Abstract
The Civil Service as the machinery of Government performs the unique role of governance and National development as such government everywhere in the world have come to terms with the need to train and re-train it’s human resource for them to be better equipped to maximize productivity levels and meet the challenges of governance and management.
This work makes use of the system theory as the theoretical framework and data gathered from secondary sources. My chapter one began with the general introduction where we have the background of study, statement of problem, objective of study, significance of study, literature review, significance of the study, theoretical framework, hypotheses, method of data collection and analysis, scope and limitation of study, operationalization of concept. In chapter two, we looked at human resource and productivity in the Nigerian civil service: a historical perspective. In chapter three, we looked at how impediments such as corruption, faulty implementation of the principle of federal character, inadequate fund and experienced training staff all impede in productivity. Chapter four dealt with the strategies for human resource development and productivity in Kogi State Civil Service. Finally chapter five, ended this work with summary, conclusion and recommendation. Using Kogi State Civil Service as a point of appraisal, this work hopes to link human resources training and development to their productivity level.
In consequence I am of the view that lack of adequate training and re-training of staff has resulted to low productivity. In view of this I recommend that impediments such as godfatherism, corruption, nepotism should be repudiated in order to increase the level of productivity and quality service delivery.

Chapter One: General Introduction
1.1 Background of the Study
The problem of human resource development and productivity in Nigeria civil service has become very severe such that the civil service is at the point of collapse due to challenges of civil service delivery, over centralization amongst others.
To Collins and Chan (2009) in addition to fixing many such other key problems of development, Nigeria state has an urgent problem of disposing her workforce to cope with the demands of the society.
The origin, structure and performance of the civil service dates back to the 20th century, with the introduction of the British colonial rule in Nigeria. By 1990, a decentralized colonial service with headquarters in each of the protectorate was established. By 1904, the colony of Lagos state was amalgamated with the protectorate of Southern Nigeria. This was followed by the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorate in 1914 bringing into existence a country called Nigeria.
By 1914, there were two civil services in the two Nigeria’s (Northern and Southern) headed by a Governor-general in the person of Lord Lugard and two lieutenant Governors each for the North and South respectively, while an administrator was in charge of Lagos. The British imposed a unified civil service in Nigeria, which was mainly concerned with the maintenance of law and order and the mobilization of enough local resources in order to ensure their administration was self sufficient. According to Ciroma (1988:5):
The Nigerian civil service began as a force of occupation designed to facilitate colonial rule and the exploitation of land and its people for the benefit of the colonial masters.
The 2nd World War and the attendant world wide depression left the civil service hopelessly depleted as the civil service played major role of being an essential tool and veritable source of men and material of the allied war efforts.
In 1936, the Walayns committee recommended a new policy of staffing the public service by indigenes and for the first time the administrative service which was the cream of colonial services was thrown open to Nigerians.
The Nigerianization scheme went a stage further with the appointment of the foot commission of 1948, the commission observed that the training and recruitment of Nigerians for senior post in the government services was not only necessary to enable Nigerians to take part in the management of their own affairs but also required to enable them keep pace with the constitutional development and programs in the country.
Richard constitution of 1946 marked a significant milestone in the history of the civil service in Nigeria, first, it marked the beginning of the regionalization of the hitherto unitary civil service as some attempts were made to regionalize the central department. Regionalization of the civil service took the form of transforming some of the central departments operating in the three regions into non-central departments headed by deputy directors responsible to the director in Lagos.
The Macpherson constitution of 1951 further extended the regionalization policy as more Central Departments were regionalized. The 1954 constitution provided for a full fledged regional civil services as well as the central (federal) civil service. It brought in the wake many structural changes which were of great significance in the public service commission in the regions as well as at the center. These commissions were granted full powers by the same constitution to appoint, promote, dismiss and discipline junior civil servants.
The nationalist agitation for independence brought about the introduction of the Nigerianization policy. The essence of this policy was to make Nigerian civil service entirely staffed, managed and controlled by Nigerians themselves (Omotosho, 2001). To Okunade(1990: 26):
The civil servants that occupied positions were unprepared. They lacked the necessary training initiative and administrative acumen.
Consequently, the level of productivity in the civil service waned dangerously. Also, Nicolson (1969) noted that Nigerians administrative legacy was one of chaos rather than order and tidiness. There was excessive centralization and absence of delegation. Above all, civil servants for the first two decades after independence were corrupt, inefficient and unproductive.
In the face of this alarming decrease in productivity in the civil service, several steps have been taken by successive Nigerian government to strategically position and reposition human resource administration in the country. Such steps include but are not limited to the setting up of the various commissions for reforming the civil service including the Morgan constitution of 1963, Adebo commission of 1971, Udoji commission of 1974 amongst others.
Following the 1974 Udoji report, the civil service was reformed comprehensively, strategically readjusted and strengthened to respond effectively to the demands of developed. Abubakar (1992: 42) opined that:
Human resource development is the sin-quo-non for the attainment of efficiency and effectiveness which are the two major goals/objectives of a good civil service.
The implication is that, the government of the Nigeria civil service before 1994 had been very low. Therefore, utmost need was for qualified and motivated staff at the right place and at the right time to achieve the objectives to transfer paper plan into actual achievement of all aspect of personal management.
Accordingly, the Udoji reform of 1977 saw human resource development as the main vehicle for enhancing efficiency in the civil service.
While the 1978 civil service reform favoured professionalism through human resource training and development as a way of getting into the top cadre of the civil service.
To Ayeni (1991: 123):
These reforms saw human resource training and development for the professionalization initiative of government.
This according to him is because,
It is through experience and training and familiarity that an administration can build any measure of expertise that will set him apart from his colleagues in or outside administration.
Furthermore, to him, the 1988 civil service made it imperative for every incumbent or office holder to possess requisite knowledge and skill and attitudinal tendencies in job activity was instructed and recommended in government services. Accordingly it is agreed that in order to enhance socio-economic development and facilitate efficiency and effectiveness in government business, the performance standard of employees must be uplifted to the minimum level of proficiency.
To this therefore ministries are to establish, operate and maintain programmes or plans for the training of employees in or under the ministry.
In the wake of democracy, after decades of military rule, the Obasanjo regime in 1999 set up a body to reform the public sector/services especially in the employment of qualified graduates.
The Bureau of pubic service chaired by Mallam El-Rufai was empowered to review the public service to ensure effectiveness.
The reform led to the retrenchment of about thirty thousand workers (unqualified, incompetent and dead wood) and the employment of about one thousand, five hundred graduates with first class and second class university degrees. Unlike in the past, it became dynamic and effective, as civil servants were allowed to perform their traditional duty which is to advice and to implement policies of government (The Punch, May 2, 2000).
The current administration has not done much to improve on what Obasanjo did during his time, except the eighteen thousand naira minimum wage for civil servants which has not yet been adopted by most states in Nigeria. Moreover, the civil service is still considered stagnant and inefficient as the attempts made in the past have had little effect on the promotion of sustainable human resource development and productivity in the civil service.
This study therefore attempts to assess the impact of human resource development on productivity in the civil service in Nigeria using the Kogi state civil service commission as a point of appraisal.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
At independence in 1960, so many British officials were replaced with Nigerians but in spite of this, the colonial method of doing things was still predominant in the civil service.
In order words, the whites were replaced by Nigerians, yet the West-Minister-patterned general orders and financial institutions remained the operational codes in the Nigerian civil service.
The emergent civil servants were inexperienced consequent upon the indigenization policy as most of them occupied positions that their abilities and capabilities in terms of experience, training and qualification can not cope with.
Thus, the quest to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the civil service has always occupied the attention of successive governments. This is because the civil service is the brain box of the modern governments yet the civil service in Nigeria has been characterized by poor performance and inability to translate government policies and programs to reality. Beginning from the period of indigenization of the civil service in 1960’s many things went wrong. For instance, Njoku (1984) believed that the indigenization exercise was done without regard to the interest of the services as the beneficiaries of the policy failed to adhere to the weberian principle that a bureaucrat should neither appropriate his office nor the resources that go with it. On the contrary, the Nigerian civil servants under Gowon’s regime, according to Elaigwu (1986) used their positions to acquire wealth by irregular methods. They became corrupt and in the view of Balogun (1983), they could no longer hide under the cloak of anonymity, impartiality and economic neutrality.
Even in situations where the need for employee training and development is needed and a lot of time and money is committed to staff training and development, the exercise were often inappropriate, haphazard or premised on a faulty diagnosis of organizational training needs.
In other situations were training happened to occur, civil servants are deployed without regard to the skill acquired leading to frustration of personnel so trained and also general inefficiency in the system.
In Nigerian civil service, the workers are generally under-trapped, underutilized, poorly motivated and consequently perform low below their standard to ensure effective productivity.
It is against this background that this work seeks to provide answers to the following pertinent questions.
1. Is there any link between human resource development and productivity in the civil service?
2. Is corruption an impediment to human resource development in the Nigerian civil service?
3. Can merit-based recruitment, selection and regular staff training engender productivity in the Kogi State civil service?
1.3 Objectives of the Study
The broad objective of this study is to examine the basic challenges facing human resource development and productivity in Kogi State civil service commission from its establishment to date.
Specifically however, the study aims at the following:-
1. To establish the link between human resource development and productivity.
2. To ascertain if corruption is an impediment to human resource development in the Nigerian civil service.
3. To determine if merit-based recruitment, selection and regular staff training can engender productivity in the Kogi state civil service.
1.4 Literature Review
Human Resource development can be defined as a method of equipping the employees particularly the non-managerial employees with specific skills that will enable them to improve on their performance and overall efficiency.
Prof. Sanker observed that Human resource development is a development oriented planning effort in the personal area which is basically concerned with the development of human resources in the organization for improving the existing capabilities and acquiring new capabilities for the achievement of the cooperate and individual goals.
Dr. Nader defines Human Resource Development as an organized learning experience within a period of time with an objective of producing the possibility of performing the change.
Accordingly Human resource development from a business prospective is not entirely focused on the individual’s growth and development, “development occurs to enhance the organizations value, not solely for individual improvement. Individual education and development is a tool and a means to an end, not the end goal itself”. (Elwood F. Holton II, James W. Trout Jnr).
They further argued that the broader concept of national and more strategic attention to the development of human resources is beginning to emerge as newly independent countries face strong competition for their skilled professionals and the accompanying brain-drain they experience.
At the organizational level, a successful Human resource development program will prepare the individual to undertake a higher level of work, organized learning over a given period of time to provide the possibility of performance change (Nadler 1984).
In these settings, human resource development is the framework that focuses on the organizations competencies of the first stage, training and then developing the employee through education, to satisfy the organizations long-term needs and the individual’s career goals and employees value to their present and future employers.
Human resource development can be defined simply as developing the most important section of any business, its human resources by “attaining or upgrading the skills and attitudes of employees at all levels in order to maximize the effectiveness of the enterprise’ (Kelly, 2001). He concludes that the people within an organization are its human resource.
The Human resource development framework views employees as an asset to the enterprise whose value will be enhanced by development; its primary focus is on growth and employee development. It emphasizes developing individual potential and skills (Elwood, Olton and Troot 1996). Human resource development in this treatment can be in room group training, tertiary or vocational courses or mentioning and coaching by senior employees with the aim for a desired outcome that will develop the individuals performance. At the level of a national strategy, it can be a broad intersectional approach to fostering effective contributions to national productivity.
Staff training and development fall within the purview of personal management in most organization, especially public organizations. The importance of staff training and development in any organization is clear, if we recognize the fact that the structure that sustains it depends on the individual that operate the structure.
Staff training and development can occur simultaneously. According to Onah (2003) any organization that has no plan for the training and development of its staff is less than dynamic, for learning is a continuous process. He further acquired that skills become redundant when the environment changes.
Accordingly, Lisa M. Lynch and Sandra Black (1995:47) observed that:
There is growing economic evidence that investment in training and development are associated with long-run profitability, and firms that recognize work using programs such as teams and quantity circles report greater productivity if those programs are associated with worker education.
George T Mikovish and John W. Boudreau (1997: 15) posit that:
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While the effort to spend on training is astonishing, even more astonishing is how little we know about effectively managing training investment and its productivity.
Training may be defined as an organized and co-ordinate development of knowledge, skill and attitudes needed by an individual to master a given situation or perform a certain task within an organizational setting.
Craig (1967) defines training as the development process made possible through the device of words and signs.
However, a definition which seems to meet the theoretical requirement of this work is that used by Magalee and Thayer (1961). Their definition is based on the theory that training is a sub-system within the total system of the enterprises management. They therefore see training as the formal procedure which an organization uses to facilitate employees learning so that their resultant behavior contributes to the attainment of the organizational as well as the individual goals and objective.
Staff development on the other hand according to Akpan (1982) is a process whereby an employee is enabled to grow in job through the acquisition of wide experience breadth and responsibility, the aim been to enable him to reach the top or achieve his best in his profession of employment. Such a position will be attained through action, observation, study, reflection, experiment and initiative.
As Cole (2002) puts it, staff development can be seen as any learning activity which is directed towards further needs rather than present needs and which is concerned more with career growth than immediate performance.
They have been different opinions on whether staff training and development differ at all, some conceive training as primarily dealing with operative personnel and development as relating to managers and executives. Others like Austey (1961:50) Hebison and Mayer (1964) and Novit (1979:111) sees a considerable overlap between the two concepts in operational terms. In his book, Novit (1979) applied the term behavior change to illuminate the essence of both training and development in an organization. In his view, the central to the occurrence of behavior change is the learning process aimed at behavior change to the extent that there is an overlap between them.
But Strayton (1977:2) draws a somewhat suitable distinction between training and development in this way. As we progress from the shop floor to the boardroom (management) the importance in intellectual capacity, the object of teaching becomes essentially the development of sound judgment.
Straytons definition implies that training in the sense of training and learning of skills pertain more to operative personal while development is associated with those at the management/executive level.
Akpan (1982) says that staff training and development can occur simultaneously or complementarily to each other. To him they should in fact be separately treated in concept. However, in this work, the two concepts will be used simultaneously because of their relatedness and their result in the efficiency and effectiveness of the human resources.
It is on this background that Onah (2003) posits than an untrained member of an organization is a liability to a dynamic organization as he not only applies the wrong knowledge to others coming after him and those he happens to be supervising. As Akpan (1979:13) puts it:
An untrained man in the modern world may be a menace to the society, he is a quack; he knows only the laws of things, he has no idea of (their) why. Hence if they are any trouble anywhere, a breakdown in a machine or a mistake in a ledger. All he can do is to fumble and punch up trouble any how; leading to a more serious breakdown or greater confusion, really there is no place for untrained and undeveloped workers and or even the intelligent armature in these days of specialized works.
Ubeku, (1975:114) regrettably notes that:
They are many organizations in this country that regard training and development as expensive ventures and avoid them like a plague. What such organization are interested in are the immediate returns. But in a changing world, of which Nigeria is a part, thus attitude can no longer hold good.
Akpomouvire (2007) argues that Human resource training and development is a tool employed by organizations to equip their workforce for the accomplishment of set goals and objectives. Furthermore, he argued that in any organization, there are a great many things that the people employed need to learn in order to become competent in their jobs. It is within the framework of this cluster of notes and learning process that management delimits responsibilities, provides the participating members of the organization with resources and boundaries within which efficiency may be a reasonable expectation. In the attempt to accomplish this goal, the importance of human resource training and development becomes inevitable.
Human resource training and development improves employees abilities to perform the task required by an organization. It according to Graham (1981) has the important dual function of utilization and motivation. By improving employees ability to perform the task required by the company training:
Allows better use to be made of human resources, by giving employees a feeling of mastery over their work and of recognition by management, which increases job satisfaction in workers.
Furthermore, organizations have a stake in developing the careers of their employees so that the employees can be retained while their performance becomes more effective and efficient. Walker (1992) for example opined that in the 1990’s and beyond, organizations will invest more, not less in efforts to retain, train and develop talents.
According to Simon (1937) administrative efficiency is increased by a specialization of the task among the group in the direction that will lead to greater efficiency.
The position adopted by Du-Santoy (1957) is instructive on the significance.
Akpomouvire (2002) contends that for human resource training and development to achieve its goals of being the planed process of modifying attitudes, knowledge and skills through learning and experience, to achieve effective performance in an activity or range of activities so as to satisfy the current and future needs of an organization or government, three broad perspective are to be considered. They are:
a. Human resource training and development
b. Training, development and professionalization in the civil service and
c. Administrative reforms.
Human resource training and development in its myriad forms is provided to help employees learn job-related skills and obtain knowledge that will help them improve their performance and further the organizations goals. From a more concise source, human resource development can be termed to be a:
Planned process to modify attitudes, skills or behavior through learning experience to achieve effective performance in an activity or range of activities. Its purpose in a work situation is to develop the abilities of the individuals and to satisfy the current and future needs of the organization (Foot and Hook, 1999).
To Griffin (1984:17), in order to postulate the disposition and capacity building of the various employees of government, a good human resource management and development must be in place. He went further to say that human resource development involves taking various resources an organization has at its disposal and combining them in such a way that the organizations goals are attained. He explained that by efficient, he meant that doing things in a systematic fashion without waste.
To Noe et al (2003:68) a number of skills are instilled in employees through training and development. Development involves acquisition knowledge, skills and behavior that improve employees ability to meet the challenges of a variety of existing jobs or job that do not yet exist.
To Barney (1995) quoted in Onah (2008:3) Human resource development include all the experience, skills, judgment, abilities, knowledge, risk-taking, and wisdom of individuals and associates in an organization.
Omale (1992) observed that in almost all senior positions, if one is recruited with required educational qualification, no training and development was carried out on him. Experience on the job becomes the only criteria for the worker to reach the top of his career ladder. Yet, the job an officer does from one grade level to the other according to Omale are:
Sufficiently different to warrant not only vocational knowledge which he gets via experience, but also theoretical knowledge and attitude re-orientation in order to successfully cope with the demands of such higher jobs. Such theoretical knowledge and attitudinal re-orientation can only best be acquired through formal training off the job in appropriate training institution.
In his own view, Makinde (1992) is of the opinion that human resources training is a short-term process of learning specific skills by both junior and intermediate staff, while development entails a long term learning process designed to develop senior officers in order to activate them with changes in technology and management method.
Human resource training and development equips workers with the necessary skills to enable them to gain promotion and have a reasonable expectation of redeployment. To this end, Adamolekun (1986) made a strong case for a positive conception of the civil service that would be able to carry out the contractual obligation between government and the governed whereby services would be seen to be provided efficiently and the system would run on smooth wheels. This position is reflected in the revised guidelines for training in the federal civil service (1995) where it is unequivocally stated that government continues to accept the need and wisdom to use training as a vehicle for enhancing productivity and efficiency in the service.
The primary purpose of human resource training and development under scores the driving activities according to Chrudeen and Sherman (1976) and Ubeku (1973), is to develop employees who are made to acquire relevant skills, knowledge and job attitudes are put into more definitive use so as to bring about effective performance.
Human resource training and development according to Nadler (1992) prepares the employee so that he can move with the organization as it develops and grows, resulting in new jobs for the employees of higher level.
The overall purpose being to produce a viable and flexible workforce for the organization as it moves towards its future. However, according to Bienvennu (1980), what is to be understood is that training and development prepares a worker to improve on his ability beyond the job in which he is currently engaged. The worker is prepared for a place in the organization for the sake of the future and in the case of eventualities. Bienvennu refers to this as shift of effort from job training to work training.
According to Danisi and Griffin (2005) productivity is an economic measure of efficiency that summarizes and reflects the value of the output created by an individual, organization, industry or economic system relative to the value of the inputs used to create them. They argued that organizations around the world have come to recognize the importance of productivity for its ability not only to compete but also to survive, furthermore, an organization that is serious about productivity will need to invest more on training and development to give workers the necessary skills and ability to create high quality products and services. Human resources development has the goal in most organization of helping to enhance productivity through different activities and task.
Daniel Hartzell (2011) sees productivity as a measured relationship between the quality (and quantity) of results produced and the quantity of resources required for production. Productivity is in essence a measure of the work efficiency of an individual, work unit or entire organization. He further argued that productivity can be measured in two ways, one way relates the output of an enterprise, industry or economic sector to a single input, such as labour or capital. The other relates output to a composite of imput combined so as to account for their relative importance.
The choice of a particular productivity measure depends on the purpose for which it is to be used.
He further defined productivity as a war against waste. Even if the technical and economic concept of productivity is taken into consideration, i.e. productivity is the ratio of output and input. This could be favourable only when planned efforts are made to utilize the scarce resources as economically as possible to achieve the best result. He concludes that among several factors affecting productivity, safety in industry, one of the most important factor to be kept in view for promoting productivity is the rate of output of a workers or machine.
Productivity is the measure of how well resources are brought together in organization and utilized for accomplishing of set result produced in reaching the highest level of performance with the least expenditure of resources (Nwachukwu, 2002:56).
It can also be seen as the amount of production in relations to labour put in.
The civil service is one of the great political inventions of the nineteenth century England. The first generation of civil servants was called “Court servants” or “court clerks”. Before the era of court clerks, the work of government was done by persons of the royal household (Kapul et al 2002:105).
In terms of origin, “civil service” as a term was borrowed in the mid-eighteenth century (1785) from the British administration in India to describe a system that emphasis selection on the basis of merit (Wey, 1971:2).
The term “service” connotes a profession, a group of civil servants having common recruitment conditions and prospect, as well as a “career” in an acceptable lifetime employment under the government.
According to the jurist, professor A. Eniola (2001:1-10), the Nigerian interpretation act of 1964 “which is made the interpreter of the Nigerian constitution and the other statutes is silent on the general meaning and scope of the phrase “civil servant”.
This is not unconnected with the observation by Peter Kellner and Lord Norman Crowder-Hunt (1980:9), that “There is a special sense in which the civil service effects the British constitution. It is not clearly defined in writing, it evolve and change with mood and circumstances”. Nonetheless, E.C.S Wade and G.G. Philips (1968:221) observed with regard to the British civil service that “a rough definition of the civil service will include all non-political offices and employment held under the crown with the exception of the Armed forces.
However, Nigerian scholars have been able to give meaning and understanding to the concept “civil service”.
Adamolekun (2002) states that civil service is commonly used as the synonym of the machinery of the government, this is so in Britain and most common wealth countries of sub-Saharan African. In British conception, the civil service is used to refer to the body of permanent official appointed to assist the decision makers.
The term civil service is normally used when referring to the body of men and women employed in a civil capacity and non-political career basis by the federal and state government primarily to render and faithfully give effect to their decision and implementation (Ipianya, 2001) such career officers normally derive their appointment from the civil service commission, which also exercises power of delegating duties and responsibilities to departments in accordance with laid down rules.
Today, the civil service has come to been seen as a complex organization and a modern institution baguetted to mankind in the process of revolutionizing an efficient way of organizing any large human organization. It is in this respect that the civil service is defined as a bureaucracy (Ipianya, 2001).
Civil service is a body of man and women who are trained in various field and employed by the government on a temporary or permanent basis to render services to the government and the people of the state. Thus it does not involve the Armed forces personal and judicial officers. Civil service is a body of people who are directly responsible for the execution of government policy; it includes everybody who participates in the execution of public policy from the messenger to the top administrative officer (Nwizu, 2002).
Salassie concurs by defining civil service as a service comprising all servants of the state, other than those holding political and judicial appointments who are employed in a civil capacity and whose remuneration is paid wholly and directly out of money voted by parliament.
Accordingly, C.B. Nwankwo, and co, defines civil service as a body of men and women employed in a civil capacity and on a non-political basis by the federal and state government primarily to render advice and faithfully give effect to their decision.
Late chief M.K.O Abiola, in an article titled “Civil Service and African Economy published in daily champion on Thursday, August 29th 1991, defined the civil service as “the body of full time professional officials employed in the civil offices of a state in a non-political capacity”. This body which is permanently attached to the executive arm of government is made up of permanent, skilled, professional workers who carry out the day-to-day administration of the state under the chief executive and his cabinet.
The civil service is a term used to cover those public servants who are direct employees of the federal and state government, other than the police, the Armed forces personal, the judicial personal and the teachers. Its usage excludes also employees of statutory corporations and boards (Nwosu, 1977).
In line with this, Ademolukun (1986) defines the civil service as the body of permanent officials appointed to assist the political executive in formulating and implementing governmental policies. It also sees the second usage of the term as referring to the ministers and departments within which specific aspects of government are carried out.
Traditionally, civil service is the totality of civil bureaucracy set up by modern governments to administer and execute their policies and programmes.
Contrary to this, the civil service handbook (1997) defines the civil service as a growing body or organ that enjoys continuity of existence. The officials engaged in it are otherwise known as the “civil servants” unlike members of the legislative arm or organ of government are not united for a short period of time in office at the expiration of which they may not be returned to office; the civil servants remains in office where as elected members or officers in the government come and go for whatever reason, when the civil servants leave his office under no compulsory, voluntarily recruitment or by registration or by termination of appointment, his office is taken over by another person or officer that similarly enjoys security of employment. Thus, the civil services can be regarded as a complex organization with a body of seemingly permanent officials appointed in a capacity to assist the political executives in the formulation, execution and implementation of the government policies in ministries and extra-ministerial department within which the specific government works are carried out.
Akpomuovire (2007) argues that the civil service is an institution which is made up of a body of people employed and payed by the state government to execute the laws, plans and policies of government. In carrying out this task, the Human resources (civil servants) employed in the service, develop and manage the resources of the government for the achievement of policies, goals and objectives.
The service is the indispensable arm and the bedrock of the executive arm of government the government uses the civil service to fulfill that contractual relationship between government and the people.
In this regard, workers employed in the civil service have to be trained and developed so as to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the service in meeting the challenges of National development.
Human resource development in the civil service therefore focuses on the objectives of equipping the personal in the service from the point of their recruitment to that of retirement, so that civil servants be kept constantly ready not only to provide improved living conditions for Nigeria but also set the machinery for achieving accelerated growth and development within the country.
The effectiveness of government is said to depend on the abilities of the instruments of government to respond to the policies and programmes of that government as observed by Philips (1988) when he said “in a strong sense a country is a close reflection of the efficiency, effectiveness and sensitivity of its civil service. Human resources training and development is essential to the existence and survival of organization. Olowu posits that human resource training and development enables civil servants acquire the relevant professional skills and knowledge for effective performance.
Accordingly Drucker (1986) said that a good organizational structure itself does not guarantee good performance. It is human resource training and development that equips civil servants with relevant professional skills and knowledge about effective and efficient performance.
This position was further supported by Pye (1988) when she opined that “when steps are to be taken to improve the quality of employees and overall organizational performance, attention naturally turns to the process of training, education and development of employees”. Even the architects of the 1988 civil service reforms could be said to have subscribed to Pye’s submission as in relation to human resource training and development.
Section (1) of this reform states that: for the purpose of improving economy and efficiency in the operations of the ministry and raising the standards of performance by employees of their official duties to the maximum possible level of proficiency, the minister shall establish, operate and maintain programmes or plans for training and development of employees in or under the ministry by and through government faculties including the training institution (Implementation guidelines of the 1988 civil service reform).
1.5 Significance of the Study
The study is significant from the point of view that no available literature or study so far his specifically focused on human resource development and productivity in Kogi State civil service, none has examined the extent to which the civil service as an agent of government has contributed to the development and training of civil servants in Kogi State.
Thus, it is going to add to existing body of literature and extend the frontiers of knowledge practically. This research work will be a guide to scholars, policy makers, policy implementers and researchers and evidently serve as a guide to the government on how to promote effective human resource development and productivity in the civil service particularly Kogi State civil service.
1.6 Theoretical Framework
This work adopts the systems theory as the theoretical framework of analysis because the systems theory considers all elements and views the organization as constituting of many parts, furthermore, system theorist see an organization and its environment as inter-dependent; each depending on the other for sustenance.
A system is a set of elements of units which interact in some way and are supported from their environment by some land of boundaries (Young 1960, Eminue 2001:98). Scholars of system see it as the most popular concept that applies to systems regulation and maintenance, system equilibrium or homeostasis which is the ability of system to maintain its internal balance even while undergoing a process of change.
The development of the systems theory as a method of political analysis is traced to David Easton and Gabriel Almond. The mustered seed was sewn when the view originated that in the study of a given social and political system, at was not so important to try to find out how a pattern of behavior had originated as to find out the part it played in maintaining the system as a whole. The system theory is a derivative of behaviorism, based on the assumption that everything must be just as it is for the total society to be just as it is.
Thus a person may be considered a system of organizations, a molecule may be thought of as a system of individuals, implicit in this concept as a degree of totality of wholeness that makes something different from another (Tilles, 1965).
According to Hicks (1972) the system theory of an organization has been defined as a structured process in which individuals interest for objectives.
Idemudia (1990) defined the two terms “system” and “theory” separately in order to elucidate the implication of their meaning. To him, a system is an entity made up of a separate but inter-dependent part with set goals and functions while a theory on the other hand is an abstract generalized statement, summarizing or linking together a number of propositions into a unified logical structure. Put together, system theory means how inter-related social entity is organized into testable propositions.
The systems theory is an integrative theory that attempts to present an organization as a unified purposeful system composed of inter-dependent parts. It also consist of inter-dependent parts with distinct boundaries which interacts with the environment by importing inputs, while it exports output in order to maintain itself in a permanent state of equilibrium.
A special feature of the system approach is the fact that arising from the outputs some new imputs are generated, which are once again fed into the system for processing and conversion.
The basic concept developed under the broad framework of the general systems theory can be divided into three categories;
1. Concepts which are of a descriptive nature
2. Concepts which try to highlight the factors responsible for regulating and maintaining the system.
3. Concepts which focus on dynamics of, or change in the system.
Under the first category we have open and closed systems. Systems can also be defined under this category in terms of hierarchy of subsystems and their order of interactions. The working of the internal organization of the system and the interaction of the system with its environment also come within this category and in this case we find that some systems follow a pattern of development as determined by themselves and others have to depend upon external factors.
The systems interaction with the environment implies the concept of boundary, imputs and outputs.
Under the second category where we seek to understand the factors responsible for the maintenance and regulation of the system we find concepts as stability, equilibrium and homeostasis connected with the issue of regulation and maintenance, also are the concept of feedback, repair, reproduction etc.
Finally, under the 3rd category are concepts connected with dynamics and change, change which can be descriptive or non-descriptive. Non-descriptive change can be brought about through responses to attend environmental conditions. This brings into focus the concept of adaptation, learning and growth.
Change can also be descriptive involving the distinction between the notions of description, dissolution and breakdown as well as the notion of systematic crisis, stress as strain and overload and decay.
The systems approach to the study of organization focuses on the system as a whole, the environment of the system, the interdependent relationship between parts of the system and the dependency for the system to strive and survive by negotiating with its environment as Kontaz et al (1980:23) puts it:
The advantage of approaching any area of energy in any problem as a system is that at enables us to see the critical variable and constraint and their interactions with one another, it forces scholars and practitioners to be constantly aware that one single element, phenomenon or problem should no the treated without regard to its interacting consequences with other elements.
The major concept involved in the system theory can be summarized as follows:
1. A system can be perceived as a whole with it part and their independent relationship.
2. A system has its boundary and can be viewed in terms of its relationship with other systems.
3. A system has sub-systems and is also a part of a super-system.
4. A system can be regarded as either open or closed. According to Kontz et al, (1980) a system is regarded as open if it exchanges information, energy and material with its environment as it happens with biological or social systems.
It is regarded as closed if it does not have such interactions within the environment.
5. A system interacts with the environment in terms of processes that invites imput, conversion and output of energy, information and material. A system tends to re-energize or modify itself through the process of information, feedback from the environment.
6. In order to survive, an open system moves to arm the entopic process by importing more energy from its environment than expected and by strong energy it
can acquire negative entropy.
As Kartz and Kahn (1966) further explain, the
entrology process is a universal law of nature in which all
form of organization move toward disorganization or death.
Source: Gauba Op (2003) An Introduction to Political Theory.
In applying the system theory to the study at hand, the
civil service is seen as an open system which comprises of a
whole entity with sub-systems that interact within itself and
within the outside bodies, the larger society.
Hence the various sub-systems (department) are not
autonomous within the guild structure, rather they are
independent part of the unitary organization.
Environment
(imput)
Demand Output
Political
System
Support decision
Environment
Feedback
Accordingly, the civil service as an organization receives imputs (men, skills) etc in the form of demand and supply from the people. Demand could be regarded as positive and negative expression of individuals towards the activities occurring in the environment of a particular political system.
The fundamental idea here is that the staffs are the life-blood and the success of the civil service ultimately depends on them. The individual staff therefore requires a planned development and training programme to improve their skills and knowledge in their various levels and areas of operation so as to respond effectively to the demand of the people and also to achieve the objectives of the civil service.
To make for efficiency in human resource and achieve increased productivity, workers in the system are trained and developed in the best method so that productivity can be achieved at a very minimal time and reduced cost, if they fail to do this the reverse will be the case which might lead to the total collapse of the civil service.
Since the civil service is a system with various sub-system both the senior and junior executives need development and training programmes that will prepare them to occupy a position especially for a position vertically higher than he/she was.
The demand and supply are critically analyzed in the conversion process and are passed out as output in the form of authoritative allocation of values, laws, regulations and services that will determine if the productive level of the civil service is enough to achieve their objectives.
Human resources development and productivity in Kogi State civil service will lead to efficiency among the workers and effectiveness in reaching their stated goals.
1.7 Hypotheses
1. There tends to be a strong link between human resource development and productivity in the civil service.
2. Corruption impedes human resource development in the Nigerian civil service.
3. Productivity in the Kogi State civil service depends on merit based recruitment, selection and staff training.
1.8 Method of Data Collection and Analysis
In the course of this research work, data would be gathered from secondary sources such as textbooks, journals, internet materials, and any useful document relating to the study.
The method of data analysis used will be quantitative analysis, data presented will be analyzed in order to make accurate recommendations.
1.9 Scope and Limitation of the Study
The scope of the study will be limited to the impact and effect of human resource development and productivity in the civil service as it posses a threat to Kogi State and Nigeria as a whole.
Thus, it will focus on all efforts of government to increase human resources development and productivity in Kogi State civil service.
1.0 Operationalization of Concept
Civil service: According to the 1999 constitution section 218, subsection 1, the civil service can be defined as:
The service of the federation in a civil capacity as staff of the office of the president, the vice-president, a ministry or department of the government of the federation assigned with the responsibility for any business of the government of the federation; while in respect to state civil service of the state in a civil capacity as staff of the office of the Governor, Deputy Governor or a ministry or department of the government of the state assigned with the responsibility for any business of the Government of the staff (FRN, 1999).
Human resource development: Human Resource Development is a process through which employees in an organization are assisted to realize their full potential for their present and future jobs.
Productivity: Productivity is the volume of goods and services produced for work within some specific unit of the hour, day, week, month, year etc.
Training: Training means to give teaching and practice in order to bring a desired stand and behavior efficiency or physical condition. Thus it is the act of teaching in the industrial or business concept. It is the act of reaching a particular level of the expectation of the employer.
Nepotism: Implies favoritism shown by somebody in power to relations and friends, especially in appointing them to good positions.