THE IMPACT OF STAFF DEVELOPMENT ON THE PRODUCTIVITY OF WORKERS IN THE BANKING SECTOR (A CASE STUDY OF FCMB, UYO BRANCH)
ABSTRACT
No organization be it business or non-business can thrive especially in these hard times without adequate staff development. As well as increasing the profits of business organizations it also satisfies the needs of the workers. A well planned staff development programme is as necessary to a company as modern plants and equipments as the latter cannot function effectively without well qualified operators. It is against this backdrop that a study of the impact of staff development on the productivity of workers in commercial banks becomes crucial. In this study, the relationship between the training needs and the rate of training of staff by banks has been investigated. Effort has also been made to investigate the relationship existing between training and other variables such as needs, skills, moral and the productivity of workers. Attempts have also been made to link these variables with productivity. An analytical survey of the data obtained reveals that training has a positive impact on the areas highlighted above. This positive effect on these areas culminates in an increase in the productivity of the workers.
Because of the importance of training in profit making a series of recommendation has been made to help banks to reap its full benefits. One of such is that the management of banks should prepare and implement staff development budget so that they could effectively control their training programmes.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Declaration - - - - - - - - - i
Certification - - - - - - - - - ii
Dedication- - - - - - - - - - iii
Acknowledgement - - - - - - - iv
Abstract - - - - - - - - - v
Table of contents - - - - - - - - vi
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 Introduction - - - - - - - - 1
1.1 background of the study - - - - - - 4
1.2 statement of the problem - - - - - - 5
1.3 Significance of the study - - - - - - 5
1.4 Scope/limitation of the study - - - - - 6
1.5 Research hypothesis - - - - - - 6
1.6 Research question - - - - - - - 7
1.7 Organization of the study - - - - - - 7
1.8 Definition of terms - - - - - - - 8
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0 Overview of training - - - - - - 10
2.1 Training objectives - - - - - - - 11
2.2 Training needs - - - - - - - - 12
2.3 Training methods - - - - - - - 14
2.4 Training techniques - - - - - - - 20
2.5 Evaluation of training - - - - - - 22
2.6 Training and productivity - - - - - 25
CHAPTER 3
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.0 Introduction - - - - - - - - 26
3.1 Research design - - - - - - - 26
3.2 Data collection procedure - - - - - 27
3.3 Instrument for data collection - - - - - 27
3.4 Administration of instrument - - - - - 27
3.5 Sampling size and population - - - - - 28
3.6 Sampling technique - - - - - - 28
3.7 Data analysis technique - - - - - - 29
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
4.0 Introduction - - - - - - - - 30
4.1 Analysis of the tables - - - - - - 30
4.2 Discussion of findings and interpretation of data - 35
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Summary - - - - - - - - - 36
5.2 Conclusion - - - - - - - - 37
5.3 Recommendations - - - - - - - 37
Bibliography --------40
CHAPTERONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Profit making is by far the most cherished goal of every business organization. In the past decade due to global economic recession companies have found it increasingly difficult to achieve this goal. In addition, the alarming pace of technological development has relegated some organizations to the doldrums. In Nigeria, this problem is compounded by the fact that a goof percentage of human resources is either unskilled or semi-skilled. To be able to “stay afloat on the turbulent sea” of stagnated economy, companiesneed to evolve policies that will “fine-tune” the management to face today’s challenges in the business world.
One of the variables that will greatly affect the productivity of workers vis-avis its profits in any organization is staff development to buffer the effects of a harsh economic environment and also to cope with the trend of technological advancement, especially in this computer age companies must evolve adequate staffdevelopment programmes that will equip their workers with the necessary tools to face their jobs effectively and efficiently.
Ranchman, et. Al. (2012)believesthat since it bears direct relationship to company profit, many companies rely heavily on staff development. He argues that as technology overtakes workers skills, companies may find themselves with obsolete work force. To cope with this problem they often put whole divisions of their work force through development programmes.
Development as put forward by Cole (2002), comprises education and training. But Rachman, et. Al. (2008)has gone a step further to include retraining as an aspect of development. He is of the opinion that sending workers in a company to further training to cope with obsolescence is recently gaining much ground.
To many companies the time and resources spent on selecting and orienting and training to few employees constitute an investment that is expected to yield a stream of benefits in the future. This is why some companies screen their applicantscarefully with the hope of getting optimum performance results fromthem if and when theyare eventually hire. Training actually completes the extended selection path by assuring that the employee chosen has all the abilities necessary to work satisfactorily and reach his or her potential. It is a teaching process which beings the first day a person reports for work and continues for as long as he or she is employed by the company (Shapiro, 2001).
Before the turn of the 19th Century, Frederick Taylor considered to be the father of scientific management emphasized on the importance of teaching workers technical skills. In the early 1900s because of the Hawthorne experiments others began to recognize the usefulness of teaching human skills. After the Second World War managers began to appreciate the significance of good training programmes. They were faced with highly motivated and educated workers, shifts in occupations and a wide rangeof technicalmachines and products, thus many firms seriously re-evaluated their training procedure. They shifted emphasis from the “one best way” approach and trying to persuade workers to produce to developing workers with all tools necessary to get the job done, including, knowledge, attitudes, and work habits.
With this interest in training there developed a new management philosophy of which managers viewed training as an energetic communication process which depended on the worker understanding the information being taught as well as accurately receiving and remembering it. They believed that something must be learned before it can be understood and therefore made the people to learn proper job behaviour rather than just telling and showing them exactly what was expected. They did by explaining to them the inherent benefits derivable from learning the entire job properly. Thus the training programme in addition to satisfying the needs of the worker and organization also accomplished their goals.
Today most workers, according to Shapiro (1978), view the trainingthey receive as an opportunity to learn and toobtain satisfaction and enjoyment they are seeking from their work. Modern training techniques depends upon frequent communication, individualized instruction, when necessary to succeed. Because it seeks to inform and develop, trainingis no longer viewed as a form of selected to work and anxious to learn.
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
A couple of decades ago Nigerians did notconsider it important to acquire the necessary skills before working in the bank and many other organizations. It was common to find graduates of various disciplines not related to banking occupying management positions. Graduates of History, Religion, English, etc. meandered their way into decision making positions. Worse still, people that were employed as cashiers or counter clerks because of putting in long years of work rose to becomebranch managers and accountants within any specialized training to make them function properly in their new positions.
A visit to these banks today reveals that most of the junior staff such as cashiers, supervisors, etc. hasno basic banking skills. The resultant effect is lowproductivity and high expenses leading to high operational costs. This together with other problems culminates in decreased profits.
This negative trend in this important economic sector has caused a food for thought for serious minded Nigerians. It is a well known fact that without the banks economic development would be a mirage. Without the banks being adequately staffed they cannot perform their roles effectively in the economy. This study therefore intends to research intothe ways and means banks could improve their workforce through staff development in order to provide good quality services and hence, generate adequate profits.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
For a firm to maintain or even improve its profit margin the productivity of workers must be enhanced. In addition to motivating the workers by providing them with a conductive working environment so as to satisfy the first three needs in Maslow’s hierarchy, they must be trained if they are to attain satisfaction of the highest needs which are esteem and self realization.
A cursory look the banking sector reveals that most banks cannot perform “above board”. This is not unconnected with poor staff development. This implies that problem of inadequate development results inlow productivity of the workers.
1.3 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The following are the main objectives of this research:
(i) To study why staff development is necessary in business organizations.
(ii) To assess the various training programmes that banks organize for their workers.
(iii) To determine whether these training programmes are relevant to the needs of these banks.
(iv) To determine the effect of staff development on the productivity of workers.
1.4 SCOPE/LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
There are many factors that affect the productivity of workers in different organization. These include the nature of management, the working environment, the motivation factors present to mention but a few. This work will focus only on the impact of staff development on productivity. Because of the constraint posed by time, the aspect of development that will be dealt with, in thisstudy is training. In the course of this research, First City Monument Bank (FCMB) will be studied in Uyo Capital City. This work is limited to available information obtained from the management and staff of the above mentioned bank.
1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
The research hypotheses to be validated are stated in negative and positive forms as follows:
(1) Ho - Training does not have any significant impact on the skill of workers in the bank under study.
Hi - Trainingimproves the skill of workers in the bank under study.
(2)Ho-Training does not have any significantimpact on the morale of workers in the bank under study.
Hi - Training does not affect the morale of workers in the bank under study.
(3) Ho - Training was no significant impact on the productivity of workers in the bank under study.
Hi-Training has a significant impact on the productivity of workers in the bank under study.
1.6 RESEARCH QUESTION
In this study, the following negative research questions which will be tested in the next chapter are applied:
(i) Are there no training needs in commercial bank in Uyo?
(ii) Do commercial banks in Uyo not train their staff?
(iii) Has training not impact on the performance of the workers?
(iv) Does training not affect the morale of this workers?
(v) Does training has nothing to do with the satisfaction of the needs of the workers?
(vi) Does training improve the skill of workers?
1.7 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY
The study is organized in to five chapters. The first chapter deals with the introduction, background of the study, nature and statement of the problem, purpose of the study, scope/limitation of the study, significance of the study, research hypothesis, organization of the studyand definition of terms.
The second chapter is a review of related literature. Chapter three comprises the research methodology. Chapter four contains data presentation, analysis and interpretation. Finally, the fifth chapter bears the concluding part of the research consisting of the summary, conclusion and recommendations.
1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS
DEVELOPMENT:
This is the process whereby workers gain the experience, skills and attitudes to become or remain effective in their enterprises (Glueck, 1982).
EDUCATION:
This refers to instruction in knowledge and skills designed to enable people to make the most of life in general (Cole, 1986).
TRAINING:
According to Mitchell (1982) training is an attempt by an organization to change the behaviour of its members trough the learning process in order to increase effectiveness.
ON-THE-JOB-TRAINING
As the name implies on-the-job-training is a process by which the worker learns details of the job while actually working (Brown, et. Al 1977).
PRODUCTIVITY
Blocker, et. al (1977) defines productivity as the measurementof production performance using the expenditure of human effort as the yardstick. It is the amount of goods and services a worker produces. In a broader sense productivity could be described as the efficiency with which resources are converted to commodities and/or services.
EVALUATION
Evaluation is the systematic collection of descriptive and judgemental information necessary to make effective training decisions related to the selection, adoption, value and modification of various instructional activities (Brown, et. al 1979).
SKILL
This is defined as the ability to do something (Hornby, 1993).
BANKING SECTOR
The banking sector is the section of the economy devoted to the holding of financial assets for others, investing those financial assets as leverage to create more wealth, and the regulation of those activities by government agencies.
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