CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background to the Study
Today in a world of competitive corporate environment, every organization, regardless of scales and markets is striving to gain competitive advantage(s), to perform better and to achieve productivity, profitability and efficiency. In order to do that, it is important for an organization to clearly define its objectives, and to know how to execute it well using the available resources. Organizations must ensure that employees who are the major asset of the organization must be adequately trained and must be able to manage these individuals towards organizational performance.
In Europe, organizations and their managers are faced with numerous challenges. One of such challenges is in the area of skills and knowledge development which refers to the training and development of employees in order to achieve an organizations goals and objectives, (Khan, Khan, & Khan, 2017). Some of these managerial challenges are obvious in matters concerning training and development such as mentoring, job delegation, job empowerment and job rotation (Burden & Proctor, 2018). Therefore, for organizations to survive and remain relevant and competitive, it is essential for them to be able to train its employees on the right skills and developmental programs in a bid to enhance their performance towards achieving organizational goals.
In UK, most organizations adopt training and development at their workplace in order to turn out to be more creative and open to change. Increasing and improving workplace training and development has turned out to be an important issue for management in the recent years due to the recognition of how the workplace is changing and how it is important for employees to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills in order to carry out job effectively and efficiently, (Becker & Gerhart, 2019).
In the USA, international competition has caused organizations to focus on each aspect of their operations, questioning how each function and process can contribute to strategic goals, (Salas & Cannon, 2017). Training departments are as well under pressure to demonstrate their organizational value in the same terms, which is due to the fact that organizations spend a considerable time, effort and money in training their employees (Meister, 2016), and however, the benefits from these efforts are not clearly visible in organizations in terms of improved performance. In order to make training and development very useful, it should be well planned and systematically implemented. The capacity of staff in an organization influences the ability to achieve the desired targets particularly in performance driven enterprises, (Berge, 2019). Human resource is recognized as a critical resource for success in every organization. In order to sustain performance of the organization, it is important to optimize the contribution of employees towards achievement of the aims and goals of an organization, (Armstrong, 2015).
In Africa, one of the central challenges facing Africa is that of knowledge and skill development, (Aluko, 2017). The issue of globalization is certainly an issue of development both politically, technologically, economically, culturally etc. There is a link between skill, and knowledge development. This is especially when development is seen more broadly. This link between training and development could be seen from the point of view that training and development can serve as ultimate catalyst or even hindrance for development for any organization, (Bell & Richard, 2015). Employees being the key asset of any organization and businesses need to invest in that asset to ensure their survival, growth and overall performance. The organization should ensure that, it obtains and retains skilled, committed and well-motivated personnel it needs. This simply means taking steps to assess and satisfy future people needs and to enhance and develop the inherent capacities of people, their contributions, potential and employability, by the provision of learning and continuous development opportunities, (Najeeb, 2017).
In Nigeria, most organizations have increasingly become profit driven. This drive is primarily because organizations that do not make profit usually find it difficult to survive in the competitive economy of the 21st century, (Iheriohanma, 2018). Central to this profit drive in organizations are the employees whose skills are required to manipulate other organizational resources such as financial and material resources, and to convert these resources into goods and services, (Olalere & Adesoji, 2020). This centrality of employees in work organizations as such elevated the benefits of efficiency as tools of performance (Aluko, 2017). Hence, the recurring theme in current organizational literature has been in the area of human capital development, especially skills and knowledge development. As a result, less attention has been paid to some other employee challenges in the work organization which also affect their productivity and general performance such as training and development. This training and development encompasses mentoring, job delegation, job empowerment, job rotation, age, personality, cognitive style, tenure, organizational function, education, background and more, (Olalere & Adesoji, 2020).
Armstrong (2015) viewed training as the formal and systematic modification of behavior through learning, which takes place as a result of education, instructions and development and planned experience. Training is the process of equipping the personnel with the needed knowledge, skills and right attitude to tackle the job responsibilities. Beardwell and Holden (2018) perceived training and development as a planned process to modify attitude, knowledge or skill behavior through learning experiences to achieve effective performance in an activity or range of activities. Corporations are offering a variety of training programs to meet their organizational needs. These include content on IT and systems, processes, procedures and business practices, industry-specific trainings, managerial or supervisory training, interpersonal skills, compliance, sales, executive development, basic skills, new employee orientation, customer service and quality.
Reynolds (2020) stated that, training has a complementary role to play in accelerating learning. It should be reserved for situations that justify a more directed expected approach rather than viewing it as a comprehensive and all-pervasive people development solution. He also commented that the conventional training model has a tendency to emphasize subject-specific knowledge rather than trying to build core learning abilities. Training and Development improves the workforce competence in order to create a competitive advantage and contribute to organizational success. Training and development is as well a means for employers to address the employees’ needs. By offering the training and development opportunities employers help employees develop their own competitive advantage and ensure long term employability, (Jackson, 2019).
However, despite the obvious significance of training and development to organizational performance, the enormous expansion in the content of training and development programs over time has largely been taken for granted. Some human resources departments often question the necessity and appropriateness of training a particular employee at a particular time. Often times, there are ulterior motives why employees are sent on training. Najeeb (2017) revealed that a number of organizations that neglect employee training do so simply because of the enormous cost of training and the fear of losing those employees to other organizations after training them.
It is therefore based on the above that this study seeks to examine the impact of training and development on organizational performance in MTN Nigeria Ltd.
1.2. Statement of the Problem
Training and development is recognized as a crucial element in the attainment of organizational goals and objectives. In order to sustain economic and effective performance, it is important to optimize the contribution of employees to the aims and goals of an organization. Training and development activities have implications for attempts to motivate and involve the workforce with an aim of improving performance. However, despite the importance of training and development to organizational performance, there is not sufficient literature on the subject matter, while the available literatures were conducted in most developed countries. Thus, this is the gap the study seeks to address by examining the impact of training and development on organizational performance, using MTN Nigeria Ltd, Lagos State, Nigeria.
In recent years there has been an increasing need for organizations to implement mentoring programs to improve employee morale and productivity by reducing absenteeism and turnover. However, very little effort has been implemented by organizations to improve job retention and improving job satisfaction through mentoring programs. Thus, this objective seeks to investigate the impact of employees mentoring on organizational efficiency in MTN Nigeria Ltd, Lagos State. (This will be measured using the 5 Likert scales of Highly Effective, Effective, Rarely Effective, Sometimes, Never)
Furthermore, there are several problems associated with delegating of authority with regards to making good decisions for the organization. Especially as there are many individual differences. Employers need to know the importance of employees’ participation and satisfaction and their effects in the achievement of organizational objectives. However, in order to achieve better results with minimum supervision and attention, the manager should ensure that he or she delegates his authorities to a capable hand and at the same time, authority should be delegated with the same time and should be delegated equal responsibility. Thus, this objective seeks to investigate the impact of employees’ job delegation on organizational productivity in MTN Nigeria Ltd, Lagos State. (This will be measured using the 5 Likert scales of Highly Effective, Effective, Rarely Effective, Sometimes, Never)
Making employees perform the same transactional duties everyday usually makes them tired, bored and unsatisfied with the jobs they are performing. Thus, the importance of job rotation is introduced to reduce the physical and mental stress endured by employees when working in the same job position, year after year. Thus, this objective seeks to investigate the impact of employees’ job rotation on organizational profitability in MTN Nigeria Ltd, Lagos State. (This will be measured using the 5 Likert scale of Strongly Agreed, Agreed, Not Sure, Disagreed, and Strongly Disagreed). It is therefore based on the above that this study will seek to examine the impacts of training and development on organizational performance in MTN Nigeria Ltd, Lagos State, Nigeria.
1.3. Research Objectives
The main objective of the study is to examine the impact of training and development on organizational performance in MTN Nigeria Ltd. However, to achieve the main objective, the following specific objectives are to:
- examine the impact of employees mentoring on organizational efficiency in MTN Nigeria Ltd.
- assess the impact of employees job delegation on organizational productivity in MTN Nigeria Ltd.
- investigate the impact of employees job rotation on organizational profitability in MTN Nigeria Ltd.
1.4. Research Questions
The questions of interest in the study are:
- What is the impact of employees’ mentoring on organizational efficiency in MTN Nigeria Ltd?
- What is the impact of employees’ job delegation on organizational productivity in MTN Nigeria Ltd?
- What is the impact of employees’ job rotation on organizational profitability in MTN Nigeria Ltd?
1.5. Research Hypotheses
The following research hypotheses will be formulated in their null form, which are:
Ho1: Employees’ mentoring has no significant effect on organizational efficiency in MTN Nigeria Ltd
Ho2: Employees’ job delegation has no significant effect on organizational productivity in MTN Nigeria Ltd
Ho3: Employees’ job rotation has no significant effect on organizational profitability in MTN Nigeria Ltd
1.6. Significance of the Study
The findings of this study would be significant in the sense that it would enable MTN and other companies’ management to better understand how training and development programs could be harnessed to inspire staff to increase and sustain organizational performance.
To the management, the study will help top management in taking strategic decision that affect training and development for the overall growth of the industry. In addition, it will management to embrace training and development in order to increase competitiveness, and as well as to establish how training has impacted on the performance of employees and what improvements can be done to enhance the performance of employees.
To the employees, the findings will provide them with adequate knowledge as to the importance of training and why it is necessary that they are trained from time to time.
To the human resource department, the study will help the human resource department in proper planning and execution of training and development programmes towards enhancing employee performance, and thus, improve organizational performance.
To the stakeholders, the study will as well be useful to stakeholders who will be able to identify with a growing organization as a result of good performance. This will ensure that they invest in an organization whose performance is promising as a result of effective training and development of its staff.
To the scholars, the findings will help them find it important as it will increase the body of knowledge in the area of training and development on organizational performance. In addition, the study will add value by contributing to existing academic knowledge and materials in the area of training and development, and will also be useful to future researchers who might want to carry out future studies in relation to this topic.
1.7. Scope of the Study
The study is streamlined to training and development sub-variables such as employees mentoring, employees job delegation, and employees job rotation; while organizational performance is streamlined to the following sub-variables which are; organizational efficiency, organizational productivity, and organizational profitability. The study will be carried out in MTN Nigeria Ltd, Lagos State. The unit of analysis of the study will be the employees of MTN Nigeria Ltd at the customer care service, marketing, mast installation, and the IT departments.
The primary source of data collection will be used for this study through the use of a self-structured questionnaire which will be administer to the employees in MTN Nigeria Ltd, Lagos State, Nigeria. The rationale for using MTN Nigeria Ltd is mainly due to the fact that they have a huge workforce of 2,698 employees at MTN Nigeria Ltd, Lagos State, Nigeria, and there is a dearth of study specifically carried out using MTN Nigeria Ltd, which is a gap to be addressed by this study. Thus, it is essential to understand how various training and development programmes organized by MTN enhance the performance of the organization.
1.8. Operationalization of Research Variables
The dependent variable is Organizational Performance, represented by Organizational Efficiency (OEF), Organizational Productivity (OPD), Organizational Profitability (OPT), and Organizational Performance (OPF). On the other hand, training and development, being the independent variable, is proxied by Employee Mentoring (EMT), Employee Job Delegation (EJD), Employee Job Rotation (EJR), and Organizational Performance (OPF).
Where Y= Dependent variable
X= Independent variable
Y= f(X)
X= Training and Development
X = f(x1, x2, x3, x4)
x1= Employees Mentoring (EMT)
x2= Employee Job Delegation (EJD)
x3= Employee Job Rotation (EJR)
x4= Training and Development (TD)
Y= Organizational Performance (OPF)
Y= f(y1, y2, y3, y4)
y1 = Organizational Efficiency (OEF)
y2 = Organizational Productivity (OPD)
y3 = Organizational Profitability (OPF)
y4 = Organizational Performance (OPF)
The four specific objectives are operationally expressed as:
To examine the impact of employees mentoring on organizational efficiency in MTN Nigeria Ltd
y1= f (x1)
y1= b0 + b1x1 + u
To assess the impact of employees job delegation on organizational productivity in MTN Nigeria Ltd
y2= f (x2)
y2= b0 + b1x2 + u
To investigate the impact of employees job rotation on organizational profitability in MTN Nigeria Ltd
y3= f (x3)
y3= b0 + b1x3 + u
To examine the combined effect of training and development on organizational performance in MTN Nigeria Ltd
Y4= f (x4)
Y4= b0 + b1x4 + u
1.9. Operational Definition of Terms
Training: is a type of activity which is planned, systematic and it results in enhanced level of skill, knowledge and competency that are necessary to perform work effectively.
Development: is a broad ongoing multi-faceted set of activities (training activities among them) aimed at bringing someone or an organization up to another threshold of performance, often to perform some job or a new role in the future.
Organization Performance: refers to the efficiency of an organization in terms of productivity, profitability and overall performance.
Employee Performance: refers to the outcome or contribution of employees to make them attain goals
Mentoring: this involves having the more experienced employees coach the less experienced employees
Job Rotation: refers to the way of developing employee skills within organization. It involves the process of moving an employee from one official responsibility to another. For instance, movement from finance department to marketing department within an organization.
Job Delegation: refers to the training and development techniques that attempt to capture and bring forth decision making situations to the employee being trained
