CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Initially in developing countries, the achievement of maximum output was given greatest emphasis with belief that; a rapid increase in output level can lead to achievement of development policy objectives. But, due to the experiences of most countries in Africa and Nigeria not an exception, the shortages of skilled and knowledgeable manpower constitute a binding constraint in executing development plans. This is leading to the failure in achieving higher productivity objectives in Nigerian economy most especially in the public sector organizations.
However, the researcher further observes that, development policies in any economy may likely not be successful without ensuring sufficient and adequately trained manpower is put in place. Not only that, but also to ensure that the trained manpower is fully employment appropriately. This may lead to higher productivity in an economy. The public sector is one of the largest sectors of Nigerian economy that provide jobs to citizens. In Nigeria, government is generating a lot of revenue from the public annually with the aim of providing essential services to the general public. Furthermore, in relation to the case study (Board of Internal Revenue), it is basic for the government to have resources required in running activities for enhancement of the quality of lives of its citizens. Thus, taxes have to be levied on all taxable people, individuals and corporate organizations.
In line with this, in order to attain aims of the public sector organizations, and also meet-up with the current technology developments, manpower training has to be embarked on. This is because; manpower training can lead to higher productivity in the organizations since it is the bedrock of every organization success.
According to Nyanwu (1997), Nigeria set up PEs (Public Enterprises) in all sectors of the national economy, because they were seen as the only way of attaining economic growth in the face of; inadequate entrepreneurial skills, shortage of investible capital, fear of foreign control of the national economy, and underdeveloped capital market. He further state that, during the oil boom era of 1970s, PEs total about 600 at federal level and 900 at state level. In the 1990s PEs accounted for 30 – 35 percent of GDP and large proportion of employment in the modern economic sector (Bureau of Public Enterprises, 1996). But it was later discovered that there are many hunches leading to poor performance of the PE sector among which is lack of manpower training.
Due to the economic problems and in particular, PE sector, it dawned on the federal government for solution to rescue the PEs. Consequently, the privatization and commercialization programme was conceived introduced by SAP (Structural Adjustment Programme). Another organization similar to SAP handling issue like this, is NEEDS (Nigerian Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy) introduced by Obasanjo Regime.
Various agencies are involved in tax policy administration in the country. At the federal level we have Federal Board of Inland Revenue (FBIR), Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS), Federal Tariff Review Board (FTRB), Federal Ministry of Finance, etc. while at the state level we have State Board of Internal Revenue (SBIR), State Internal Revenue Services (SIRS) and the Planning and Budget Department. Thus, there are at the federal, state and local government levels, Federal Inland Revenue Services, State Internal Revenue Service and Local Government Revenue Committee (LGRC) respectively. Each service has a board which is its governing body with responsibilities. Some of their objectives might include: Collect tax base on law by cheap means to actively encouraging compliance; Prosecute the tax laws very vigorously; Maximize tax collection by effective and extensive coverage of the country; and Maintain public confidence in integrating tax system through fairness and uniformity.
Therefore, in line with the above background, Kaduna State Board of Internal Revenue came into being by an Edict of 1997. The Edict derives its enabling power from section 9 of the Personal Income Tax Decree 104 of 1993 of the Military Regime. It states as follows:
“there is hereby established for the state a body called the board of internal revenue (hereinafter in this edict referred to as “the board”) whose operational arm shall be known and called internal revenue services (hereinafter in this edict referred to as “the state service”) which shall be a body corporate with perpetual succession and a common seal, and with a power to sue and be sued in its corporate name and acquire, hold and dispose of movable and immovable property”
Given the above background, the research work seeks to investigate manpower training and its impact on employee productivity in the public sector. This means that manpower and training of organization employees will be studied with emphasis on how the training administered to the employees may influence their productivity and the entire performance of the organization as a whole. The case study considered for this research work is Kaduna State Board of Internal Revenue. This is because the Board is being patronized by customers and offer services to both domestic and international investment.
However, the Board does not operate in isolation. This is because of the prevalence of numerous challenges offered by the contemporary government, business and financial world. Some of these challenges include: information technology (IT) and computer operation, project financing, government policies are among others in the PE sector like privatization and commercialization. The board is required to find ways forward for performance in line with the organization requirement for high productivity.
But the board productivity in practice may depend on the employees’ performance because it greatest worth and saddled with a lot of responsibilities, which may be impacted through manpower training and development or education to influence job performance. And the question of interest is; does manpower training have effect on employee productivity in the Board?
In addition, this research work is intended to establish some form of relationships between the effects of manpower training on employee productivity in form of 3 angles influential variables on the organization employees which include: knowledge, skills and attitude.
These influential variables are carefully selected for consideration because manpower training is aimed at changing the behavior of the organizations’ employees towards better job performance, improved productivity and the overall success of the organization objectives.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
In every organization, emphasis should be placed on manpower training and retraining in order to improve level of productivity, which will lead to achievement of goals or target. Any organization that neglects employees training and retraining may be said to encouraging failure. This is because; lack of training will lead to dropping of employees’ moral, competent as well as productivity. Not only that but also employee skills and innovation may decline and this will cause the entire organization to suffer a devastating blow in terms of manpower strength, which may lead to un-attainment of target or goals. Therefore, in this research, the researcher intends to examine the important of organizational performance in relation to manpower training, retraining and development. The research work will also come up with recommendations, which may provide solutions to public sector organizations personnel department problems. This could be in terms of relevance and need for manpower training particularly in to the Kaduna State Board of Internal Revenue .
1.3 Objective of the Study
The following are the objectives of the study:
- To examine the processes, methods and attainment of manpower training of employees in the public sector.
- To examine the process, methods and attainment of employee productivity in the Public sector.
- To discover the effect of knowledge on employee productivity in the public sector.
- To discover the effect of skill on employee productivity in the public sector.
- To discover the effect of attitude on employee productivity.
- To establish relationship between the effect of knowledge and skill on employee productivity in the Public Enterprises.
- To establish relationship between the effect of knowledge and attitude on employee productivity.
- To establish relationship between the effect of skill and attitude on employee productivity.
1.4 Significance of the Study
The significance of the study includes the following:
- The Board used as a case study and other interested parties might make and improve rules and regulations responsible for;
- Encouraging manpower training of the Board employees to increase performance and employee productivity.
- Holding the Board employees accountable for their inactions and performance of tasks.
- Ensuring strict compliance with spelt out positive measures against deviations from the organization precepts and standards of job performance.
- Clear delegation of responsibilities to subordinate employees in the Board.
- Encouraging team work, collective participation and adequate rewarding of the organization employees based on outstanding job performance or merit.
- The Board and other interested parties may find reasons to appreciate the practical relevance manpower training in the public sector to facilitate employee productivity and realization of objectives as well as comparison of industry performance and benchmarking.
- The Board and other interested parties may encourage the selection of most suitably qualified personnel’s to perform tasks, given the personnel’s background, study and history in promoting professionalism.
- Government or managers, researchers and other interested readers of this research work may find the study interesting too. This is because the research topic is treated in the perspective of contemporary public sector and organization challenge(s), geared by the globalization of information technology.
1.5 Scope of the Study
This research work is meant to cover manpower training and its effect on employee productivity in the public sector. The study is relevant and made very comprehensive too. To achieve this, the researcher considered the board of Internal Revenue. Beside, the influential variables of the organization employees productivity to be covered are; knowledge, skill and attitude. For this study, the Kaduna State Board of Internal Revenue , Kaduna is used as a case study.
1.6 Research Questions
The following research questions are considered in the study:
- Do knowledge has any impact on employee productivity in the organization?
- Do skills have any impact on employee productivity in the organization?
- Do attitudes have any impact on employee productivity in the organization?
- Does training and development have any impact on employee productivity in the organization?
1.7 Research Hypotheses
The following null hypothesis (Ho) and alternative hypothesis (Hi) are considered in relation to the research questions for the purpose of this study:
Hypothesis One
Ho: There is impact of knowledge on employee productivity in the organization.
Hi: There is no impact of knowledge on employee productivity in the organization.
Hypothesis Two
Ho: Skills have impact on employee productivity in the organization.
Hi: Skills have no impact on employee productivity in the organization.
Hypothesis Three
Ho: There is impact of attitude on employee productivity in the organization.
Hi: There is no impact of attitude on employee productivity in the organization.
Hypothesis Four
Ho: There is impact of training and development on employee productivity in the organization.
Hi: There is no impact of training and development on employee productivity in the organization.
1.8 Delimitation of the Study
In the public sector, Board of Internal Revenue deals with a lot of financial activities which are very tasking and requiring adequate knowledge and skills. It is recording a lot of successes though with so many bottlenecks. All of these are symbols needing better performance and high productivity, which may not be without the organization employees’ participation.
Perhaps, this is because the Board of Revenue may be regarded as one of the life wire for financial activities that may be needed for projects execution of the country. However, the complexity in human living and the real increases in industry competition globally make the government to pay greater attention on the organization employees’ performance and the way forward. This explains the reason why the organization on recruitment and selection has to seek for more competent personnel’s, who may be able to build and maintain the image of the public sector and confidence in the minds of the general public. And because the competence employees may be affected by the quality of education lagging adequate knowledge, skill, financial process and insufficient training to achieve objectives, manpower training of employees become imperative for higher job performance in the public sector organization in general or the board in particular. Therefore, this research work has as its basis the important of manpower training for employee productivity in the public sector organizations which is the way forward the country.
The delimitation of this research work comprises the financial constraint which greatly affects the researcher during the period of the research. Time constraint is also another serious problem encountered, which makes the researcher to work sleeplessly because of combining it with other necessary school activities. Another serious problem faced during the research was lack of corporation of the respondents in terms of supplying needed data to facilitate the research work.
1.9 Definition of Terms
The following terms are defined based on their usage in this research work. The terms may take different meanings and interpretations but defined below within the confine of this research work. The terms include:
Variables – attributes and characteristics of something that can influence job performance.
Globalization – wide and international spread of ideas, finance business activities enabled learning by information technology and the computer.
Information Technology – computer machines and electronics systems facilitating data processing, storage, retrieval and use in a more economic, effective and efficient manner.
Effectiveness – the use of resources to achieve results on time.
Efficiency – the use of resources to achieve results without waste.
Resources – these are men, money and materials used in producing goods and services.
Performance – the ability to do what is expected to be done as required without delays or errors.
Benchmarking – copying and modernizing the activities of another enterprise especially a leading enterprise within an economy for success.
Manpower – This is the workers required for job to be done.
Click to: DOWNLOAD @ NGN5,000/USD20