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ABSTRACT
This research work assesses the effects of recruitment and selection procedures on the efficiency of the public service in Nigeria using Oshimili South Local Government as a case study. The study contends that the efficiency and effectiveness of any work place whether private or public largely depend on the calibre of the workforce. The availability of a competent and effective labour force does not just happen by chance but through an articulate recruitment and selection exercise. However, recruitment and selection procedures in the Nigerian public service have been severely politicized by both politicians and top bureaucrats. In other words, recruitment and selection procedures are subverted and replaced with informal processes which make employment of competent people difficult. The data used in this study was collected from both primary and secondary sources. The primary method or sources of data collection included the use of a research instrument, (the questionnaire) and interview. Some research questions were asked as guide to the respondents in order to elicit first hand information on the subject matter. The questionnaire contained twenty five structured questions designed in both open and close ended style. In addition, the questionnaire was validated and administered accordingly. Secondary sources of data collection on the other hand, included textbooks, journal, government documents and internet materials. The study adopted the use of simple percentage, tables and descriptive content approach for data analysis. The data analysis revealed that; the recruitment and selection procedures in public service in Nigeria are not strictly followed during employment of staff; politicization and other informal processes dominate the established recruitment and selection procedures during employment of staff; merit principle do not always count to secure employment in public service rather the use federal character, quota system, indigeneship, son of soil syndrome, etc. are mostly considered; there is an established relationship between inefficiency of the Nigerian public service and weak recruitment and selection processes. Based on the above findings, the study recommended that more strict measures should be introduced to ensure meritocracy in staff recruitment and selection in the public service in Nigeria.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Title page ––––––––––iApproval Page –––––––––iiCertification –––––––––iiiDedication – –––––––––ivAcknowledgment – ––––––––vAbstract ––––––––––viTable of Contents ––––––––viiCHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1Background to the Study –––––––11.2Statement of the Problem –––––––41.3Objectives of the Study –––––––51.4Significance of the Study –––––––51.5Scope and Limitations of the Study-––––7CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW AND METHODOLOGY 2.1Literature Review ––––––––92.1.1Origin and Development of the Nigerian Public Service: A Global View –––––––––92.1.2Historical Development of Modern Local Government in Nigeria ––––––––––142.1.3Recruitment and Selection: An Explication from Manpower Planning ––––––––––172.1.4Merit Principle in the Nigeria Public Service: An Assessment – 2.1.5Issues and Problems in Recruitment Process in Nigeria –– 2.1.6Gap in Literature ––––––––422.2Operatinalization of Key Concepts ––––– 2.3Methodology – ––––––––43
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CHAPTER THREE: BRIEF INFORMATION ABOUT OSHIMILLI
SOUTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT OF DELTA STATE
3.1Origin and Location of Oshimili South Local Government – –483.2Organogram of Oshimili South Local Government– ––493.3Social Life of the People of Asaba –––––503.4Cultural Life of Asaba People ––––––513.5Economic Activities of the People of Oshimili South Local Government –––––––––523.6The Political Life of the People of Oshimili South Local Government –––––––– 543.7Major Achievements of the Local Government Council Under Study –––––––––553.8Street Guide Map of Oshimili South Local Government of Delta State –––––––––56CHAPTER FOUR: DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 4.1Data Presentation ––––––––574.2Finding and Observations ––––––754.3Implication of Findings and Observation ––––77CHAPTERFIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION ANDRECOMMENDATIONS 5.1Summary –––––––––805.2Recommendations ––––––––815.3Conclusion –––––––––81
Bibliography
Appendix
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Fatiregun (1992) sees recruitment as that process of assessing a job, announcing the vacancy, arousing interest and stimulating people to apply. Recruiting, according to Mathis and Jackson (1997), is the process of generating a pool of qualified applicants for organisational jobs.
Balogun (1980) defined recruitment or employment as the process by which personnel or manpower resources are made available through appointment as in the case of board members, or directors of government enterprise especially in public organisation.
Nwankwo (1988) perceived recruitment to involve getting all prospective applicants for job position in an organisation. While Abah (1997) defined recruitment as the act of seeking, evaluating, obtaining commitment from, placing and orienting new employees to fill positions required for the successful conduct of an organisation. For him, the recruitment process involves seeking and attracting a pool of people from which candidates who are to fill job vacancies can be selected. According to Cole (2002), the principal purpose of recruitment is to attract sufficient and suitable employees to apply for vacancies in the organization.
Moreso, Zweig (1991) defines recruitment and selection as the set of activities an organization uses to select candidates who possess the abilities and attitude necessary for the enterprise especially with the aim of achieving its objectives. In the same vein Kuntz and O. Donnel (1980) saw recruitment as attracting qualified candidates to fill any vacancies. According to them, it is a process of choosing from among the candidates. It goes further to list three aspects of recruitment that must be borne in mind while recruiting officers, namely the recruitment requirement, organizational policies, procedures and organisational
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image. Recruitment is more than merely filling current vacancies. It aims at obtaining requisite personnel and building a strong organisation with effective team work. Therefore, it could be asserted that the public service in Nigeria evolved in an atmosphere of suspicion and hostility not only between the colonized and the colonizing authorities but also among the former, some of whom had been co-opted into the colonial system and therefore, alienated from their kith and kin in the society. The situation led to the racial discrimination within the civil service itself, which could not have failed to influence the general perception of the service by the Nigeria people. For example, the Nothernalization policy was introduced to discriminate against the non-northern Nigerians but rather considered the foreign expertises into the northern civil service. In recent years there has been a marked decline in efficiency, selection and recruitment within the civil service. It has lost grip of its traditional roles and has not been able to work out satisfactory programme of action for effective implementation.
Towards the end of the 1980’s, recruitment and selection were seen as two key issues facing organisation as they prepared for the 1990’s. However, there are difficulties and ambiguities associated with the people’s right and demand to be gainfully employed. Secondly, careful and well-planned recruitment and selection of employees is absolutely necessary, in order to ensure that only the right calibre of staff is employed in an organization. The process of recruitment and selection begins with the manpower plan, which indicates areas in the organization where there are likely to be shortages of people, and the number of people to be recruited to meet anticipated employment needs. This is why Jacins (1971) puts it that if recruitment policies and practices are to be most effective exercise must sought to answer the following questions:
What is the nature of policies guiding recruitment?
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What procedures should be used to screen candidates for employment?
What are the requirements of the job to be filled?
What is the use of such tools, interviewing and testing in the selection procedures?
What is the place of promotion in the procurement of
function?
Recruitment into the civil service was no longer what it used to be. There were discrimination and favouritism in the recruitment of employees into the service. Adebayo (1985) argues that the level of loyalty and commitment of the people to the goals of the state or public service depends sometimes on the type of political culture they have. The political culture of the people of Delta State Asaba in particular still stresses particularism in the form of intense and over-riding identification with family or parochial groupings rather than more generalisable identification such as with the nation as a whole.
There have always been efforts by our leaders and other public spirited individual to inculcate in the citizens, the culture of loyalty and commitment to the nation, and in particular to the state, but these efforts have not so much changed the ugly situation. A civil service where appointments are based on non-merit criteria cannot, for instance be said to be efficient. Robert (1977) observed that the culture in which there is high level of ethnicity will result to low productivity. It follows that what determines the person to be favoured is the degree of relationship between him, and the person favouring him including others competing with him. A person will favour a person from his clan rather than any person from another clan, an employer from Asaba will prefer to favour an applicant from Asaba.
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This tendency affects the quality of the people recruited and has an adverse impact on the morale of the people who are more qualified or feel, they are better than the people favoured. What impact will this have on efficiency and productivity?
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