ABSTRACT
The study examined the human resource management skills required by principals for effective administration of secondary school in Imo State. Three research questions and three null hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The population of the study was 272 public secondary school principals in Imo State. The population size (272) was manageable by the research so there was no sampling of the population. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire titled human resource management skills questionnaire. The data generated from the trial testing were analyzed using Cronbach Alpha method to determine the internal consistency of the instrument and an overall reliability index of 0.94 was obtained. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while t-test statistics was used to analyze the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that both male and female principals see verbal or oral communication, written communication and non-verbal communication skills as a sin-qua-non for effective secondary school administration. The findings also showed that job rotation, workshops and seminars are very important training and development skills required by principals for effective secondary school administration. Based on the findings the researcher recommended that the secondary education management board in Imo State should organize seminars, and workshops regularly to inculcate effective communication, and motivational skills in the principals for smooth day to day running of the schools. The board should also provide opportunities of re-training periodically.
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Human resources are vital in any organization. They play indisputable roles in maintaining and promoting quality education in the school system. Human resources, according to Samuel and Bestman (2012) are of the view that, Human resources are the source for achieving competitive advantage because of its capability to convert the other resources (money, machine, methods and material) into output (product/ service). Bernadin (2003), are all the people who perform the activities of an organization. Nwankwo (2002) defined human resources as men and women, young and old, who engage in the production of goods and services in an organization such as school. Olaitan, Nwachukwu, Igbo, Onyemachi and Ekong (1999) described human resources as those who acquired functional knowledge and skills which individuals can supply and gainfully utilize for purposes of achieving optimum productivity. Thus, in the context of this study, human resources means, all the educational personnel such as principals, teachers and non-academic staffs whom the schools use to achieve their educational objectives. It is only through effective management that the human resources can perform their function diligently. Human resources are used in the secondary schools for the attainment of secondary educational goals.
Secondary education according to the Federal Republic of Nigeria (FRN) (2012) in her National Policy on Education is a form of education children receive after primary education and before the tertiary stage. The secondary school level occupies a very important position as it determines, to a large extent the quality of a nation’s educational system. The demand for education is high in Imo State as one of the educational advantage state which led to the opening of more schools in the state. This means that secondary school has to be well managed, and given attention. The broad goals of secondary education are to prepare the individuals for useful living within the society, and for higher education. However, the success or failure of any school system depends on the management of its human resources (teaching and non-teaching staff).
Management is the act of controlling the efforts of people. Management is according to Ejiofor (2009) as the art of working, particularly through people, for the achievement of the broad goals of an organization. Lawal (2005) described management as the process of planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating and controlling the efforts of an organization’s members and of using all other organizational resources to achieve stated organizational goals. In this classical conception, management is regarded as primarily concerned with internal affairs. Decenzo and Robbins (1999) explained that management is the process of efficiently achieving the objectives of an organization with and through the people. In trying to achieve these goals in a school, the principal has to map out strategies, find teachers and the materials to do the job, assign different people to accomplish different duties, ensure that these duties are being done as planned. In other words, management is the art of getting things done through people. In the context of this study, management is the process by which principals create, direct, maintain and coordinate cooperative human efforts in the schools. Management of human resources plays a very great role in enhancing the quality of a school. The school is usually sound when there is effective and efficient human resource management.
Human resource management (HRM) is the strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organization’s most valued assets – the people working there who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of its objectives (Armstrong, 2006). The overall aim of human resource management is to ensure that an organization realizes it goals or objectives with optimal effectiveness and efficiency through proper mobilization of human resources. Nwakanobi (2009) sees human resource management as an art of employing people, developing their resources, utilizing, maintaining and compensating their services in tune with the job and organizational requirement. According to Dessler (2008), it is the process of acquiring, training, appraising and compensating employees, and of attending to their labour relations, health and safety, fairness and concerns. In the context of this work human resource management is defined as the process of acquiring, utilizing, training and development of people working in the school. Human resource management is needed to ensure the optimum use of human resources currently employed in a school. The success of a school would greatly depend on the human resource management skills of the school principal.
Human resource management skills according to Banado, Ndiowu, and Koroye (2011) are those skills required of the administrators for the effective management of human resources available for the achievement of educational objectives. This means that human resource management skills are not easily derived. Asumei (2010) observed that it is a term used to describe formal practice and policy necessary to execute all management tasks relating to personnel issues, especially employment/hiring, education, evaluation and rewarding of employees and provision of safe, communication, ethically acceptable and fair environment for them. Human resource management skill is the capacity of the principal to achieve these goals. In the context of this work, human resources management skills are training and development, communication and motivational skills required by the principals for the effective management of human resources available for the achievement of educational objectives.
Communication is a very crucial activity in an organization. The word communication is derived from the Latin word, communis, which means common. The definition underscores the fact that unless a common understanding results from the exchange of information, there is no communication. When communication is successful, the organizations progresses and achieves its goals but when hampered the entire organization suffers. Communication is defined as the process of transmitting information and common understanding from one person to another (Keyton, 2011). Communication is the exchange of thoughts, messages, or information, as by speech, signals, writing, and behavior (The American Heritage Dictionary, 2007). Ojebode (2006) said communication is the process of sharing and exchanging meanings, ideas, feelings, information and thoughts.
One of the most critical requirements of the principal in the school is to convey timely and thoughtful communication to students, teachers, support staff, parents, and community. Communication can be downward through (principal-to-staffs/students), upward through (staffs/students-to-principal) or horizontal among staffs/students. Communication has appeared consistently in discussions of effective school administration. In handling human resource in a secondary school, the principal will have to possess communication skill because the human resource (students, teaching and non-teaching staffs) are the most important weapons in the hands of the principal in achieving educational goals. In achieving the stated educational goals and objectives, available human resource has to be trained and developed to carry out their professional duties.
Training and development consists of planned programs undertaken to improve employee knowledge, skills, attitude, and social behavior so that the performance of the organization improves considerably (Wayne, 2011). Development deals with professional growth of teachers. However, it could be achieved through in-service staff training exercise designed normally to enhance commitment (Omenyi, 2002). Training and development includes organizing in-service conferences, mentoring, workshops, and job rotation. These training packages will improve the human resources and conducting in-service training for the staff will help to update them in their areas of specialization. This serves as a motivation to human resource for effective performance.
Motivation is an important human resource management skill to sustain the number of employees in the organization. It is a reward to staff for their services. Motivation is believed to be an important concern for employees as it affects their commitment (Muhammad, Syed, Rabia and Arshad, 2011). Macarie (2004) opined that motivation is a process through which the personnel of an organization are influenced to contribute to establish and accomplish the foreseen objectives, considering the factors that motivates them. There is therefore the need for the principal to motivate and communicate with the human resource in the school to be committed to their assigned duties. If school principals must transform their schools, they must possess relevant managerial skills. The level of performance in a school depends on the level of human resource management skill of the principal.
In Nigeria, the principal is usually the head of secondary schools. According to Arikewuyo (2009), the principal is the manager. He or she is the administrator and the public relation officer of the school. As the manager, he or she is in-charge of the staff, the students, the curriculum, the school finance and also ensures a good school community relationship. Oyedeji and Fasasi (2006) are of the view that the principal is regarded as the chief executive of the school. The primary goal of the principal either male or female is to make sure that effective administration of secondary schools is achieved.
The issue of gender has been a very controversial issue in education since the creation of man and woman. Mc Graw (2010) is of the view that there is no type of education concerned with the management of social affairs which belongs to a man or woman. This implies that both male and female principals need to have the human resource management skills for effective administration of secondary schools in Imo state. It has been observed by the researcher that there is no gender difference between male and female principals as regards to the motivational skills and maintenance skills required for effective administration of secondary schools.
