Principles of Personnel Management 1 (PAD 115)

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering the principles, history, functions, and legal frameworks of personnel management in Nigeria based on course module PAD 115.

PAD 115

The course code for Principles of Personnel Management 1 at the Distance Learning Institute, University of Lagos.

Personnel Management (Thomason, 1975)

A field oriented towards efficiency and the welding of people into effective organizations for the pursuit of abstract organizational objectives.

Nigerianization Policy

A policy occasioned by the Foot Commission of $1948$ which created opportunities for Nigerians to be recruited as personnel specialists to replace expatriate personnel in the civil service.

Northernization

A policy introduced by the Northern region in $1959$ into its own civil service as it became self-governing, instead of the Nigerianization policy used by Eastern and Western regions.

Udoji’s Reform of 1974

A public service reform that harmonized and unified job grading and salary systems, introduced the merit system for rewards, and replaced confidential reporting with an open reporting system.

Mechanical Approach

An attitude that assumes labour is a factor of production to be procured as cheaply as possible and utilized to the fullest, often involving a closed-system management style.

Paternalism Approach

A concept prevalent in the $1920s$ where management assumed a fatherly and protective attitude toward employees, providing company-owned homes and recreation facilities to win loyalty.

Social System Approach

An approach that views the firm as a collection of interacting subsystems and emphasizes the interconnectedness management must consider to develop viable personnel programmes.

Social Responsibility Approach

The view that business firms are subsystems of organized society and must consider societal expectations and the social consequences of their decisions.

Personnel Policy

A written or oral statement of an organization’s goals and intentions concerning matters that affect the people in the organization.

Contract of Employment

A relationship voluntarily entered into by both employers and employees that is subject to the general law of contract and includes elements like offer, acceptance, and consideration.

Manpower Planning

An attempt to forecast how many and what kind of employees will be required in the future and to what extent this demand is likely to be met.

Job Analysis

The method of revealing all facts about a job by breaking it into component parts or tasks to discover how they are performed.

Job Description

An organized, factual statement of the duties and responsibilities of a specific job, derived as the first product of the job analysis process.

Job Specification

A statement of the minimum acceptable human qualities, education, and experience necessary to perform a job properly.

Recruitment

The process of identifying and attracting job seekers to build a pool of qualified job applicants.

Selection

The process of assessing candidates by various means, such as shortlisting and interviews, and making a choice followed by an offer of employment.

Placement

The act of deploying successful applicants to the various job areas they applied for, usually occurring after an induction or orientation programme.

Probation

A trial period for new employees, usually spanning from $3$ months to $2$ years, to determine if they meet organizational job expectations.

Organizational Approach (Communication)

A communication style involving downward communication from superiors to subordinates, as well as upward communication like employee suggestions and problem-solving.

Training

An activity concerned with upgrading the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA) of employees for their present work performance.

Education

The formal or informal process by which an employee acquires general background knowledge that is person-oriented rather than job-oriented.

Development

A course of action designed to enable an individual employee to realize their potential for future growth and higher-level responsibilities in the organization.

Systematic Approach to Training

A logical sequence of processes involving investigating training needs, designing, delivering, and assessing the effectiveness of training.

Performance Management

A systematic integration of an organization’s efforts to achieve its objectives through comprehensive control, audit, and evaluation.

SMART targets

An acronym for target-setting criteria: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time bound.

Job Evaluation

A systematic process of determining the relative value or worth of each job within an organization in order to ensure equitable pay.

Points Rating Method

A widely used job evaluation method where specific factors are assigned a range of points, and the total points determine the job's position in the hierarchy.

Trade Union

Any combination of workers or employers, temporary or permanent, whose purpose is to regulate relations between workers and employers and settle terms of employment.

Shop Steward

The daily point of contact for union membership at the workplace level who provides information and collects member subscriptions.

Grievance

A situation where an employee or group of employees is dissatisfied with management action(s) connected to their employment and complains verbally or in writing.

Conciliator

A person appointed by the Minister for the purpose of settling a trade dispute between parties.

Industrial Arbitration Panel (IAP)

A body to which the Minister refers trade disputes for settlement if a conciliator or Board of Inquiry fails to reach a resolution.

National Industrial Court (NIC)

A superior court of records and the final arbiter in the settlement of trade disputes whose judgments are final and binding.

Industrial Relations

The process concerned with the systematic study of all aspects of the relationship between workers and employers.

NECA

The Nigerian Employers’ Consultative Association, established on $16$ January $1957$ to promote good industrial relations and advise government on labour matters.

NLC

The Nigeria Labour Congress, a central labour organization to which many industrial trade unions are affiliated.

TUC

The Trade Union Congress, a central body for senior staff in Nigeria following the split of the NLC in $2005$.