The Problems and Prospects of Personnel Management in Private Sector

THE PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT IN PRIVATE SECTOR(A CASE STUDY OF EMENITE ENUGU)

The need for studying and reviewing the concept of the problems and prospects of personnel management in a private sector cannot be over emphasized the need to up date the problems and prospect is very imperative.  This need can be seen from the amount of literature that has been written generally by personnel management.

In recent times, a number of related literature has been written on personnel management and the literature review will give a theoretical concept of frame work for the study in the course of study, the researcher considered the work and ideas of many authors who have made valuable contributions on the issue that related to the study.

Therefore, it is on this realization of the importance of this ideas to the subject matter of the study on the problems and prospect of personnel department in a private sector that the researcher critically reviewed the study based on the following:

2.1     OVERVIEW OF PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT.

On what basis should individual be lied? What is the best way of training employees?

How can a company’s work force be motivated for higher levels of performance?  How can acceptance of company goals be increased?  These questions and others like them are heard almost in every and within the confirms of all business organization.

They have stimulated concerned and at time immemorial and they will in no doubt continue to do so, such questions persist because almost every one recognizes that company” success depends largely on the manner in which they are answered,

People are the essential ingredient in all organizations, be it educational, governmental or religion and the way in which people are recruited and utilized by the leadership largely determines whether the organization will survive to achieve it’s objectives .

The fact that all managers perform personnel functions is how ever, not to imply that they are all personnel managers in every organization, they are specifically charge with the responsibility of initiating and formulating policy as well as providing advice, service and control on all personnel matters.

Thus, although the people designed personnel managers perform all the personnel functions of all mangers.

In addition they usually have broad human skills and specific technical skills for dealing with people related problems in the organization.

Although, there are no demarcation in personnel management strength, we still have categories.

DEPARTMENT IN EMENITE

1. Personnel/Administration department
2. Commercial/ Marketing department
3. Financial department
4. production department
5. Engineering department

The personnel department have the following categories:

1. Senior personnel manager
2. Ordinary personnel manager
3. Middle level personnel manager, this comprise of the supervisor and

foreman

1. junior staff

• CAUSES OF PERSONNEL

MANAGEMENT PROBLEM

As the role of the personnel manager has changed through time, at first the personnel management was an instrument of top management in procuring and maintaining an effective in executing this role the manager began to understand the necessity for ascertaining and accommodating the needs of human being who constitutionally search for is that which would support the accomplishment of both organizational and individual objective. The job was made more difficult by such factors as the of the labour union, the increasing educational level of associated members the organization and it’s technology and some times violent demands of less privileged segment of our society.

2. CHANGING DEMANDS OF EMPLOYERS

changes are not on the side of members of the work force.  Organizations constantly undergo changes in their internal environment and in response to competitive pressures  as well advancing technological progress.  Two of many major changes that affects an organizations are :

1. growth of huge international organization.
2. Steadily increasing attempts to automate operation.

Because of this demands by employers they fail to consider education of the candidates concerning the culture, country polities, language and business setting of the international facilities in a survey of personnel activities actually undertaken for a group of overseas managers. Approximately, 80% of the firms involve in the use of no test in screaming for this assignments and of those who did only 20% attempted to validate them.

This third of the firms never bothered to consult candidates spouses concerning the attitude and feeling about the employment, no training was given to selected to acquaint them with such matters as the people their political system and their government.

3. CHANGING VALUES OF THE WORK FORCE:

The changing mix of the work force inevitably leads to the introduction of new values to organization.  Now work force has been heartily imbued with  a set of values generally characterized by the term “work ethic” work is  regarded as having spiritual meaning buttressed by such behavioral norms as punctuality, honesty, diligence and frugality.

4. CHANGING DEMANDS OF GOVERNMENT

It is well at some point however, to recognize and appreciate the fact that personnel management is becoming increasingly legalized in our country, there are major items of federal regulations pertaining to each personnel function should support this contention.  There are workers compensation laws that require employer insurance against injuries on the job and unemployment compensation laws that require accumulation of funds for payment to workers in the event of lay off.

5. TRENDS IN WORKING CAREER

Imperative changes with significant trends that are influencing present and prospective systems of industrial relations are evidence in the career of employees.  In fact, such changes have affected labor force dimension and the numbers and  types of citizens working or available to work.  These changes are in fact as a result of population growth, changing are distribution of  population and varying participation rates.

Mean while workers themselves are changing with increasing mobility and levels of formal educational attainment and knowledgibility and sophistication as perhaps the most  obvious of these development while today’s employees have the same basic physical and mental abilities and they did when their assignment were hurting, fishing or tending children and heads the number of skill experience education, sophistification opportunities and  aspiration have changed and are changing.  Their point of new and attitudes have changed, cultural sophistification of employees are far different from what they were in earlier periods.

6. TRENDS IN WORKING ORGANIZATION

Working organizations shows significance changes in recent years, may of hic may be expected to continue, they are becoming larger, including more workers in individual firms and agencies.  Corporation continues to replace individual proprietors.  As they have grown they have also became more complete with additional specialization, the direction has equal several levels of supervision and management.

• PROBLEMS OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT

1. MAN-POWER PLANNING PROBLEM.

This is the ability to provide viable man-power. It is the identification of number of workers in an organizational needs at a particular period.   Nwachukwu (1988:7101) contended that the essence of man-power planning is  to anticipate and provide for the man-power needs of the entire organization.

The third national development plan (1975-1980) acknowledges that the inability of economic growth to  generate adequate employment opportunities for the masses has in particular called for a re-examination of the philosophy and strategies of developing planning. There is the greater realization that the successful implementation of a development plan depends not just on the availability of financial and other capital inputs, more importantly on the adequacy of trained man-power in the various occupations, infact, the experience of most developing countries is that the shortage of skilled and executive  man-power could be a crucial constrain in the implementation of development projects”.

Man-power planning then has two major objectives.

The first is obtaining an inventory of skills and talents available in the organization and matching these against actual and predicted requirement.  The second objectives which logically derives from the first is developing activities and taking the necessary decisions to cope with the defined needs.  In making man-power available for staffing an organization there are specific qualifies that are to be considered when recruiting and selecting personnel, the nature of the man-power resources that are available has considerable influence on the degree of success the manager experiences in filling job vacancies.

The problems is not lack of man-power planning, the Nigeria private parastatals do not even know whether they are overstaffed or underdeveloped due to the lack of man-power planning.

The issues of ghost workers in the parastatals shows that there is no element of man-power planning in such areas for instance, if somebody is in the pay-roll of an organization and he is being paid his salary and other benefits every month but the person cannot be traced to any job location or office as the case may be, this person is as good as a ghost worker.  Usually do not recognize the importance of training or lack of necessary finds or expertise that will get the program off the ground.

Therefore, this inability of the private sector to employ technological and technical experience labor force has lead to low productivity, low work quality, low employee’s morale, increase waste, and these repurchases the future of an organization.

4. ABSENCE OF PERFORMANCE APPRAISALS.

One of the key responsibilities of the manager is to evaluate the performance of his subordinates.  The essence of the evaluation is to assess their character, attitude, potentials and past performance rating.  One of the major reasons for performance appraisal is to obtain information for promotion, demotion, transfer, pay increase, training and development and discharge.  Many employees are afraid of evaluation and have negative feelings about it.  The private sector has been showing negative attitude towards performance of personnel management in the private owned establishment.  And where it is done, it is always done by supervisors who are inexperienced.

That is to say that some supervisor who rate their subordinate do not acquire the knowledge of rating or evaluating employee, this type of supervisor always make comment that not in line with his rating.

There is this problem of a supervisor who after rating an employee very poor, in the comment, he said that the employee is hard working.  Also these under listed problems or pitfalls in performance to the failure of personnel management in the private sector.  Thus we have.

1. RATING THE MAN NOT JOB: This is subjecting or being on the rater is like and dislike of the employee or evaluating of the employee based on the rate mind whether he gets on with the subordinate or not or whether he likes his employee’s religion, tribe or language.

1. THE ERROR OF CENTRAL TENDENCY: This is the process where the rater sees every employees or his subordinates as been average in rating.

1. PRESSURE OF TIME: In this case management rushes the appraisal due to lack of time.

1. RECENCY: In this case, the rater will rate the employee based on the latest event that took place the day before the rating.

Therefore, performance appraisal is not an end its, rather it is the employee to know his weakness and strength and help the employer to make some basic decisions on how to share organizational favors.  Equity demands that an employee who contributed most to the organizational effort should achieve a benefit more than those who contributed little or no effort.  And if inequity exist, the tendency is that it will force an employee to withhold a measure of his efforts towards the attainment of organizational goods and objectives.

5. POOR MOTIVATION

Direction as a management function is concerned with influencing the methods of the organization to execute.  The plans and to achieve or maximize the objective of such a system.

Motivation is through of when we discuss influencing actions of subordinate, it follows therefore that one of the major problem facing personnel management is how to get people to do the things they want them to do.  It also goes without saying that managers in personnel administration know what motivates people but many do not care to utilize them, instead many just provides satisfiers.. motivation is that emerging force that induces or compels and maintain behavior.

The inability of personnel management to recognize that person differs in terms of his need satisfaction, may not appeal to the other is a problem to the department.  Motivation then is a personnel tool.  Good leadership sees to it that each individual’s needs is understood, and available these needs to the individual in the understanding that the desired positive attitudes would be evoked in him.

In this regards, fairness in the distribution of rewards is important for if unfair practices like favoritism, nepotism, and bribery are the determinants of rewards, individuals cannot be motivated to produce.  Leadership cannot be separated from motivation.  Poor leadership through the introduction of unfair practices breeds disgruntled people and stifles motivational behavior in them.  This explains in fact, the cause of the much discussed bad attitude to work among Nigerians which so far seems to have defended all corrective measures adopted by the management of some organization.

Therefore, while the individual in the organization remains the indefinable ingredient in motivating behavior, poor leadership itself becomes a base to a successful motivation effort and organizational harmony.

In Nigerian context, one can say that regular payment of workers salaries and wages raises workers performance and therefore regarded as motivation.  We have experienced many stories of workers of the provable sector here in Nigeria with the problem of non-payment of salaries ranging from three to nine months, and any time the payment of these people’s salaries begins to be regular, it will sever as motivational factor for them.

PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR (PROPER FOCUS ON EMENITE NIGERIA PLC)

The research cannot generally say for now the actual problem facing Emenite, but if all the information available before her is something to go by, one will be forced to conduce that the major problem facing Emenite is that of absence of motivation, lack of training and man-power development.  But recent personnel development in Emenite shows that the department is facing lack of management.

The researcher will present all the data is bedeviled with lack of performance appraisal training and development problems.

Having identified some problems of private owned establishment like Emenite, I think the future should be bright for them.

There are as well ways of hope shining since the problems have been noted out and remedies tabled out as well the sky will surely be their limit.

2.4                   WAYS OF COMBATING THESE PROBLEMS

Therefore, the positive prospects for these establishment and as well as improving employee training and development in the private sector by the owner.  Their prospects would be discussed below as follows.

INCREASING MOTIVATION

This is one among many problems facing or controlling personnel management of private owned establishment.  Motivation as well have earlier define, is an energizing force that include or compels and maintain behavior.   Human behavior should be motivated since it is goal directed.

Motivation is an internal psychological process whose presence or absence is inferred from observed performance.

Owners should not that unsatisfied need do not motivate workers to give out their best, conversely, and satisfied need motivates a workers to achieve his desire.

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