Principles of Personnel Management 1 (PAD 115)

Course Overview and General Introduction to PAD 115

• Course Title: Principles of Personnel Management 1 (PAD 115).
• Course Writers: Dr. Augustine NdukaEneanya and Mr. K. Adegbite for the Distance Learning Institute, University of Lagos.
• General Scope: The course provides an exhaustive study of managing personnel in both private and public organizations within the Nigerian context. It covers 15 specific study sessions ranging from the origins of personnel management to modern industrial relations practices.
• Course Structure:
  • Study Session 1: Origin, Nature, and Development of Personnel Management in Nigeria.
  • Study Session 2: Meaning and Functions of Personnel Management.
  • Study Session 3: Approaches to Personnel Management.
  • Study Session 4: Personnel Policy.
  • Study Session 5: Contract of Employment, Rights, and Duties of Employers and Employees.
  • Study Session 6: Manpower Planning.
  • Study Session 7: Job Analysis, Job Description, and Job Specification.
  • Study Session 8: Recruitment, Selection, and Placement Process.
  • Study Session 9: Communication in Organization.
  • Study Session 10: Training Employees.
  • Study Session 11: Performance Management and Appraisal.
  • Study Session 12: Job Evaluation and Pay System.
  • Study Session 13: Trade Union Management.
  • Study Session 14: Handling Employees’ Grievances and Trade Disputes.
  • Study Session 15: Managing Industrial Relations.
• Learning Outcomes: Ability to understand, explain, and apply personnel management principles in public and private sectors.

Study Session 1: Origin, Nature, and Development of Personnel Management in Nigeria

• Introduction and Historical Context:
  • Personnel management in Nigeria began with British colonial rule.
  • The modern public service evolved following the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorates in $1914$.
  • Initial Bureaucracy: Under Governor-General Sir Fredrick Lugard, a central bureaucracy was established. The Nigerian Civil Service was headed by the Chief Secretary and included specialized departments such as the Treasury, Public Works, Education, Health, and Agriculture.
  • Early Structure: Upper and middle levels were dominated by British expatriates. Nigerians were restricted to lower-level operative roles regardless of skill or qualification.
• The Nigerianization Policy:
  • Post-World War II, the Foot Commission of $1948$ introduced the "Nigerianization" policy, creating opportunities for Nigerians to enter specialist personnel roles.
  • By $1961$, the civil service was fully Nigerianized with citizens in senior positions.
• Post-Independence Experience (1960):
  • Personnel functions were split across four levels: Federal and three regions (Eastern, Western, and Northern).
  • Personnel offices consisted of three units: Civil Service Commissions, Ministry of Establishment, and Office of Permanent Secretary.
• Major Milestone Reforms:
  • Udoji’s Reform of 1974: This reform unified and harmonized job grading and salary systems. It introduced the merit system and replaced confidential reporting with an open reporting system.
• Nature of the Discipline:
  • Historically, the role was simple: hiring and retaining workers to satisfy top management.
  • Modern Context: The personnel manager is a specialist requiring a background in Psychology, Sociology, Philosophy, Economics, and Management.
• Factors Shaping Development in Nigeria:
  • Trade Unions: Emerged in $1912$ (Civil Service Union). Notable others include the Railway Workers' Union ($1931$) and Nigerian Union of Teachers ($1939$). The $1945$ general strike led to the Cost of Living Allowance (COLA).
  • Ministry of Employment, Labour and Productivity: Serves as a regulatory professional body.
  • NECA (Nigeria Employers Consultative Association): Established on $16$ January, $1957$, to promote good industrial relations and technical training.
  • Labour Legislation: Acts such as the Trade Union Acts of $1973$, Trade Disputes Act of $1976$, Factory Acts of $1987$, and Pension Act of $2004$ (amended $2014$).
  • Professional Institutes: The Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (IPMN) develops industry specialists.

Study Session 2: Meaning and Functions of Personnel Management

• Core Definitions:
  • Personnel Management: The management of people as a resource utilizing their skills, knowledge, and attitudes for productivity.
  • Thomason (1975): Oriented toward efficiency and welding people into effective organizations.
  • British Institute of Personnel Management (1963): Responsibility of all who manage people as well as the specialized work of experts.
• Key Functions summarized:
  • Personnel Policies: Initiating and implementing policies to achieve management objectives.
  • Manpower Planning: Forecasting present and future human resource requirements.
  • Wages and Salaries Administration: Ensuring fair and equitable pay through job evaluation.
  • Welfare Services: Keeping the workforce comfortable and observing legal welfare obligations.
  • Training and Development: Upgrading skills to improve efficiency.
  • Industrial Relations: Handling complaints and grievances to maintain industrial peace.
  • Recruitment and Placement: Obtaining quality staff and managing the disengagement process.
• Relationship between Personnel and Line Managers:
  • The Personnel Department provides specialist knowledge and advisory services.
  • The Personnel Manager usually has no direct control over other staff unless specifically delegated; the relationship is indirect/advisory.
  • Personnel managers coordinate staff functions and manage relationships with external bodies like the National Industrial Court (NIC) and the Salaries and Wages Commission.

Study Session 3: Approaches to Personnel Management

• Mechanical Approach:
  • Assumes labour is a factor of production, similar to capital and land, to be procured as cheaply as possible.
  • Emphasizes a "closed-system" sheltered from external forces (government/unions).
  • Problems: Leads to technological unemployment, economic insecurity for workers, and a decrease in pride of work.
• Paternalism Approach:
  • Management assumes a fatherly, protective attitude toward employees.
  • Featured elaborate programs in the $1920s$ (company housing, recreation).
  • Limitations: Prevented trade unionism and often failed to win loyalty because employees felt treated like children.
• Social System Approach:
  • Views the firm as a collection of interacting subsystems.
  • Recognizes the interconnectedness between individual employee needs and central organizational objectives.
  • Aims to bridge the gap between informal subsystems (friendship cliques) and the formal organization.
• Social Responsibility Approach:
  • Views the business as a subsystem of society.
  • Argues that organizational decisions have social consequences that cannot be ignored.
  • Personnel managers help the firm define and fulfill its social role.

Study Session 4: Personnel Policy

• Definition: A written or oral guide for making administrative decisions regarding organizational goals and intentions affecting people.
• Three Main Ethical Principles:
  • Fairness, equity, and justice.
  • Recognition of contributions and performance feedback.
  • Encouraging employee participation in strategies.
• Scope: Covers employment, recruitment, training, promotion, wages, welfare, and social responsibility.
• Communication: Must be clearly written in a manual, sub-divided by subject area, and remain flexible to changing circumstances.
• Ethical Policies and Behavior:
  • Avoidance of discriminatory practices.
  • Providing equal pay for work of comparable worth.
  • Maintaining health and safety standards.
  • Ensuring fairness in discipline and termination.

Study Session 5: Contract of Employment, Rights, and Duties

• Ingredients of a Valid Contract: Offer and acceptance, consideration, capacity of parties, intention to be bound, legality, and voluntary consent.
• Statutory Enactments: Labour Act Cap $198$, Factories Act Cap $125$, Workmen’s Compensation Act Cap $470$, and Trade Union Act Cap $437$.
• Terms of Contract: Within $3$ months of starting, the employer must provide a written statement including the employer's name, worker's address, nature of employment, expiry date (if fixed term), notice period, wage rates, and holiday/sick pay details.
• Rights of the Employer: To hire/fire, discipline, be indemnified for employee negligence, impose reasonable restraint of trade, and determine job content.
• Duties of the Employer: Provide work, pay remuneration in legal tender, ensure safe/sanitary tools, and maintain vicarious liability for employee actions in the course of employment.
• Rights of the Employee: Health and safety at work, union membership, paid holidays/leave, and access to courts for employment matters.
• Duties of the Employee: Perform assigned duties, exercise due diligence, obey lawful orders, and maintain loyalty/honesty.

Study Session 6: Manpower Planning

• Definition: Forecasting how many and what kind of employees will be needed in the future and how to meet that demand.
• Benefits: Prevents panic recruitment, anticipates redundancies, monitors manpower-to-cost ratios, and identifies accommodation/training needs.
• Planning Process:
  1. Examine current personnel levels (inventory/audit).
  2. Determine future workload based on corporate objectives.
  3. Align objectives with specific positions.
  4. Calculate required employee numbers through job analysis.
  5. Determine supply sources (internal vs. external).
• Problems: Inadequate knowledge of labour environment, resistance to change, inaccurate forecasts of socio-economic shifts, and high labour turnover.

Study Session 7: Job Analysis, Description, and Specification

• Job Analysis: Breaking jobs into component tasks to reveal all facts about a job.
  • Methods: Observation, interviewing, questionnaires, work diaries, "do-it-yourself" by the analyst, and studying work materials/previous records.
  • Uses: Validating hire procedures, identifying training needs, performance evaluation, and organizational structuring.
• Job Description: An organized, factual statement of duties. It includes: Job identification, summary, duties performed, supervision, tools/machines, and working conditions.
• Job Specification: Minimum acceptable human qualities for the job. Focuses on: Education, experience, intelligence, physical requirements, and personal contacts.

Study Session 8: Recruitment, Selection, and Placement

• Examining Vacancy: Determining if a vacancy exists and whether it can be merged with other roles.
• Sources of Labour:
  • Internal: Promotion, transfer, or coaching. Pros: Boosts morale, cost-effective, utilizes existing competencies.
  • External: Recommendations, unsolicited apps, school links, employment agencies, and advertisements.
• Selection Process:
  1. Application form: Fundamental document for personnel records.
  2. Short-listing: Comparing resumes against job specifications.
  3. Interview: Notes performance and tests.
  4. Offer and References.
  5. Medical Examination: Required by Labour Act $1974$; employer bears the cost.
• Placement: Deploying the applicant following induction. Typically involves a probation period of $3$ months to $2$ years.

Study Session 9: Communication in Organization

• Approaches: Information approach (role transmission), Interpersonal (person-to-person), and Organizational (upward/downward flow).
• Categories of Communication:
  • Task-related (memos/face-to-face).
  • Integrated (values/newsletters).
  • Managerial (collaboration between levels).
• Channels: Oral (telephone), Written (reports/minutes), Visual (graphs/charts), and Non-verbal (body language).
• Elements of Success: Knowing the listener, having facts (especially for negotiations), timing, simplicity, and asking for feedback.

Study Session 10: Training Employees

• Distinctions:
  • Training: Upgrading specific skills/knowledge for the current job.
  • Education: Acquiring general background knowledge.
  • Development: Preparing for future roles and potential organizational growth.
• Training Needs Identification:
  • Individual Level: Identifying the GAP between required KSA (Knowledge, Skills, Attitudes) and actual employee performance.
  • Occupational/Departmental Level: Analyzing future workloads and system changes.
  • Organizational Level: Triggered by expansion, low productivity, or low morale.
• Systematic Approach to Training:
  1. Investigate Needs.
  2. Prepare Objectives.
  3. Design Programs.
  4. Conduct Training.
  5. Assess Effectiveness (Internal/External Validation and Evaluation).

Study Session 11: Performance Management and Appraisal

• Performance Management: Systematic integration of organizational efforts to achieve objectives. Focuses on identifying performance gaps (motivational vs. competency).
• 7-Step Process: Articulate mission, establish objective-based standards, establish measurement standards, provide feedback, differentiate by ability, written agreements, and open dialogue.
• SMART Formula for Targets: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound.
• Performance Standards Types: Methods, Function, Personnel (human characteristics), and Physical factors (machinery/conditions).
• Appraisal Reporting Techniques: Descriptive (narrative), Checklist, Rating (numerical/alphabetical), and Comparisons (ranking Peter vs. Williams).

Study Session 12: Job Evaluation and Pay System

• Job Evaluation: Determining the value/worth of a job relative to others. Focuses on the job itself, not theव्यक्ति (individual).
  • Methods: Ranking, Grading (fitting into pre-set classes), Points Rating (awarding points for factors), and Job Classification.
• Pay Systems:
  • Wage Earners: Paid hourly/daily/weekly. Systems include Payment by Results (piecework) or Measured Day (levelling earnings).
  • Salaried Employees: Paid monthly.
  • Pay Progression: Fixed-incremental (public sector), Variable-incremental (managerial discretion), Fixed-merit (formula-based), and Variable-merit.
• Determinants of Pay: Supply and demand, job difficulty, cost of living, government intervention, and collective bargaining.

Study Session 13: Trade Union Management

• History: Started in August $1912$ (Southern Nigerian Civil Service Union). Trade Union Ordinance of $1938$ paved the way for more. There are currently $71$ industrial unions in Nigeria.
• Structure:
  • National: President, Vice-president, General Secretary (Chief Executive Officer), NEC, and NWC.
  • Area/Zonal Council: State-level supervision.
  • Local Branch: Voluntary part-time secretary.
  • Shop Steward: Daily point of contact at the workplace.
• Legal Strike Procedure: