MANPOWER DEVELOPMENT AND PRODUCTIVITY IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE: A CASE OF AKWA IBOM STATE CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title page – – – – – – – – – i
Dedication – – – – – – – – – ii
Certification – – – – – – – – – iii
Acknowledgements – – – – – – – – iv
Abstract – – – – – – – – – vi
Table of Content – – – – – – – – vii
List of Tables – – – – – – – – – xi
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study – – – – – – 1
1.2 Statement of the Problem – – – – – – 3
1.3 Research Questions – – – – – – – 5
1.4 Objectives of the Study – – – – – – 5
1.5 Research Hypotheses – – – – – – – 5
1.6 Significance of the Study – – – – – – 6
1.7 Scope and Limitations of the Study – – – – – 6
1.7 Definition of Terms – – – – – – – 7
1.8 Organization of the Study – – – – – – 8
CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
2.1 The Concept of Manpower Development – – – – 10
2.1.1 Determination of Manpower Development Need in Organization – – 13
2.1.2 Methods of Manpower Development in Organizations – – 14
2.1.2.1 Types of Manpower Development Programmes in Akwa Ibom
State Civil Service Commission – – – – – 17
2.1.3 Conditions for Achieving Manpower Development in Public Service- 19
2.1.4 Importance of Manpower Development – – – – 20
2.1.5 Problems of Manpower Development within the Service – – 22
2.1.6 The Concept of Productivity – – – – – – 23
2.1.7 Factors Influencing Productivity in the Public Service – – 24
2.1.8 Relationship between Manpower Development and Productivity
in Akwa Ibom State Civil Service Commission – – – – 25
2.2 Case Study – – – – – – – – 27
2.2.1 Brief History of Akwa Ibom State Civil Service Commission – 27
2.2.2 The Structure and Composition of the Civil Service Commission – – 28
2.2.3 Vision – – – – – – – – – 28
2.2.4 Mission – – – – – – – – 29
2.2.5 Powers, Functions and Responsibilities of the Commission – – 29
2.2.6 Organogram of Akwa Ibom State Civil Service Commission – 31
2.3 Theoretical Framework – – – – – – 32
2.3.1 Application of the Theory – – – – – – 33
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Research Design – – – – – – – 36
3.2 Population of the study – – – – – – 36
3.3 Sample and Sampling Technique – – – – – 37
3.4 Instrumentation – – – – – – – 37
3.5 Validation of Instrument – – – – – – 39
3.6 Methods of Data Collection – – – – – – 39
3.7 Method of Data Analysis – – – – – – 40
CHAPTER FOUR: DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
4.1 Data Presentation and Analysis – – – – – 42
4.2 Testing of Hypotheses – – – – – – – 55
4.3 Discussion of Findings – – – – – – 63
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Summary – – – – – – – – 65
5.2 Conclusion – – – – – – – – 66
5.3 Recommendations – – – – – – – 67
References
Appendix
Questionnaire

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
It is no doubt that manpower occupies an indispensable position in any establishment, be it public or private. No organization that has ever succeeded without human effort. Human effort therefore is greatly desirable and crucial in achieving the goals and objectives of the organization. Giving credence to the importance of manpower in organization, Nwankwo (2000) posited that manpower is the highest asset of any organization because no matter the amount of capital invested in an organization, its success or failure depends on the quality of people who plan and execute its programme. That means that without manpower, no organization can function effectively.
The public service as the name implies is a public organization. It refers to all organizations that exist as part of government machinery for implementing policy decisions, and delivering services that are of value to citizens (Umofia, 2008). The civil service is the core organ of the public service corps. It recruits, trains and retains workers to help the government in formulating and implementing its plans and programmes (Umofia, 2008). It is an institution that mobilizes manpower in the service affairs of state (Bekke, Perry and Toonen cited in Kotchegura, 2008). Due to the vital roles of the civil service, the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria authorizes each state of the federation to establish its civil service and the civil service commission. While Section 169 says very emphatically and succinctly that, “there shall be a civil service of the federation”, Section 206 states that “there shall be for each state of the federation a civil service”. Likewise, Sections 153 and 197 provides for the establishment of Federal and State Civil Service Commission. The Akwa Ibom State Civil Service and the Civil Service Commission were set up in 1987 based on these constitutional provisions.
The State Civil Service Commission is established by the government as an autonomous body to control the recruitment, deployment, training, transfer, promotion and discipline of civil servants in the state (Ofoegbu, 1999). As could be seen, the commission has been given the power to recruit and train workers to help in carrying out government activities. However, it is not just having a large crop of individuals in the civil service that matters, but how competent and knowledgeable they are is the paramount. It is true that an organization will find it difficult to deliver if the employees do not receive regular job training. Kulkami (2013) said that the process of training and development is a continuous one. It is an avenue to acquire more and new knowledge and develop further the skills and techniques to function effectively. Many studies have shown that organizations that have regular training programme give employees the feeling of being wanted and something to look up to. But the problem of public service in Nigeria, like the case of Akwa Ibom State Civil Service Commission is the recurrent phenomenon of low productivity of its workers. A clear indication seems to be that the commission is paying lip-service to the aspect of manpower development. This is the same commission that is expecting workers to be more productive. There is no way this can be achieved without increasing employee’s competences, capabilities, skills etc through adequate development programmes. Any organization that is determined to achieve its set objectives must be serious about the training and development of its workforce.
Development is the activities undertaken to expose an employee to perform additional duties and assume positions of importance in the organizational hierarchy. In the words of McNamara (2008), it is a broad ongoing multi-faceted set of activities (training activities among them) aimed at bringing someone or an organization up to another threshold of performance, often to perform some job or a new role in the future. As noted here, regular development of the workers is of immense benefit to both the organization and the workers. It will enable the workers to acquire the skills, knowledge and the know-how that will enable the employees perform given tasks at present and in the future. It will also help the firm to successfully accomplish its goals and objectives thereby resulting in higher productivity. Adding impetus to the need of manpower development, Onah (2008) said that staff development implies growth and acquisition of wide experience for future strategic advantage of the organization. It becomes imperative that if Akwa Ibom State Civil Service Commission is anxious for achieving higher productivity in the service, it must consider the necessity of embarking on continuous development programmes for the employees to help them acquire the needed skills to face the challenges ahead and to increase their commitment and productivity. This study will therefore try to examine manpower development as the bedrock for workers productivity in Akwa Ibom State Civil Service Commission.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Every established organization that has the vision to achieve its set objectives hoped that its workers should be more committed and highly productive. As earlier stated, the commission is a government bureaucratic organization established to carryout government activities and it is the hope of the commission that the workers must be more committed and also more productive. But this has not been the case. There is continued complaint of low productivity in the service and the demonstrated lack of commitment and inefficiency of the workers. This situation becomes worrisome and anchored on so many factors which are responsible for the ineffectiveness and low productivity of manpower in the civil service. However, these factors are not farfetched. One of the key factors that determines employees’ productivity is the employees’ skills and knowledge of the job received from training and development programmes. And it seems manpower development has not been taken serious by the commission and paying lip-service to staff development add no value to the service because they have not gotten the required skills and knowledge to perform the job. As strongly noted by Aamodt (2007), but what is prevalent in Nigeria today is that not many organizations consider the necessity of a well-defined and sustained manpower development for staff in order to upgrade their productivity. In the other way round, whenever such programmes are carried out, they do it with lack of seriousness and once in a blue moon as well as being lopsided in terms of content and staff participation. It is then necessary for training of workers in organizations to be enhanced in order to increase commitment and productivity (Oribabor, 2009). Hence, since the commission depends on its employees for its survival and accomplishment of its goal, the need for the commission to train and develop its workers become obvious.
Aside from the issue of the commission paying lip-service to manpower development, it is possible that funds are not released by government for this purpose. Yet, there is a budget allocation for it. On the other hand, the funds may be released to the commission but due to the issue of corruption among the political officer holders and the management staff of the commission, the money may be diverted to something else. This is why many of the times, funds meant for staff development have been embezzled by individuals and groups without any serious actions to that effect. Moreso, lack of willingness for manpower development by the leadership of the commission, poor working conditions, nepotism, ethnicity among others contribute to low productivity of workers in the state civil service commission.
It is against this backdrop that this research is being carried out to know why manpower development could be considered as an important factor towards increasing workers productivity in the public service, especially in Akwa Ibom State Civil Service Commission.
1.3 Research Questions
This research shall be guided by the following vital questions.
Does manpower development programmes enhances workers’ productivity in Akwa Ibom State Civil Service Commission?
How has the issue of funding of manpower development programmes in Akwa Ibom State Civil Service Commission affected staff productivity?
How has the leadership attitude towards manpower development affected productivity of workers in Akwa Ibom State Civil Service Commission?
1.4 Objectives of the Study
The main objective of this study is to assess the manpower development and productivity in Akwa Ibom State Civil Service Commission.
Other specific objectives of the study are:
To examine how manpower development programmes enhances workers productivity in Akwa Ibom State Civil Service Commission.
To find out how roles of funding of manpower development programmes in Akwa Ibom State Civil Service Commission affected staff productivity.
To find out how leadership attitude towards manpower development affects staff productivity in Akwa Ibom State Civil Service Commission.