Effect of Retrenchment on the Morale and Productivity of Workers in Civil Service

Effect of Retrenchment on the Morale and Productivity of Workers in Civil Service

Chapter One

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

Retrenchment of workers is the major cog in the wheel of economic progress through out the nation because it causes a rapid growth in the rate of unemployment. It reached a height during the Military era and now the politicians in their course for self-aggrandizement, selfish interest and to enmasse wealth.

The objectives of this study are:

1. Assess the effects of retrenchment on morals of workers
2. Identifies alternative to retrenchment.
3. To find out the reasons for retrenchment of workers
4. To ascertain ways retrenchment can be implemented
5. Identifies the advantages and disadvantages of retrenchment

CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF RELEVANT LITERATURE

CIVIL SERVICE STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONS

The Civil Service handbook (1978:15) defines “Civil Service” as a body or an organ of government, which enjoys the continuity of existence. Its members a not limited to a short term of office, they all work on pensionable appointment and comprises of all servants of the state other than holders of political and judicial office holders, who are employed in a civil service capacity. Their remuneration is paid wholly and entirely out of money voted by parliament. The civil service consists of the Federal Civil Service, the thirty-six Automatons State Civil Service, and the Federal and State Government Agencies including Parastatal, Corporations, and Commissions, which help in the proper provision of goods and services to the people (Imaga 2003:115). The Federal and State Civil Service were organized around government departments, or ministries, and extra-ministerial departments headed by Ministers (Federal) and Commissioners (States), who were appointed by the President and Governors, respectively.

The civil service is the major facilitators for implementation of the will of the state as expressed through public policy. A civil servant is a person who is employed in the government civil service and he works in any ministry or department of the government (Imaga, 2003:115). The civil service is a professional body of officials, permanent, paid and skilled (finer. 1949:112). It is a system that offers equal opportunity to the citizens to enter the government service, equal pay to all employees doing work requiring the same degree of intelligence and capacity, equal opportunity for advancement, equal favourable conditions, and equal participation in retirement allowances and makes equal demands upon the employees (Willoughby, 1997:63). The major requirement of the civil service are that it should be impartially selected, administratively competent (Gladden, 1999:12). The Civil Service is indispensable to the functioning of the modern state, which is why the condition of the society is largely determined by the performance of the Public Service (Philips, 1990:6). He is to work effectively and efficiently with the regard to the government. Civil Servants should not be a political office holder and his remuneration should be solely paid out of Government funds (Basu, 2000:41). The characteristics and functions of the civil service by (Imaga, 2003:115), includes;

CHARACATERISTICS OF CIVIL SERVANTS

1. Permanence: The civil service is a permanent appointment rather than temporal. It is subject to promotion, gratuity, and pension after retirement.
2. Professionalism: The civil servants unlike the politicians andpolitical holders are effective and efficient in terms of
3. Impartiality: A civil servant is non-political officer and he is expectedto be impartial in the performance of his
4. Anonymity:The civil servant cannot be invited to parliament during question time to answer questions concerning their ministries and departments. The principle of anonymity in the civil service has been violated during the military regimes in Nigeria.

REASONS FOR THE RETRENCHMENT OF WORKERS

Retrenchment is a canker worn that have eaten deep into the fabric of the country’s economic stability and it stand to increase the rate of unemployment and standard of living of those affected with their dependants. As mentioned in the first chapter there are many reasons for any organization to embark on retrenchment exercise on its workers, but this few will be dicussed;

1. Retiring age and service year
2. Misconduct
3. Redundancy
4. inefficiency
5. poor health condition

RETIRING AGE AND SERVICE YEAR

 any workers face retrenchment exercise because they reached their retiring age or year of service in their various organization. According to the Federal government circular (1998:2) at all events, an officer on what ever grade shall be deemed to have retired from the service with effect from the date he or she attained the age of 60years or has putting in 35years in the service. In this case, there is every justification for the retirement of such worker, but in the cause of retrenchment many near the age of retirement but not yet due are mostly affected.

₦3,000.00 – DOWNLOAD CHAPTERS 1-5 PROCEED TO DOWNLOAD Added to cart

 

CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY

RESEARCH METHOD AND DESIGN

Research is a systematic and objective recording and analysis of controlled observation that may lead to the development of generalization, principles and theories, resulting in prediction and possible ultimate control of events (IKeagwu,1998:21). The researcher used a retrospective survey design in the study. It is comprehensively designed to evaluate critically “The effects of retrenchment on morale of workers”, which has an adverse effect on national economy, the citizens’ welfare and increase the rate of unemployment in the state nation.

SOURCES OF DATA COLLECTION

The nature of this research word made it imperative, that it is carried out with all sense of caution and carefulness, to this end, the researcher made use of primary and secondary data in writing work.. some methods of collections of data are used to find out more important required. It was designed in such a way that the researcher carried oral interviews with some senior personnel officers in some selected ministries/department in Enugu state. The results of those interviews were utilized in the project and it helped the researchers to give a vivid picture of the effects of retrenchment on morale of workers in Enugu State Civil service.

In the course of carrying out this study, the data used were colleted from two major sources. These sources are

1. Primary Sources
2. Secondary Sources
3. The Primary Sources is where the researcher in a direct account of event, which involves observations, direct participation and administered questionnaires to various selectedMinistries/Departments
4. Secondary Sources of data collection is where there is no actual participation in events. It involves the polls of material used in the write up, both published and un-published that has some degree of relevance to the subject under study. The researcher obtained information from textbooks, newspapers, professional journals, lecture notes, gazettes, General order, civil service circulars, dictionaries, and magazines available in national and school libraries, and other reference files in the ministries’libraries/archives.

CHAPTER FOUR

DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND TEST OF HYPOTHESIS

 DATA PRESENTATION

The presentation will be based on response derived or obtained from the questionnaires. A total number of 140 copies of questionnaires were distributed, 14 to each ministries/extra-ministerial departments in the ratio of 4:3:2:1 to categories of Grade Level 01  -06,  07  -10,  12  –   14, and 15 and above respectively. A total   down of the acceptable sample response is summarized in table. 3 below.

CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

SUMMARY OFFINDINGS

This chapter deals with the summary of findings, recommendations, and conclusion. The conclusion will be drawn based on the results of the analysis of survey carried out in chapter four, while the recommendations are made based on the findings. Questionnaires, observations and oral discussion/interview were used in the collection of data for this research work, based on the analysis made, the researcher gathered that this research wok was to establish public officers’ perceptions on retrenchment, the effects of the exercise on the morale of workers, factors on the individual and organizational performance and also the quality of work like in the Enugu State Civil Service. The result indicated that retrenchment had a higher negative effect and depends on the factors in question under consideration. The researcher found out that retrenchment was perceived differently by respondents, many view it in a negative perception and as an organizational change as well try to resist it due to the uncertainty it come with.

The fact that negative perceptions stem from the way retrenchment was designed and implemented is questionable as the worst phase of retrenchment of worker in 1999 by the then Enugu State Government, which based on biased governance and  subjective criteria. Some of the senior public officers saw retrenchment a chance to victimize some employees. Other findings show that retrenchment was carried out by the government on the basis of inefficiency and misconduct on the part of workers and redundancy which in most cases were caused by government due to successions in governance.

The research also found out that most retrenchment exercises carried out are based on the incompetence of workers and their disloyalty to authorities and also some workers who have reached the compulsory retirement age of sixty (60) years and thirty-five (35) years of service, were among those affected in the retrenchment exercise. Another finding was that even when the exercise was carried out to increase productivity and cost reduction, it could not achieve its objectives rather productivity is found to be low. This was because the remaining workforce felt threatened and insecure, the Labour Union leaders intervened to no avail. The workers also alienated from their jobs because of the fear of being retrenched at any time, initiative and creativity were lost in the service because of the workers morale and their individual perception.

The research work also reveals that there is no policy for determining those to be retrenched and the procedures for the exercise, if need be, these procedures were unnecessary and not followed. Hence the productive workers were laid off with the inefficient and redundant workers, also ethnicity (the locality/zone from which one comes) takes a part. It also found that even when some organizations claim that they  are retrenching workers in order to save cost and to enable them meet up with the payment of salaries, allowances and other contingencies, the workers are not paid as at when due, and promotion of workers not regular. There was evidence that the consequences of retrenchment are hardship and poor living standard, “it is an ill wind that blows no one any good”. The insomnia of the news of the intention of government to retrench workers could be better being experienced than imagine. Respondents on this issue maintained amongst other things that retrenchment has:

1. Ridiculed permanence ofservice
2. Dampened the morale of employed workforce and reduced workstrength
3. Retarded growth ofservice
4. Led to the proliferation of all sorts of heinouscrimes
5. Made nonsense of the security of job and the tenure ofservice
6. Workers have negative perception on their work and

Other social and economic consequences in the retrenchment exercise carried out by the government, discovered in the research are:

1. Reduction in economic activities and economic sabotage
2. Fall in the standard of living
3. Increase in social vices as bribery, robbery, kidnapping, fraud, etc
4. Insecurity of service and consequent brain drain
5. Loss of faith and trust in government as an employer of

CONCLUSION

It was concluded from the findings that the majority of the respondents identified some factors that hindered their performance after retrenchment. These factors include: inadequate funding, low motivation and morale, work overload, job insecurity and poor training, etc. These factors seem to be real problems even after retrenchment exercise by government and suggested ways included paying a living wage, improving welfare, training of workers, motivation and morale boosting of workers, improved conditions of living and service, improving chances of promotion and capacity building, reduction of job insecurity, computerization and timely reshuffle. Some of these suggestions have already been identified by government and appear in the strategies government is using to improve the performance of civil servants but lack implementation.

Retrenchment had negative effects on many aspects of organizational performance and reduces the sensitivity of service to the public. This does not relate well with the overall goal of the Civil Service Reform Program, which is the provision quality service to the public and job security. Retrenchment has also been associated with marred team, participation in decision-making, quality leadership and supervision, lack of creative management and information management. Improved information management is among the vision of the Civil Service Reform but retrenchment had reduced the departmental performance.

On the other hand, majority of the respondents reported that retrenchment had major effect on the morale of workers, job design, training opportunities, feedback of performance, chance of promotion and selection procedure. This implies, in part, that retrenchment, as a strategy has not assisted in achieving some of the objective of the civil service and ridicule permanence of service. Regarding occupational perception  and attitudes, the majority of respondents reported on change in motivation and morale of workers, job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Report shows that these attitudes are poor, which implies that, regarding this attitudes the situation in the civil service is still bad, inefficiency and ineffectiveness. It is hoped that if the recommendations of this study are implemented, positive changes in these attitude will result.

Furthermore, a majority reported dissatisfaction with current salary package and their inability to meet most of their financial needs. Government had already tackling these problems through phased increment of salaries depending on the recovery of the economy and the effect of inflation should be looked into and considered when determining salaries. The lack of living wage was always cited as a major issue in industrial strike. Another aspect of quality of work life assessed was job insecurity. A high percentage respondents reported job insecurity and was due to the fact that retrenchment was badly implemented. The rationale and criteria for retrenchment were not clear to workers and procedure not followed. Government decisions were largely subjective. This is true with respect to the number of retrenched civil servants without entitlement.

The rationale and criteria for retrenchment should be made clear right at the beginning. Senior officers should take caution not to use retrenchment as an  opportunity to punish employees they think are uncooperative and disobedient. Rather they should be objective in applying the criteria for retrenchment. An attractive severance package will also serve as an attractor for those employees who want to separate with the organization voluntarily or involuntarily. The process  of  retrenchment should be made as transparent as possible. The above measures coupled with increased skills in performance evaluation should reduce the problem of job insecurity. Existence of these problems further shows that some of the strategies for retrenchment did not work as planned by the government. But some respondents reported that after retrenchment, participation in decision-making had increased, all stakeholders should encourage this welcome development because it cause the parties to be committed to decision taken.

RECOMMENDATION

Generally, it is in knowledge that the Civil Service, which is government bureaucracy, touches all aspects of human endeavor. In fact, it is the highest employer of labour in the country and the biggest provider of social services both at subsidized and reduced prices. Based on the study’s findings and conclusions, the researcher’s recommendations are:

1. Since employees have negative perceptions about retrenchment of workers and is likely to have a serious impact on the early stage of implementation, senior officers in charge of the exercise should be sensitive to employees perception and work on them through seminars, and public relations, take to study the perceptions with the view of changing
2. Normally, tactics in handling organizational change are important and Government should involve the stakeholders (Union Leaders) early in the process of change and giving information, participation in decision-making, which will ensure commitments to the process of change. The rationale and criteria of retrenchment should be explained early in the process through improved public relations. This is how organizational change should be managed.

3. Government should see to the settlement of retrenched workers with their entitlements immediately to enable them look for other means of livelihood, retrenchment if not fairly done develops job insecurity and in some  cases  might lead to political, social or industrial unrest which may cause more damage and thus increasing cost of
4. Retrenchment had seriously affected the performance of the service and hampered service delivery, in this cause government should put in place a code of conduct for ethics and integrity and also anti-corruption agencies to reduce corruption in the service, which includes low employees performance, non punctuality, employees irresponsibility, disloyalty, indiscipline, lack of accountability
5. A counseling section should be created as a structure to deal with the psychological and emotional issues that arise in the process of retrenchment including job insecurity. This structure can service the retrenches as well as providing general information about retrenchment. In addition, the public relation, function, as suggested above improved to explain the meaning of the retrenched
6. As an alternative instead of retrenching workers in large numbers, their increment and other allowance should be withheld to reduce cost and increase the subvention of the government, as it is the major reasons for the retrenchment
7. A change in government should not affect the tenure of the incumber staff in the service because it affects the worker morale and perception towards their work and government

• On the other hand, an employees who is found to be inefficient due to ill health should be sent to an established medical board to determine how fit the employee can remain in the service, if found to be unfit, the usual notice and procedure should be applied beforelay-off
• Government should make new policies that will in increase productivity in the service, functional and effective not to the detriment of the employees and lead to agitation

BIBILOGRAPHY

 BOOKS

• Adebayo. A (2003:32), Principal and practice of public Administration in Nigeria; Spectrum Book, Ibadan, Nigeria.
• Basu R (2000:41), public Administration 3^rd Reserved and Enlarged Edition. New Delhi; sterling Publishers
• Burke J. (2002:211), Sources of Managerial and Professional Stress in Large Organization, “Cause, coping and consequences of stress at work” John Wiley & sons Chichester, England.
• Casccio, W. P. (2002:52), managing Human Resources: Productivity, Quality of Work Life, Profits, New York, McGraw Hill. Chukwuemeka E. and Abeh N.(2004:61), Public Administration and
• Development. The Nigeria Experience, Maryland Printing Press, Enugu.
• Finer H (1999:112), Theory and practice of Modern Government, New York; Henry and Co
• Hansen. H & Twaddle. M (2002:78), Between Development and Decay, Fountain Sterling Publishers Lagos.
• Ikeagwu E.K (1998:21): Ground Work of Research Methods and Procedures by Institution for Development Studies UNEC.

₦3,000.00 – DOWNLOAD CHAPTERS 1-5 PROCEED TO DOWNLOAD Added to cart