Effective Communication as an Impetus for Managerial Performance (Case Study of Elizade Nigeria Limited, Lagos)
CHAPTER ONE
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The research identified the effects of training and development on employee performance of Comester Company. But specifically the research has the following objectives:
- To find out how training and development of employees contribute to the achievement of the goals of Comester company.
- To investigate how training and development needs of employees are determined.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Staff training and development is essential to the existence and survival of organization. It is common for people to see training and development as the same thing. However, though they are similar, they are not the same.
Training is any learning activity which is directed towards the acquisition of specific knowledge and skills for the purpose of an occupation or task (Cole 1993).
MEANING OF TRAINING
Deconza and Robbins (2000), explain training as a “learning experience, in that, it seeks a relatively permanent change in an individual that will improve his ability to perform on the job”. This means training must be designed in such a way that, it will involve the either the changing or enhancing of skills, knowledge, attitudes, and social behaviour. This change or enhancement of skills, knowledge, attitudes, and social behaviour could involve what the employee knows, how he works, his relations and interactions with co-workers and supervisors.
Training thus consists of planned programmes designed to improve performance at the individual, group or organizational levels, Cascia (1992).
Training therefore needs to be seen by management of every organization as a long term investment in its human resources.
Dessler (2008), sees training further as the means of giving new or current employees the skills they need to perform as their various jobs. Continuing, he sees training as the hall mark of good management and thus when managers ignore training, they are doing so the great disadvantage of the organizations they are managing. This is because having high potential employees do not still guarantee they will perform on the job.
ORGANIZATIONS NEED FOR TRAINING PERFORMANCE
Well trained and developed employees when fully utilized by the employing organization benefits it as well the employees themselves. Therefore, for an organization to grow and survive in today’s globally competitive and fast changing environment especially in the technology; for a very long time, there would be the need for organizations to come up with systems and programmes that would bring out their need efforts, attention, creativity and general innovations as individual employees and as groups or teams of network, Asare-Bediako (2008). For this reason organizations seek to adapt to new structures, new cultures and new effective methods of performance management and employee motivation to be able to cope with rapid change and competition in the business environment.
Human resource training, education and development activities therefore aim at the equipping of employees with the necessary competencies that they require fore their effective performance on their job. It therefore fairly correct and important to argue that, without the right kind of competencies, no amount of motivation either in cash or kind will be able to get employees to perform creditably or totally acceptable.
Training and development interventions therefore must aim of providing employees with the required technical, managerial and personality competencies for them to achieve and sustain a high level of performance. Adoption of this position in a company like Comester would be the way for it to be very competitive in the globally scheme of this. This does not however mean that training is the solution to all performance problems in an organization. Thus Asare-Badiako (2008) provides a performance (mathematical) model that must be considered in performance = (ability) x (motivation).
From the above mathematical model, performance is the product of ability and motivation. While ability is the “can” factor in the equation, “motivation” is the “want to” factor in the equation, “motivation is the “want to” factor. Thus if the employee has the ability (can factor) and are the same is provided the needed motivation (want to factor), then performance would be guaranteed from the combined effect to ability and motivation. It therefore follows that while the ability may exist in the employee, the absence of motivation e.g. economics of the environment, rewards and leadership (just to mention a few) must bring about non-performance. In this instance, no amount of training would solve the problem.
However, training can have an impact on both of these variables (ability x motivation); it can heighten the skills and ability of the employees and their motivation by increasing their sense of commitment and encouraging them to develop and use new skills. Training is thus a powerful tool that can have a major impact on both employees’ productivity and morale if properly used.
Therefore, the manager must make efforts to identify, define and assess the competitiveness of individual employee’s skills and make a way for these individuals to develop the skills required. However, for a supervisor to be able to assess the competitiveness of the competencies of employees and thus set objectives for the necessary improvement of these competencies through training and development, he must first set up some kind of an employee appraisal system. A manager has accountability for the performance of these employees and therefore a managers success this employees and therefore a manager’s success would be dependent on the abilities of the employees. A better or very well trained employee should increase efficiency and even productivity by reducing fatigue and wastage.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
INTRODUCTION
This chapter deals with the design and methodology employed for this research work. It essentially describes the research design, population, sampling technique, sample size determination, source of data, categories of data, method of data processing, questionnaire design and administration. Thus, according to Oni (2003), research methodology is used to describe all the methods involved in the collection of all information required for a study.
RESEARCH DESIGN
A design can be referred to as a formulated framework or a plan of action which a given piece of research work is expected to follow. A research design is therefore a plan for the research work being conducted. Thus, a research design is the basic plan which guides the data collection and analysis phase of the research work; it is the frame work which specifies the type of data to collected, its sources and its procedures.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The research questions of this study are:
- Does training and development have an effect on the performance of employees for the achievement of organizational goals in Comester Company?
- Does training and development of employee leads to the achievement of organizational goals?
STATEMENT OF HYPOTHESES
Hypotheses that guide this research work are as follows:
Hypothesis One
H0: There is no significant relationship between staff training and staff performance.
H1: There is a significant relationship between staff training and staff performance.
Hypothesis Two
H0: Staff training does not guarantee attainment of organizational goals.
H1: Staff training guarantees attainment of organizational goals.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF RESULT
INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, data collected from respondents through the administered questionnaires are presented and analyzed using the simple percentage. The Chi-Square statistical method is made use of for the test of research hypotheses.
Three hundred and twenty (320) questionnaires were distributed but the researcher was able to collect back two hundred and fifty (250) questionnaires, some of the persons who received the questionnaires did not answer it or do not return them.
From table 4.3, 10 of the respondents had only the FLSC, representing 4% and 80 respondents, representing 32% are WACE/SSCE/GCE/NABTEB qualifications, 60 respondents, representing 24% had OND/NCE qualification, where 65 respondents, representing 26% had HND/BSC qualification; while, 35 respondents, representing 14% had an MSC/MBA qualification.
CHAPTER FIVE
DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
The results of this study, generally suggest that staff training and development improved employees’ performance in the organization studied. The first hypothesis stated that there is no significant relationship between staff training and employees’ performance. The findings indicated that a significant or a very strong association exist between staff training and employees’ performance with X2 calculated > X2 tabulated indicating a statistical significant association between the two variables leading to rejecting the null hypothesis (H0: There is no significant relationship between staff training and employees’ performance) to accept the alternative hypothesis (H1).
Meanwhile, a number of descriptive articles and journals provide testimonials to the effectiveness of staff training and development, employee performance, achieved through training, refers to immediate improvements in the knowledge, skills and abilities to carry out job related work, hence achieve more employee commitment towards the organizational goals.
However, the finding was in line with that of Leonard-Barton, (1992), who found that an organization that gives worth to knowledge as a source of gaining competitive edge than competitors, should build up system that ensure constant learning, and on the effective way of doing so is training. Also, Pfeffer (1994) highlights that well-trained workforce is more capable of achieving performance targets and gaining competitive advantage in the market. Therefore, training is determined as the process of enabling employee to complete the task with greater efficiency, thus considered to be vital element of managing the human resource performance strategically (Lawler, 1993; Delaney and Huselid, 1996).
In a similar vein, other studies, Kamoche and Mueller (1998) proves that training leads to the culture of enhancing learning, to raise employee performance and ultimately higher return on investment (in training) for the firm.
CONCLUSION
The study revealed a lot of positive implications and relevance of staff training to attainment of organizational goal (i.e. maximization of profit). As depicted by the work of Harrison (2000), learning through training influence the organizational performance by greater employee performance, and is said to be a key factor in the achievement of corporate goals. Through training the employee competencies are developed and enable them to implement the job related work efficiently, and achieve firm objectives in a competitive manner. Eisenbergeret al. (1986) stated that workers feel more committed to the firm, when they feel organizational commitment towards them and thus show higher performance (supported by table 4.13 of data presentation). Ahmad and Bakar (2003), concluded that high level of employee commitment is achieved if training achieve learning outcomes and improves the performance, both on individual and organizational level. These findings are also consistent with the results of Kim (2006) research work.
Furthermore, the main objective of every training session is to add value to the performance of the employees, hence all type of business design training and development programs of their employees as a continuous activity. Purpose of training is what employees would attain after experiencing the training program. Some of the organizations plan and implement the training program for their employees without identifying the purpose and objectives and without knowing what the knowledge, skills and abilities employees would learn at the end of the training program and whether they will be able to attain performance targets on job. Hence, firm must design the training programs with clear goals and objectives while keeping in mind the particular needs of both individual and the firm. This study in hand chiefly focuses on the role of training in enhancing the performance of the employees. Training plays a vital role in the building of competencies of new as well as current employees to perform their job in an effective way. It also prepares employees to hold future position in an organization with full capabilities and helps to overcome the deficiencies in any job related area. Training is considered as that sort of investment by the firm that not only brings high return on investment but also supports to achieve competitive advantage.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Staff training and development has been identified by this study, various scholars and authors to be very crucial to an organization and its effectiveness. In the light of the above:
- Organizations are therefore encouraged to train and develop their staff to the fullest advantage in order to enhance their effectiveness. As training reduces the work of the managers in terms of close and constant supervision.
- Training should be adequately budgeted for to improve the drive, initiative and quality of work of the employees thus assist them to be more committed to achieving the goals and objectives of the organization.
- For any organization to succeed, training and re-training of all staff in form of workshops, conferences and seminars should be vigorously pursued and made compulsory.
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