CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1    Background to the Study

The major function of every manager is helping his or her subordinates improve their skills, knowledge and attitude through training. The manager, in order to achieve the objective of running organization, has to acquire the necessary skills and knowledge, which to train other workers. A major problem of all developing countries like Nigeria is their inability to manage their resources effectively. Government effects in management education dates back to 1964 when the National Manpower Board was set up by the federal government. The board drew the attention of government to the fact that the low level of management at all levels was one of the major constraints on raising workers productivity in Nigeria.

The point raised by the National Manpower Board in 1964 triggered off a lot of actions on the other tiers of government. Various manpower training and development institutes were established to cater for management education and training. In 1969, the Administrative Staff College of Nigeria was established as a model institution for the training of civil servants. It has in its programme various management courses including seminars on Management by Objective (MBO) and human resources management. Others include advanced management service and advanced general management. All

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these are geared towards improving the training of civil servants of the local government areas.

With the effort of government to ameliorate the shortage of manpower training in the country, especially in local government, one would be led to believe that the local government areas need to change in the field of service. Something still has to be done in the orientation, training and development programme of personnel that conduct these organizations.

Again, most training and development programmes look unorganized and unsystematic, coupled with the fact that there is no articulated plan on how the local government staff should be trained and developed. The local governments need guidance on how to go about developing their manpower, to ensure survival and efficiency. A document should be prepared on training and development programme of local government workers as a reference book; as well as a standard for measuring training and development programme.

The phenomenon has imposed on organizations the need to complement the motivational techniques, with concerned efforts to improve the skills and knowledge of employees through planned and systematic training programmes, in response to such changes in technology, in order to achieve the objectives of increased productivity through efficient and effective performance.

This research is on the impact of staff training on the performance of local government area staff in Anambra state. Personnel management deals with the problems of how to supply a specific organization with its human resources needs. Hence, Fillipo

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(1976), defined it as the planning, organizing, directing and controlling or procurement, development, compensation, integration, maintenance and separation of human resources to the end that individuals, organization and societal objectives are attained.

It is not known for now how far the local government area authorities take staff training and development serious, and how far they have been going about it since the inception of the local government system as the third tier of government. Nor, do we know whether anybody has fully benefited from such training. Indeed, the weaknesses in staff performance in the local government area, can be traced to lack of such incentive as training and development.

It is against this background that the researcher wishes to investigate the kind of training and development policy which would help to improve local government job performance, as well as suggest a better training for the entire Anambra state.

1.2        Statement of the Problem

For any business organization to survive, it must be responsive to change in its environment. The training and development of staff for improved skills, and knowledge is an aspect of responses to change in the technology environment. The envisaged increase in productivity through efficient and effective employees performance justify the huge resources organization connect to the training of their employees.

Unfortunately, it has been said that some organizations, in spite of the resources invested in the training of staff, experience unsatisfactory level of employee performance. There is an ever increasing number of tasks in our government that require specialized

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knowledge, skills and aptitudes. It becomes inevitable that we should train and develop our personnel to cope with the increasing and changing job requirements posed by fast technological and social changes. This could be achieved through a well planned and systematic manpower training program.

The real problem of the local government area includes lack of well articulated policy guidelines, and no parameter for identification of employees training needs, no definite job analysis and job description, and indiscriminate training of staff that have no relevance to their tasks. As a result, workers are working for working sake, instead of working to ‘build a cathedral’. This has somehow contributed to the abysmal performance of the local government.

1.3    Objectives of the Study

The main purpose of the study was to determine the impact of staff training on the performance of the local government staff in Anambra State. Specifically, the study was meant to do the following:-

1.            To find out why there are lack of well-articulated policy guidelines regarding training of workers.

2.            To find out why there are no parameters for identification of employees training needs.

3.            To x-ray the existing job analysis and job description in the local government area.

4.            To find out the reason for non indiscriminate training of staff that have no relevance to their tasks.

5.            To know whether gender is influencing the choice of employees for training.

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