A survey of the efficient and effective personnel management in small and medium scale industries

Thesis Overview

<p> INTRODUCTION<br>1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY<br>The rate of increase in population in the world is fast growing especially in developing<br>countries like Nigeria, that societal demands for essential goods and services are so<br>much on the increase that government owned companies and industries cannot meet<br>up with these demands. The government being aware of these pertinent problems<br>created a healthy environment in which some multi-nationals, the societal demands<br>for services and goods have been satisfied, but not completely.<br>Further, since human beings are insatiable and the satisfaction of a problem leads to<br>another, the society at large demanded for some other smaller commodities in which<br>the government owned and multi-national companies couldn’t meet up with the<br>demands because of either disturbance in their production schedules or the small<br>quantities demanded. The government therefore gave legal authority by way of edicts<br>to interested individuals to establish their own small-scale companies of their choice.<br>Not only that they were given legal authority, they were given loans by government to<br>set up financial institutions to monitor and supervise the operations of these small<br>scale industries.<br>12<br>12<br>Agason Nigeria limited an example of such a small scale company established under<br>such edicts: it is purely a one man business which was established in 1990, but it<br>started production in 1994. It is a soap manufacturing company located in Owerri<br>industrial layout in Imo state and has a staff capacity of thirty, made up of three<br>supervisors graduates, and the rest of the staff are semi-skilled and unskilled workers.<br>Her products are Anchor quality bar soap, ladder bar soap, Anchor and ladder tablets.<br>The organizational structure is such that the owner does all the managerial functions<br>and every worker is expected to report to him before any actions are taken. But the<br>company has not really received the financial assistant from banks because of lack of<br>personnel and poor managerial capability of the owner. But it should be noted that<br>whatever may be the organizational goals or activities of any company, it can only be<br>achieved and implemented through effort and capabilities of people. Otherwise the<br>organizational structure must be manned and staff properly. Therefore it can clearly<br>be put that the appropriate management of human resources is an essential<br>responsibilities in all business regardless of size, in fact, the smaller the business, the<br>less important it is to select the right persons for the right job.<br>The question now become who then selects the right person and how did it start in<br>small scale organizations. Small scale organization has been with man, since the<br>creation of man. Man has produced controlled and sold his commodities before now,<br>13<br>13<br>and it is on history that every organization started as a small scale. During the early<br>stages, man was regarded as an adjunct to machine which will be used fullest and<br>discarded when not productive. This theory is regarded as “factor of production<br>approach” or “commodity approach” and was founded by Taylor and his associates. It<br>is the scientific management principle, and they argued that if wages are tied to the<br>units produced, a worker will produce more units to get more money.<br>This approach gave rise to paternalistic management; which means management<br>should show a fatherly protection towards the employees. It was predominant during<br>the 1920s and replaced the commodity approach. The paternalistic benefits ranged<br>from loans and appointment of welfare officers whose duty was to improve the<br>welfare of employees.<br>During the 19th century, some group of persons tried to intervene in industrial affairs<br>to support the position of underprivileged factory workers at the mercy of greedy<br>employees. This process was known as social reformer and was greatly propounded by<br>Lord Shaftesbury and Robert Owen they stood outside the organization and work<br>place to criticize the behavior of employers and induce some changes. Personnel<br>manager were appointed and provided with the frame of reference for the appointees<br>to work within. It is important to that these companies under study were small scale<br>companies. The social reformer gave birth to the “Benevolence” which was the next<br>14<br>14<br>stage of personnel management and was developed by Quaker Families of Cadbury<br>and Rowntree and the Lever brothers it appointed welfare officers who were given<br>specific responsibilities for improving the lot of employees. They provided goodies for<br>the employees because they partly desired them and they included childcare and<br>health screening the benevolence lead to the “human official” or “Benevolent<br>Approach “. At this stage, employing organization were taken a further step in<br>increasing their size, specialization was emerging in the management levels and it led<br>to the growth of personnel work , which is known as “staffing “. The human relations<br>school of thought influenced the human bureaucracy stage in the development of<br>personnel thinking, which was in many ways a reaction against scientific management.<br>The human relation approach appealed immediately to those who were concerned<br>about industrial conflict and the bad results from scientific management. The main<br>advocate was Elton mayo (1993). The central idea was to emphasize informal social<br>relationships and employee morale as contributions to organizational efficiency. It let<br>to the concern, collective opinion or negotiation stage where appointed as their<br>accredited representatives. Employee shifted towards bargaining with the<br>representatives on at least some matters. The personnel manager actively participated<br>in the bargaining since he had acquired bargaining expertise.<br>15<br>15<br>The human relations view gave a number of benefits to employees; they were<br>paternalistic determined by management with more input from employees.<br>Management felt the need to maintain good relations with employees because it<br>believed this would lead to high performance. It thus, provided benefits not because<br>employees demanded or needed such benefits but because it wanted to buy over the<br>employees as a strategy for achieving its own objectives. It was popularized by the<br>Hawthorn studies, which demonstrated the effect of framework and co-operation on<br>performance.<br>The last stage is the manpower analyst, associated with the terms “management of<br>human resources”. There is also the use of manpower planning in which organizations<br>utilize and improve human resources. It assesses what manpower will be needed,<br>decides what manpower in an organization is likely to have in the future, and take<br>actions to ensure that supply meets demands.<br>This last stage is where the problems of personnel management lie in small scale<br>organizations; this research will look deeply into the functions and problems of<br>personnel management and ways of improving and combating them.<br>16<br>16<br>FIG 1: ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE OF AGASON NIGERIA LIMITED<br>Manager /chief Executive<br>Officer<br>Production/workers<br>Maintenance<br>Production Supervisor<br>Marketing Supervisor<br>Marketing, Staff and Driver<br>Procurement<br>Supervisor<br>17<br>17<br>1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM<br>Personnel management in small medium scale industries has been faced<br>with multi-dimensional problems. Personnel is one of our most complex<br>and challenging fields or endeavors, this is because it is this function that<br>integrates the interest of the organization-that of the employee and the<br>society at large. The success of an organization depends largely on the<br>activity of her personnel. And in the light of the foregoing, these questions<br>were found relevant to guild the present research effort:<br>I. What are the sources of recruitment in Agason Nigeria Limited?<br>II. What are the sources of human resources development in Agason<br>Nigeria Limited?<br>III. What are the basics for wages and salary administration in small scale<br>organizations?<br>IV. What are the motivational factors in Agason Nigeria Limited?<br>V. Is the owner aware of internal and external assessments within and<br>outside the organization?<br>18<br>18<br>VI. Does lack of fund impede the implementation of personnel functions<br>in Agason Nigeria limited?<br>VII. What are personnel functions in small-scale organizations like Agason<br>Nigeria limited?<br>VIII. What are future prospects of personnel management in small scale<br>organizations like Agason Nigeria limited?<br>1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY<br>The search for solutions to the problems and prospects of personnel<br>management in small scale organizations has almost proved abortive. These<br>problems are multifarious and the purpose of this research is to reduce<br>these problems to the minimum and make small scale industries achieve or<br>attain the purpose of which they were set up. Therefore the specific<br>objectives of this research could be narrowed down as follows:<br>1) To determine whether or not human resources development affects<br>the organizational efficiency of Agason Nigeria Limited. <br></p>