in achieving organizational goals and objectives in an effective and efficient manner, this need arises as a results of the need for the improvement in job performance.  And this method depends on the type in which the organization adopts to achieve her goals.

The success of an organization is determined by the quality of its labour force, since the labour determines the output of the organization by the labour-inputs.  Human resources can be improved through a graded and systematic process of development that includes education, training and the appropriate motivation.

Training:  This can be described as a short-term systematic process through which an employee acquires technical knowledge, skill and attitude required to perform a specific task or job adequately.  Worker must be trained and developed in order to get the best from them and this also, has to be a continuous bases and in various fields.

Ubeku emphasized the importance of training in the organization in the following words: “money spent on training and development of employee in an organization is money well invested.  Employees who have received adequate training before being assigned with responsibilities have the necessary confidence with which to carry out the job”.

At the 14th Annual General Meeting of the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association in December, 1970, Chief Anthony Enahoro the then Federal Commissioner for Labour, commenting on the role of employers in training their employees asserted that: “the development of human resources cannot be entirely the concern of our nation’s educational institutions, it is also the responsibility of other institutions capable of performing training functions.

Every enterprise, whether public or private, necessarily does considerable on-the-job, some of which is organized and some haphazard and incidental.  If employers display greater readiness than many of them do to invest in training, we can hope more rapidly to supplement the work of educational and other training institutions”.

An employee should be helped to grow into more responsibilities by systematic training and development.  It is only through this process that an employee feels confidence to carry out the responsibilities of the job because he knows already what is expected of him.  Training of employees can help to improve the performance of the organization thereby improving the overall performance of the organization.  It is in view of this, that the study wants to look at the impart of training on the performance of workers in the organization by using some selected federal establishment in Benin City as a case study.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

One of the problems of the most modern organizations is that favourable fluctuation in the performance of workers and this can be attributed to the dynamics of organization due to new knowledge and technology.

In any organization, training needs shows itself in various ways, new employees must be instructed in their duties, poor selection may necessitate specialized training efforts; individual employees who cannot perform certain aspects of their task must be made equal to those tasks; completed change of work methods as a result of change in technology, all these can necessitate the need for training.

Employers cannot avoid cost, without proper training errors and misunderstanding arise.  And stealing trained employees from competitors is a costly practice, which can work both ways.

Training can affect the performance of the workers; this is because training entails the acquisition of new skills, with the new skill acquire in the course of training, workers will be able to adapt themselves to the dynamics of the organization.

In view of this, the study wants to look at the impact of training on workers’ performance by using some selected federal establishments in Benin City as a case study.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

This study hopes to achieve the following objectives:

• To look at the impact of training on workers’ performance in organization.
• To look at the various strategies of training in organizations.
• To identify the various ways of evaluating programmes in organizations.
• To find out the problems associated with the training of workers in organizations and suggest solutions to such problems by way of recommendations.
• To enhance people’s knowledge on training as an important phenomenon in the management of human resource in organizations.

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This study is limited to the Federal establishments in Benin City.  Among the federal establishments include in this study are the Nigeria Telecommunications, Nigeria Prison Service, Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) and the Federal Road Safety Corps.  In the course of this study, questionnaires shall be distributed to various categories of workers in all the organizations included in the study.  Also to be dealt with in this study are issues like the impact of training on workers’ performance, workers’ satisfaction with the training programme of the organization; the problem associated with training programmes and the ways of evaluating the success of organizational training programme.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The study is significant because it emphasizes the impact of training on workers’ programme.  Management and workers achievers alike can appreciate the need for training and development in the organization.  Thus, the findings and recommendations of this study can be exploited in the organization under study in improving the quality of training programmes in their organizations.  Improvement in the quality of training programmes can enhance the impact of training on workers’ performance.

The postulation and generalization of this study can lead other researcher’s interest on the impact of training workers’ performance.  The interest generated by the postulation and generalization of this study, can lead to more researchers on training which can help them to improve the quality of literature on training as an important area of human resources management in modern day organization.

HYPOTHESIS

The following hypotheses shall direct the thrust of this study:

• A satisfactory training programme will improve the performance of the workers.
• Training geared towards workers’ job, will improve their performance.
• Workers perceptions of the criteria of selecting people for training will affect their performance.
• Management’s attitude towards workers’ training will affect success of training in the organization.

LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

In the course of the study, the researcher encountered a lot of problems.  The problem encountered in the course of this study was time.  This resulted from the nature of the semester, being short and full of academic and social activities, it was not an easy task combining classroom activities with going to field to collect materials for the research.

Secondly, the attitude of the respondents towards the researcher was also a problem.  Many of the respondents were unwilling to cooperate with the researcher.  This can be seen from the fact that 18% of the respondents did not return the questionnaires distributed to them and this further reduced the sample of workers included in the study.

Finally, getting the material for the research was also a problem because it was not an easy task getting materials for the research.  Thus, the researcher spent a lot of money going from one library to another collecting materials for the research, and this further worsen the limited financial state of the research as a student.

OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF TERMS

This is done for clearer understanding of this project, some of the key terms used are defined below in order to bring out their operational meanings in the context in which they are used.

HUMAN RESOURCES: The term is used to refer to persons who provides labour in an organization by making use of both their energies and skills to achieve the goal of the organization.

TRAINING: Training is the systematic modification of behaviour through learning which occurs as a result of education, instruction, development and planned experience required by an individual to perform a given task or job adequately.  A person impacting information, often increases the capabilities of an individual in performing a given task in the organization.

LEARNING:  It is the act by which the individual acquires skills, knowledge and ability, which results in a relative performance change in his or her behaviour or potential behaviour.

TRAINEE:This is the person who undergoes some form of training.

TRAINER:  This is the person who trains worker in the organization.

TRAINEE’S NEED:   This is a situation whereby something is lacking or requiring some course of action.  It is the identification of trainees’ need that set the course of training.

MOTIVATION:  This term refers to the inner driving force, desire or which in one that makes him to put in his best efforts towards the attainment of organization goal.  It becomes manifested only when the external influences are favourable.

PERFORMANCE:  This is the aggregate result of the efforts of the workers towards achieving the organizational goals or objective.

ORGANIZATION: This is an entity that is made up of various departments coming together to achieve a common goal.  It is a structured process in which people interact for objectives.

GOAL:  This is a target set in which all efforts are directed in order to achieve it.

PERCEPTION:  This is the process by which the individual receives and interpret information about his environment.  It is the way people view things around them in the organization.

SKILLS:  The term skill implies an ability, which is manifested in increase and effective performance under varying conditions.

EFFICIENCY:  This means the extent to which the expected result is achieved.