Project Abstract

Organisations tends to be hierarchical with a finite number of levels (ranks). Humans are considered as the most crucial, volatile and potentially unpredictable resource which an organization utilizes. If an organization fails to place and direct human resources in the right areas of the business, at the right time, and at the right cost, serious inefficiencies are likely to occur creating considerable operational difficulties or even business failure.

The situation is more crucial in Nigeria, where there is scarcity of qualified manpower to fill existing positions. Manpower planning is very compelling to effectively and efficiently utilize whatever personnel that is available.

In this research work, manpower is viewed as a vehicle for organisational development. This Project work identify the impact of manpower planning on organizational development, it identified the challenges faced by organizations in Nigeria in deploying a proper manpower planning, and suggested solutions would be recommended.

Project Overview

INTRODUCTION

1.1   HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

In the early 1970s many companies were planning significant expansion. During this period such companies were quick to realise that the key to success was an adequate supply of appropriately skilled people. This led to the emergence of human resource planning as a personnel management tool. Manpower planning is the process of ensuring that the correct number of human resources are available at the right time at the right place. Companies attempt to forecast their human resource requirements for the medium, to long term. In order to do that they need appropriate analytical tools. Much effort was devoted to developing tools and techniques to assist managers with their planning. Many of these were based on the theory of stochastic processes and more specifically the concept of Markov chains [Bowel, 1974].

In large organisations the flow of individuals between the various ranks is a task which requires careful and detailed monitoring. Over a number of years patterns of behaviour may emerge and in many cases the role of manpower planning is to build a picture of such resource flows. In a stable environment where the features and characteristics of product and labour markets are expected to evolve in a predictable and orderly fashion, a model of long-term patterns of employment within the organisation would emerge. This would show the expected number of retirements, the expected turnover of staff, within departments and the average number of staff which leave for involuntary reasons. This can give a broad and rather basic picture of staff turnover. Hence it can also be used to provide valuable information on timings and rates for replenishing staff. To sum up, to maintain stable levels of employees over time management, required data on where, when and how many employees need to be recruited.

1.2   INTRODUCTION

One of the major problems confronting the Nigerian nation is lack of effective management. It is not less stating the fact, if we say we lack effective management of the Nigerian economy because we fail to develop our management manpower. Quite a number of people are put in responsible management positions with little or no formal or even management education, even at the rudimentary level Umoru-Onuka (2001a) placed emphasis on the need to give adequate management education to those who are either put in management positions or who aspire to become managers. Invariably, therefore, the need for well-educated management personnel, in an era of globalisation hardly needs being emphasized, unless the economy wants to remain perpetually underdeveloped. It is also noteworthy that management, according to Umoru-Onuka (2001b), is largely a communicative profession and is to very large extent information based.

Organisations tend to be hierarchical with a finite number of levels (ranks). Humans are considered as the most crucial, volatile and potentially unpredictable resource which an organisation utilises. If an organisation fails to place and direct human resources in the right areas of the business, at the right time, and at the right cost, serious inefficiencies are likely to occur creating considerable operational difficulties or even business failure.

The situation is more crucial in Nigeria, where there is scarcity of qualified manpower to fill existing positions. Manpower planning is very compelling to effectively and efficiently utilize whatever personnel that is available. It is mainly in this way that people in the organization who need more training could be identified to upgrade their skill in order to assume more responsible position. It would also aid the organization to start very early to seek and find capable hands to replace those about to retire to cushion the effect of their departure from the establishment.

This Project work intend to identify the impact of manpower planning on organizational development, this would require identifying the challenges faced by organizations in Nigeria in deploying a proper manpower planning, and suggested solutions would be recommended.

1.3   STATEMENTS OF PROBLEM

The problems associated with this study in no doubt constitutes major hindrance on effective manpower utilization in Nigeria. These problems includes the followings;

• Poor Reward System: In Nigeria, youths are usually underpaid for their skills becausethere is excess supply of labour in the labour market. If employees are not adequately rewarded for their jobs, it will serve as disincentive to work and development.
• Population Growth: The paucity and unreliability of the demographic statistics of developing countries like Nigeria is well-known. However, although population data has been insufficiently accurate for planning purposes, the concept and measures of  population change used by demographers in the developing countries are logically sound. In each case a special situation can be created which determines the manpower structure of this country .
• Surplus and Shortage of Manpower:It may be mistakenly thought that Nigeria as anover-populated country must have abundance of labour. But unfortunately Nigeria manpower planner does not make provision for educating the active population leading to abundance of unskilled workers which could be interpreted as shortage of semi-skilled or skilled workers, or both.
• Urbanization Crisis: This is as a result of rural-urban migration and natural population increase. In Nigeria, rural-urban immigration is high because government developmental policies do not give room for even development across the country.
• Corruption: High level of corruption in the country has been a detriment to manpower development. The younger generations are no longer interested in human capacity building. There is “get rich quickly” syndrome among the youths which inhibits skill development; rather, youths prefer to engage in politics where there will be free access to public funds.
• Colonial Experience: There have been several arguments regarding the distortions in manpower development of national growth in Nigeria as a result of colonialism which was fashioned towards economic exploitation. As a result, this problem account for a lack of adequate attention given to labour as a critical part of the production process in Nigeria.
• Poor Political Leadership: Closely related to the problem of colonial experience as a problem of colonial experience in Nigeria is a poor political leadership which is further deepening the problem of manpower development in Nigeria. This factor has manifested itself in poor funding of education over the years, disparity or class in manpower development between the rich and the poor.

1.4   RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

Manpower planning does not only analyses the current human resources but also makes manpower forecasts and thereby draw employment programmes. The objective of this project work is to find out if;

1. Manpower planning  has effect on growth and diversification of businesses in organization
2. Recruitment and selection programmes in Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc. are truly based on manpower planning.
3. Manpower planning helps to reduce the labour cost.
4. manpower management helps to identify shortages and surpluses
5. Manpower Planning helps to identify the available talents in a concern and to develop those talents.

1.5       RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

Research questions are those interrogative statements that arise often from the course of study or alternatively they can be defined as research objectives stated in interrogative form. Research questions are meant to generate possible answers to different aspects of the research problem and they should be clearly stated such that they act as guides in identification, collection and analysis of relevant data. In order to achieve the purpose of this research study, the study will attempt to provide answers to the following research questions.

1. Does manpower management enhance the growth and development of organizations?
2. Does manpower management reduces labour cost of an organization?
3. What are the strengths and weaknesses of organizations to meeting manpower planning in Nigeria?
4. How could overstaffing and understaffing be mitigated.

1.6     RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

Hypothesis is a tentative answer to a research question. It is a conjectural statement about the relationships that exist between two or more variables which needs to be tested empirically before they can be accepted or rejected. In a research work, hypotheses are never proved or disproved, they are either supported (i.e. accepted) or rejected. To provide answer to the research questions arising from this study, the following hypotheses are postulated.

HYPOTHESIS ONE

Ho:   Manpower planning has no significant effect on the growth and development of organization

H1:   Manpower planning has significant effect on the growth and development of organization

HYPOTHESIS TWO

Ho:   There is no relationship between labour cost of an organization and Manpower planning.

H1:   There is relationship between labour cost of an organization and Manpower planning.

1.7     MODEL SPECIFICATION

Human resource planning has generated a lot of interests among scholars and personnel management practitioners to the extent that there are many models of manpower planning available today. Some of these models are complex and sophisticated while some are at the same time simple to comprehend.

Determining manpower needs involve complete manpower inventory which will eventually show areas of surplus or shortage within the organization. It is just a form of stock-taking exercise by the personnel department in order to determine the preset and future manpower requirements of the organization. A number of methods can be adopted in an attempt to determine the current position of human resources in an organization. This can be done by age, skill levels or group and by managerial potential.

1.8     SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This research study is aimed at critically and carefully making a consideration of the impact of manpower planning on the growth and development of organizations such as Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc., hence considering the extent to which its effect and purpose, importance and functions can influence and contribute to the company. The significance of this study includes;

1. 1.  Manpower planning is a Key to managerial functions i.e., planning, organizing, directing and controlling which help human resources in the implementation of all these managerial activities.
2. 2.  Manpower planning provides Efficient management of personnels. Setting of large scale enterprises require management of large scale manpower.
3. 3.  With proper Manpower planning the best out of staff could be derived when motivated, and by so doing right men would be placed on right job, but it also comprises of motivational programmes, i.e., incentive plans to be framed for further participation and employment of employees in a concern. Therefore, all types of incentive plans becomes an integral part of staffing function.
4. 4.  Manpower planning provides for a better human relations- A concern can stabilize itself if human relations develop and are strong. Human relations become strong trough effective control, clear communication, effective supervision and leadership in a concern. Staffing function also looks after training and development of the work force which leads to co-operation and better human relations.
5. 5.  Manpower planning increases productivity level of organization when resources are utilized in best possible manner. higher productivity is a result of minimum wastage of time, money, efforts and energies. This is possible through the staffing and it’s related activities (Performance appraisal, training and development, remuneration)

1.9 SCOPE / LIMITATION OF STUDY

The major scope of this study is to evaluate the impact of manpower planning on organization development with specific reference to Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc. Effort are made to investigate problems and factors planning. The study focus on the appropriate method to be adopted in an attempt to determine the current position of human resource, assess the effect of losses on good labour. The study would be limited by the influence of environment and variables and resistance by trade union, employers and employees on manpower planning. Both environmental factor and resistance by trade union will constitute an important aspect for future research.

1.10 METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION

Research methodology deals with the procedure used by the researcher to conduct the study. It contains the different activities performed and methods employed by the researcher in the study. For the purpose of collecting necessary data for this research work, primary and secondary data collection method will be used. The primary data collection method will be through the following:

1.     Structured questionnaire

2.     Personal unstructured interview

3.     Observation

The secondary data will be collected from reports and documents from the company. Also, reports outside the company and from library and desk research literatures will be used.

In this study, descriptive method will be used to analyze data and also in resting hypothesis, chi-square (X2) will be employed. Findings from this research study will be discussed in the light of the research problem hypothesis, purpose research questions, literatures of the research and other relevant issues conclusions will be drawn and recommendations and suggestions also will be made.

1.11 ORGANISATION OF THE STUDY

In this project work, manpower planning is viewed as a vehicle for national development that enables the Nigerian nation to meet up with the rest of the world in the context of globalization. The project would defines planning, management and management manpower education. It therefore, posits that the effective use of management planning cannot be downplayed. The project will reports an assessment of human resources department of Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc through a structured questionnaire, and interview. The data garnered will be analysed and adequate recommendation would suggested.

1.12 CONTRIBUTIONS TO KNOWLEDGE

The major contribution of this research study is to assist in understanding the pivotal role of manpower planning in organizations.

It will also contribute by proffering some recommendations which will help organizations in implementing effective manpower planning.

Finally, this research work will be a vital reference material for scholars and researchers who want to carry out research on this subject matter.