CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
The development of any
nation depends to a very large extent on the calibre, organization and
motivation of its human resources. In the specific case of Nigeria where
diversity exerts tremendous influence on politics and administration, the
capacity to increase the benefits and reduce the costs of this diversity
constitutes a human resource management challenge of epic proportion in its
public sector organizations. Human Resource Management (HRM) is the function
within an organization that focuses on recruitment of, management of, and
providing direction for the people who work in the organization. Human Resource
Management can also be performed by line managers.
Human Resource
Management is the organizational function that deals with issues related to
people such as compensation, hiring, performance management, organization
development, safety, wellness, benefits, employee motivation, communication,
administration, and training. Human Resource Management is also a strategic and
comprehensive approach to managing people and the workplace culture and
environment. Effective HRM enables employees to contribute effectively and
productively to the overall company direction and the accomplishment of the
organization's goals and objectives. Human Resource Management is moving away
from traditional personnel, administration, and transactional roles, which are
increasingly outsourced. HRM is now expected to add value to the strategic
utilization of employees and that employee programs impact the business in
measurable ways. The new role of HRM involves strategic direction and HRM
metrics and measurements to demonstrate.
HRM
covers a wide range of activities. The main area of study we will focus on will
be incentives and work organization. Incentives include remuneration systems
(e.g. individuals or group incentive/contingent pay) and also the system of
appraisal, promotion and career advancement. By work organization we mean the
distribution of decision rights (autonomy/decentralization) between managers
and workers, job design (e.g. flexibility of working, job rotation),
team-working (e.g. who works with whom) and information provision.
Civil servants have a
reputation for being lazy. However, people’s personal experiences with civil
servants frequently run counter to this stereotype. We develop a model of an
economy in which workers differ in laziness and in public service motivation,
and characterise optimal incentive contracts for public sector workers under
different informational assumptions. When civil servants. Effort is invariable,
lazy workers and working in the public sector highly attractive and may crowd
out dedicated workers. When effort is variable, the government optimally
attracts dedicated workers as well as the economy’s laziest workers by offering
separating contracts, which are both distorted. Even though contract
distortions reduce aggregate welfare, a majority of society may be better off
as public goods come at a lower cost.
Where we depart from
several of the existing surveys in the field is to put HRM more broadly in the
context of the economics of management. To do this we also look in detail at
the literature on productivity dispersion.
Human resource
management encompasses the traditional personnel functions of recruitment,
selection, training, motivation, compensation, evaluation, discipline, and
termination of employees. Each of those tasks demands particular skills.
Increasingly, human resource management is being recognized for its strategic
importance to organizations and jurisdictions, and is moving beyond its
traditional position as a monitor of compliance. This course is designed to
provide you with an understanding of the evolution of human resource management policies and practices, and how changes over time
reflect shifting societal values and environmental circumstances. Our emphasis
is on improving understanding of the historical context and current conditions
of public sector HRM and developing basic skills necessary to be an effectively
manage human resources.
Within the public
sector, many of the most visible and interesting controversies, such as
affirmative action, employee ethics, sexual harassment, drug testing, and
labour-management relations, are part of human resource management.
Human resources also
account for the largest percentage of the operating budget for most public
agencies, and public administrators must have both an appreciation for the
costs of personnel decisions and the ability to project those costs. In
addition, constitutional, statutory and regulatory requirements often constrain
personnel decisions and actions in the public sector, and public administrators
must have a working knowledge of these legal guidelines. Public administrators
must recognize the political aspect of human resource management. Human
resource management policies and techniques are developed, implemented and
evaluated in a public context. Public sector HRM practices effect the selection
and experiences of government employees which, in turn, affects public policy.
In order to make and implement effective human resource management policies,
administrators need an appreciation of the political and historical context in
which the policies have developed to date.
In the current
environment, a professional public administrator must be prepared to advocate
for the strategic importance of human resources, find ways to be flexible and
responsive to change, adapt to changing patterns of employment and
intersectoral relations, utilize technology to more effectively communicate
with prospective and existing employees, and develop more sophisticated and
effective methods of measuring and rewarding performance (Ingraham and
Rubaii-Barrett, 2007).
Management
must work with people. The proper use of people in an enterprise undoubtedly
has a direct and significant bearing on the productive efficiency of the
enterprise. As a result of the importance that managers assign to people who
must work with them, terms such as “human resources” “human capital” are used
to demonstrate the difference people make in the performance of a manager and consequently
the enterprise. The issues in personnel management are major factors of the
human problems affecting organization.
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