CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1                        Background to the Study

Fatiregun (1992) sees recruitment as that process of assessing a job, announcing the vacancy, arousing interest and stimulating people to apply. Recruiting, according to Mathis and Jackson (1997), is the process of generating a pool of qualified applicants for organisational jobs.

 Balogun (1980) defined recruitment or employment as the process by which personnel or manpower resources are made available through appointment as in the case of board members, or directors of government enterprise especially in public organisation. 

 Nwankwo (1988) perceived recruitment to involve getting all prospective applicants for job position in an organisation. While Abah (1997) defined recruitment as the act of seeking, evaluating, obtaining commitment from, placing and orienting new employees to fill positions required for the successful conduct of an organisation. For him, the recruitment process involves seeking and attracting a pool of people from which candidates who are to fill job vacancies can be selected. According to Cole (2002), the principal purpose of recruitment is to attract sufficient and suitable employees to apply for vacancies in the organization.

 Moreso, Zweig (1991) defines recruitment and selection as the set of activities an organization uses to select candidates who possess the abilities and attitude necessary for the enterprise especially with the aim of achieving its objectives. In the same vein Kuntz and O. Donnel (1980) saw recruitment as attracting qualified candidates to fill any vacancies. According to them, it is a process of choosing from among the

candidates. It goes further to list three aspects of recruitment that must be borne in mind while recruiting officers, namely the recruitment requirement, organizational policies, procedures and organisational image. Recruitment is more than merely filling current vacancies. It aims at obtaining requisite personnel and building a strong organisation with effective team work. Therefore, it could be asserted that the public service in Nigeria evolved in an atmosphere of suspicion and hostility not only between the colonized and the colonizing authorities but also among the former, some of whom had been co-opted into the colonial system and therefore, alienated from their kith and kin in the society. The situation led to the racial discrimination within the civil service itself, which could not have failed to influence the general perception of the service by the Nigeria people. For example, the Nothernalization policy was introduced to discriminate against the non-northern Nigerians but rather considered the foreign expertises into the northern civil service. In recent years there has been a marked decline in efficiency, selection and recruitment within the civil service. It has lost grip of its traditional roles and has not been able to work out satisfactory programme of action for effective implementation.

Towards the end of the 1980’s, recruitment and selection were seen as two key issues facing organisation as they prepared for the 1990’s. However, there are difficulties and ambiguities associated with the people’s right and demand to be gainfully employed. Secondly, careful and well-planned recruitment and selection of employees is absolutely necessary, in order to ensure that only the right calibre of staff is employed in an organization. The process of recruitment and selection begins with the manpower plan, which indicates areas in the organization where there are likely to be shortages of people, and the number of people to be recruited to meet anticipated employment needs. This is why Jacins (1971) puts it that if recruitment policies and practices are to be most effective exercise must sought to answer the following questions:

i.                  What is the nature of policies guiding recruitment?

ii.                What procedures should be used to screen candidates for employment?

iii.             What are the requirements of the job to be filled?

iv.              What is the use of such tools, interviewing and testing in the selection procedures?

v.                What is the place of promotion in the procurement of

function?

 Recruitment into the civil service was no longer what it used to be. There were discrimination and favouritism in the recruitment of employees into the service. Adebayo (1985) argues that the level of loyalty and commitment of the people to the goals of the state or public service depends sometimes on the type of political culture they have. The political culture of the people of Delta State Asaba in particular still stresses particularism in the form of intense and over-riding identification with family or parochial groupings rather than more generalisable identification such as with the nation as a whole.

 There have always been efforts by our leaders and other public spirited individual to inculcate in the citizens, the culture  of  loyalty and commitment to the nation, and in particular to the state, but these efforts have not so much changed the ugly situation. A civil service where appointments are based on non-merit criteria cannot, for instance be said to be efficient. Robert (1977) observed that the culture in which there is high level of ethnicity will result to low productivity. It follows that what determines the person to be favoured is the degree of relationship between him, and the person favouring him including others competing with him. A person will favour a person from his clan rather than any person from another clan, an employer from Asaba will prefer to favour an applicant from Asaba.

 This tendency affects the quality of the people recruited and has an adverse impact on the morale of the people who are more qualified or feel, they are better than the people favoured. What impact will this have on efficiency and productivity?

 What will be the fate of the service where authority is violated because the person violating has the confidence and support of a higher authority?

 Following from the above facts, recruitment in Nigeria public service is no more based on merit, despite all the pretences. For instance, in recruitment process there is often glaring evidence that official give favours to those related to them. Where the officials are not directly in charge of appointment, they meet their colleagues and friends and who under normal circumstances help in return for anticipated favour or favour previously received. Hence the concept of man knows man during these days of the political dispensations the tendency is always to recruit people with little or no experience and with poor academic background, resulting from the people being affiliated to the party in power. Mistakes and blunders made by such an employee are always covered by those who helped them to attain such post. Most people employed are recruited without being considered along with others who are also qualified. Despite the organisational devices standing against this abuse of office during recruitment, favour to one’s immediate relation who is deep rooted in the Nigerian culture still linger on. Even when officials decide to live above board, pressure mounting from the people ranging from their families to the clan, will make them violate the ethics of the job. With regards to the above method of recruitment, discipline is poor among such people when incompetent people are recruited, this will surely affect efficiency and productivity. People who are more qualified and are not recruited will feel cheated. Their morale will be low, because of the discriminatory attitude exhibited. The indiscipline of those favoured makes them to be unproductive as their bosses will find it difficult to give them simple instructions or to correct them when they go wrong. They may not obey instruction and no disciplinary action will be enforced as this might lead to the bosses’ dismissal. In other words, non-merit criterion could affect efficiency and productivity of the Nigerian public service. 

1.2                        Statement of the Problem

The quality of an organization’s personnel is one of the factors that determine how the organization is going to be successful in terms of realizing its objectives of increased productivity, efficiency and effectiveness. One of the most effective ways of ensuring high standard of performance in any organization is through recruitment and selection of qualified and well motivated candidates.

 According to Warton (1994) a well articulated recruitment and selection of qualified staff will lead to increase in productivity, heightened morale, reduce supervision, efficiency, effectiveness, increased organizational stability and flexibility. He argues that continued training can also help employees to develop the ability to adapt themselves to new work methods, learn how to use various kinds of equipment and adjust to major changes in job content and work

relationship. Inspite of the importance of recruitment and selection to the achievement of organization’s set down goals, it has been observed that candidates are not only recruited on merit bases but also on non-merit criteria in Access Bank plc. The nature of recruitment and selection of civil servants in the civil service especially in developing countries like Nigeria has not been well articulated to ensure recruitment and selection policy.

 This is why scholars like Ezeani (2004) and Onah (2003)

contended that the general inefficiency, ineffectiveness and declining productivity in the Nigerian public service are likely to be caused by inadequate recruitment and selection procedures in employment of workers and lack of clear human resource objectives. It is therefore against this backdrop that this study intends to investigate into the topic: the effects of recruitment and selection procedures on the efficiency of the public services in Nigeria using Access Bank plc. It is therefore in view of the foregoing that this study rises the following questions:  

1.     What is the nature of the recruitment and selection polices in Access Bank plc?

2.     How can we explain the recruitment and selection of candidates on non-merit principles in the local government?

3.     Is there any relationship between the nature of the recruitment and selection policies of Access Bank plc and inefficiency of workers?

4.     What actually is the major cause of inefficiency, ineffectiveness and declining productivity in Access Bank plc

5.     How far has the training facilities in the council affected the quality of service by employees?

1.3                       Objectives of the Study

 The purpose of this study is to provide deep-rooted information and data on the recruitment and selection of local government employee in the Access Bank plc.

                             Specifically, the study attempts to;

i.                  Identify the recruitment and selection policies of the Access Bank plc.

ii.                To find out the recruitment and selection procedures available in the council.

iii.             To determine whether the recruitment and selection policies of Access Bank plc are well implemented or not.

iv.              Find out the problems associated with the recruitment and selection of the council employees.

v.                Suggest strategies for improving the recruitment and selection of the personnel’s in Access Bank plc.

1.4                       Significance of the Study

 The significance of the study presents the value or contribution which the research will make to the existing knowledge. Obasi (1999:73), asserts that research is most important tool for advancing knowledge and enables man to relate more effectively to his environment. The significance of this study is categorized into theoretical and empirical significance.

1.5 Scope and Limitations of the Study

This study focuses on the evaluation of the effects of recruitment and selection procedures on the efficiency of the public services in Nigeria: a case study of Access Bank plc. This study covers in detail, the recruitment and selection procedures in Access Bank plc within period (2010-2018). This is to enable us unveil critical issues on the recruitment and selection procedures in the Nigerian public service using Access Bank plc.

Nevertheless, a study of this magnitude cannot be completed successfully without the researcher encountering some constraints or limitations. Therefore, this work will not pretend to be containing all holistic information on the recruitment and selection procedures on the efficiency of the public service in Nigeria, rather it will endeavour to highlight the dominant issues and their effects in the public service especially in Access Bank plc.

Also most of the relevant information collected so far, for this study is not narrowed down to the case study (Nigerian public service especially the Access Bank plc). On the other hand, some information are said to be classified information and out of bound to non staff. Considering this, the researcher seek other means to supplement and consolidate the information through the use of internet materials, text books, journals, newspapers, magazines and past research projects by students and research institutes. Further information were collected from the public servants in Access Bank plc using questionnaire and interview. 

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