the influence of culture on personnel recruitment …
TRANSCRIPT
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ODUEH NITA ONYEISI PG/MBA/09/54349
THE INFLUENCE OF CULTURE ON PERSONNEL
RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION IN NIGERIA
Management
A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT, FACULTY OF
BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION, UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA ENUGU CAMPUS
Webmaster Digitally Signed by Webmaster’s Name
DN : CN = Webmaster’s name O= University of Nigeria, Nsukka
OU = Innovation Centre
2011
UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA
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THE INFLUENCE OF CULTURE ON PERSONNEL RECRUITMENT AND
SELECTION IN NIGERIA
BY
ODUEH NITA ONYEISI PG/MBA/09/54349
DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT FACULTY OF BUSINESS
ADMINISTRATION UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA, ENUGU
CAMPUS
JANUARY, 2011
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THE INFLUENCE OF CULTURE ON PERSONNEL RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION IN NIGERIA
BY
ODUEH NITA ONYEISI PG/MBA/09/54349
DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT FACULTY OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA, ENUGU CAMPUS
BEING A PROJECT SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR
THE AWARD OF MBA DEGREE IN MANAGEMENT.
SUPERVISOR: PROF. U.J.F. EWURUM
JANUARY, 2011
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CERTIFICATION PAGE
I, Odueh Nita O., a Postgraduate student in the Department of Management,
Faculty of Business Administration of the University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus
with Registration Number PG/MBA/09/54349 have satisfactorily completed the
requirement for the course and research work for the award of MBA in
Management.
I, Odueh Nita .O. hereby State that this work embodied in this project is original
ad has not be submitted in part or full for any other or degree in this University
of any other Universities.
……………………………….. Odueh Nita O.
PG/MBA/09/54349
…………………………… ………………………… Prof. U.J.F Ewurum Prof. U.J.F. Ewurum Project Supervisor Head of Department ………………………….. ………………………….
DATE DATE
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DEDICATION
To God Almighty, who have been my peace, joy, happiness and
success, and also to my husband Mr. Asogwa Kenechukwu for his
financial support, love and care and my beloved son,
DumakaKenechukwu Asogwa.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My greatest thanks goes to the Almighty God and those who in one
way or the other supported me, financially, morally and otherwise
towards the successful completion of this project work.
My immense gratitude goes to my project supervisor, Prof. U.J.F
Ewurum, who gave me the much needed attention during the
supervision of the project, and to my Head of Department Prof. U.J.F
Ewurum and other lecturers in the Department of Management, who
brought my careers to a successful completion in the University.
I also appreciate the valuable contributions (financial and morally) of
my lovely and caring mother, Mrs. Patience I. Odueh towards my
academic pursuit.
My profound gratitude goes to Mr. Francis De. Philosopher, who
assisted me with internet materials for the study, I say thank you.
Finally, I will not fail to acknowledge the support and care of Chief
Mrs. Ethel Asogwa, Prof. Simon Asogwa and my siblings as well as
my friends.
I say thank you all and may God Almighty continue to bless and
protect us all.
Odueh Nita O. PG/MBA/09/54349 January, 2011
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ABSTRACT
Human resources management encourages systematic strategic planning, non union frame of reference and humanistic self-renewal through great investment on training and human development. This aspect concerns personnel recruitment and selection in relation to cultural beliefs and practices. The aim of this is to determine the extent culture had influence personnel recruitment and selection among public organization. The research methodology adopted was the survey method in which questionnaires designed and distributed among the respondents that form the sample size. The findings of the study includes cultures greatly influence the process of personnel recruitment and selection in public organization especially the case of favouring female candidates in recruitment/selection exercise. Secondly, selection process has been based on educational qualification and experience and test performance. In most public organizations, assessment centre or third partly recruitment agency have been assigned the whole process of personnel recruitment and selection while the firms does the placement of the selected candidates, because this was adjudge to be the best and modern method in personnel recruitment and selection. It is now recommended that both private and public organizations should adopt the assessment centre in their personnel recruitment, selection and placement. Thirdly, human resource department in most organization should imbibe the virtue of meritocracy and educational qualification with regards to promotions and placement. In conclusion, the influence of culture on the functional elements of the management processes has manifested in their effective recognition, analysis and adaptation by management. The assessment centres‘ is a standardized evaluation process that allow for better predictability of the performance and future progress of selected staff in their work environment.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Cover Page - - - - - - - - - i
Title Page - - - - - - - - - ii
Certification Page - - - - - - - - iii
Dedication - - - - - - - - - iv
Acknowledgement - - - - - - - - v
Abstract - - - - - - - - - vi
Table of Content - - - - - - - - viii
Chapter One: Introduction
1.1 Background of the Study - - - 1
1.2 Statement of the Problem - - - 4
1.3 Objectives of the Study - - - 5
1.4 Research Questions - - - 5
1.5 Research Hypothesis - - - 6
1.6 Definition of Terms - - - 7
References - - - 8
Chapter Two: Literature Review
2.1 Overview of Culture and Human Development Culture - - 9
2.2 Personnel Recruitment and Selection History. - - - 20
2.3 Recruitment Tool and Techniques - - - 23
2.4 Purpose & Importance of Recruitment - - - 29
2.4.1 Recruitment Strategies - - - - 30
2.4.2 Forms of Recruitment - - - 31
2.4.3 The Human Resources Challenges in Recruitment - - - 34
2.4.4 Recruitment Vs Selection - - - 36
2.5 Cultural Factors Influencing Personnel Recruitment and Selection
in Nigeria. - - - -
37
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2.6 Structures of Personnel Recruitment And Selection in Public
Organizations of Nigeria. - - - 44
2.7 Problems of Recruitment In Nigeria Civil Service - - - 46
2.7.1 Emerging Selection Tools and Methods - - - 51
References - - - 53
Chapter Three: Research Methodology
3.1 Research Design - - - 56
3.2 Sources of Data - - - 56
3.2.1 Primary Data - - - 56
3.2.2 Secondary Data - - - 57
3.3 Population of the Study - - - 57
3.4 Sample Size Determination - - - - 57
3.5 Sample Selection Method - - - 58
3.6 Method of Data Analysis - - - 58
3.7 Decision Criteria for Validation of Hypotheses - - - 59
References - - - 60
Chapter Four: Data Presentation and Analysis
4.1 Data Presentation and Analysis - - - 61
4.2 Analysis of the Questionnaires - - - 61
Chapter Five: Summary of Findings, Conclusion and Recommendations
5.1 Summary of Findings - - - 71
5.2 Conclusion - - - 72
5.3 Recommendations - - - 74
Bibliography - - - 77
Appendix: Questionnaire - - - 84
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Human Resource Management (HRM) in organizations is concerned with the
staffing function by assisting managers to hire, train, evaluate and compensate
employees at all levels. Culture appears to influence various aspects of managing
human resources Ceteris Peribus, culture affects preferences of managers
regarding a variety of HRM activities.
Culture according to Chuta (1998:6) is ―all the qualities which group men
together and distinguish them from the rest of the animal kingdom‖.
Satisfactions of man‘s physiological needs are paramount in cultural development
and this can only be achieved when the society lives. Man in society by his very
nature, is a victim of inter personal related which compel co-operation and
concerted application of both tangible and intangible resources at all level of
human association.
Culture according to Chuta (1998:15) ―consists of all those material and spiritual
characteristics and products of the human intelligence acquired from the remote
past, in the advancement of humanity‖. He went further to state that culture
comprises many aspects namely; language knowledge, human institution,
technology, beliefs, traditions and customs‖. Of all these, language manifested
foremost in human history. Indeed, the rate of cultural advancement in a given
society depends on the level of that society‘s value consciousness.
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According to Chuta (1998:16) values are meant to be spiritual
components of culture and day the essential functions of piloting monitoring and
humanizing the entire culture. Chuta went further to desirable which influences
the selection form alternative modes of action‖ the sum total of human efforts at
resolving fundamental problems at any state in a society constitutes; which
Nwoga in Chuta (1998:20) put:‖ these are the forces which human beings use at
each point in time to achieve their survival and to grow toward full comfortable
living‖.
This is the more reason why organizations are involves in personnel
recruitment and selection, so as to equip the organization with the best fit to
guarantee continual survival and profit. Thus, the level of a people‘s cultural
advertisement in terms of the provision, which the culture, of efficient material
base and functional knowledge and idea for civilized, living, is the hallmark of a
people‘s civilization. Increasing efficiency is the expectation of pursued with the
aim of reducing risk or waste, and as well as save time, cost and increase
outputs.
Organizing is the grouping of activities necessary to attain objectives; the
assignment of each grouping to a manager with authority necessary to supervise
it and the provision for coordination horizontally and vertically in the enterprise
structure. One major question that confronts organization is: who is actually
responsible for managing the human resources of the organization? The bulk of
the human resource management responsibility falls on the operating (line)
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managers and they include: work scheduling, recruitment, selection and
compensation. Every manager is responsible for managing the resources
assigned to him, including the human resource effectively in order to achieve
organizations objectives. Actually according to Ugbam (2009:14). ―The operating
managers are in a very good position to manager the human resource in their
workers and are therefore likely to know their unique natures and attitudes‖.
Employment is a basic human resource management function that
comprises manpower planning, recruitment; selection and placement (Ugbam;
2009:19). Considering the fact that output to great extent depends on input,
great care should be exercised in the empowerment function and this is done to
increase worker productivity and the extent it is achieved depends on the
inherent abilities and competence of the workers employed.
Recruitment is concerned with developing a pool of job candidates in line
with human resources plan. The candidates are usually located through
newspaper and professional journal advertisements; empowerment agencies and
visits to college and universities campus. Recruitment is the first part of the
process of filling a vacancy, the consideration of sources of suitable candidates,
making contact with those candidates and attracting applications from them.
―General recruiting according to Agbo (2003:142) is the most appropriate
for operative employees which follows comparatively simple, standardized
procedures‖.
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Employers need a pool of prospective employees from which they can fill
vacancies. Employees who do extensive recruitment may be continuously setting
on now starters, even when there is no immediate need. They simply want to
maintain the pool of available staff. ―Recruitment according to Ugbam (2009:30)
involves searching for and obtaining qualified job candidates in such a way that
the organization can select the most appropriate person(s) to fill its job needs‖.
The recruitment process is a match-making process, in which the
organization is looking for potential employee with certain characteristic and
offering the job with associated rewards while the recruits on the other hand
have certain abilities and attitudes and at the same time looking for jobs that
meet their minimum rewards expectation or equals their qualification status.
‗Selection according to Ugbam (2009:14) is the process by which an
organization chooses from a list of prospective applicants via the recruitment
exercise and candidates that best meet the selection criteria for the positions
advertised are selected for the jobs‘.
1.2 Statement of the problem
Cultures with perceived control over their environment feel that people can and
do have an impact on their environment and therefore, consider merit (e.g.
accomplishments, experience) and skill as the critical criteria for recruiting and
evaluating (appraising/selecting) personnel. Culture have seen to influence
various aspect of managing human resources especially personnel recruitment
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and selection. Over the years and experience had slowed that there are cultural
factors that influences personnel recruitment and selection in most organizations
in Nigeria which today lack merit in the eyes of jobs advertised and had
performance creditable well by their own standard. This study who want to study
these influencing factors which culture have on personnel recruitment and
selection among public organizations in Nigeria.
1.3 Objectives of the study
The following are the objectives of the study:
1. To determine whether culture has influence of personnel recruitment
and selection in Nigeria.
2. To examine the modalities for personnel recruitment and selection in
Nigeria.
3. To promote maintenance culture with regards to personnel recruitment
and selection.
4. To find out the various ways personnel recruitment and selection is
done in public parastatals.
5. To determine the criteria used in placement of staff after recruitment
among organizations in Nigeria.
1.4 Research Questions
The following questions are used to carry out investigative reports on the study:
1. What are the modalities used for personnel recruitment and selection
in Nigeria?
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2. What are the various ways personnel recruitment and selection are
done in public parastatals?
3. What are the influencing factors that culture has on personnel
recruitment and selection in Nigeria?
4. Do public corporations promote maintenance culture with regards to
personnel recruitment and selection?
5. What are the criteria used in placement of staff after recruiting and
selection among organizations in Nigeria?
1.5 Research hypothesis
Statements of hypotheses are statement of facts that tends to bring out the
factual in a research. The following hypotheses are stated in both null and
alternative hypotheses, so as to allow for easy testing and decision making.
The hypotheses are
HYPOTHSIS ONE
NULL HYPOTHESIS (Ho)
Culture does not have any influence on personnel recruitment and selection in
Nigeria.
ALTERNATIVE HYPOTHESIS (HA)
Culture has great influence on personnel recruitment and selection in Nigeria.
HYPOTHESIS TWO
NULL HYPOTHESIS (Ho)
Personnel recruitment and selection has nothing to offer in organizations.
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ALTERNATIVE HYPOTHESIS (HA)
Personnel recruitment and selection has something to offer in organization.
1.6 DEFINITION OF TERMS
CULTURE: Culture consists of all those material and spiritual characteristics and
products of the human intelligence acquired from the remote past, in the
advancement of humanity (Chuta; 1998:75).
VALUE: This is a conception of the desirable, which influences the selection from
alternatives modes of action.
RECRUITMENT: This is the process of searching for prospective employees and
stimulating them to apply for jobs in the organization.
SELECTION: It is the process by which an organization chooses from a list of
prospective applicants attracted by the recruitment exercise, in which candidates
who best meet the selection criteria for the position advertised are selected.
PLACEMENT: This refers to the act of finding somebody (applicant), a suitable
job to work in.
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REFERENCES
Agbo, O. G. (2003): Human Resources Management 1, Enugu: Iyke Ventures
Production.
Chuta, S. C. (1998): Culture: Concept and Application for Normative
Development Onitsha; Cape Publishers International Limited.
Ugbam, O. C. (2009): Human Resources Management (Lecture Monograph)
Department of Management University of Nigeria Enugu Campus.
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CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 OVERVIEW OF CULTURE AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT CULTURE
The evolution of post modern multi-cultural society places a premium on
increased understanding of issues surrounding culture and ethnic identify.
Anthropology has traditionally defined culture as the sum total of artifacts
(Language, customs, tools/technology, institutions, etc) that make up a human
society from a psychological perspective; it is useful to focus on the processes of
symbolic communication that sanction the coherence of human societies and
enable them to evolve such a variety of artifacts.
The psychology of multiple intelligences offers a perspective on the variety
of symbolic firms that underwrite human cultures. A developmental perspective
permits us to view the process of acculturation in psycho dynamic terms,
particularly in relation to Erik Erikson‘s and jean Piaget‘s models of
developmental stages. This analysis in turn suggest that the cultural evolution of
modernity has moved away from presentational and forward discursive symbols
(Langer, 1957) as the basis for at foundational organizing principle. However
presentational symbols (which mediate emotions, attitudes and aesthetic values)
remain important in the development of both personal and ethnic identity.
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Culture and Human Development
It has been suggested that we are witnessing the emergence of a multi-
cultural (or poly cultural) world, a world sometimes called ―postmodern‖. In
attempting to understand the implications of this transition, including the
problems and stresses that accompany it, we must consider what culture is and
how it has evolved through history, it is generally accepted that humans are a
uniquely cultural species. Interesting precursors of human communication, social
organization, and tool use have been found in other species that has developed
the capacity for complex symbolic communication about the world, as well as the
capacity to create tools and institutions based on that complex symbolic
understanding. According to Clifford Geertz (1973), the culminating phase of
human biological evaluation was intimately intertwined with the development of
language and other basic forms of culture.
The Pleistocene period, with its rapid and radical variation in climate, land
formations, and vegetation, has long been recognized to be a period in which
conditions were ideal for the speedy and efficient evolutionary development of
man; now it seems also to have been a period in which a cultural environment
increasingly supplemented the natural environment in the selection process so as
to further accelerate the rate of hominid evolution to an unprecedented speed.
The ice age appears not to have been merely a time of receding brow ridges and
receding brow ridges and shrinking jaws, but a time in which were forged early
all those characteristics of man‘s existence which are most graphically human;
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has thoroughly encephelated nervous system, his incest-taboo-based social
structure, and his capacity to create and use symbols. The fact that these
distinctive features of humanity emerged together in complex interaction with
one another rather than serially as so long supposed is to exceptional importance
in the interpretation of human mentality, because it suggests that man‘s nervous
system does not merely enable him to acquire culture, it positive demands that
he do so if it is going to function at all. A cultureless human being would
probably turn out to be not an intrinsically talented though unfulfilled ape, but a
wholly mindless and consequently unworkable monstrosity.
Culture as a symbolic medium of communication is neither static nor
homogenous. But it is shared, that is to say, it is inter subjective in character
(Ortegay Gasset, 1957). And this inter subjectivity must be understood from two
perspectives: the anthropological and the psychological from an anthropological
perspective, culture is the sum total of society‘s symbolic operating systems and
the basis for the ecological adaptation to the environment. This includes both the
social institutions that are responsible for its emotional and aesthetic quality of
life, and its technological tools and institutions for solving ecological problems
from a developmental psychological point of view, culture begins with the deep
programming of the psyche in preverbal somatic, imaginal, and emotional
awareness (form of programming that we share, more or less, with other social
species) and with the childhood programming of language, and of assumptions
and expectations about the structure and dynamics of human relationships.
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These include assumptions about nature and about the self and others, moral
and aesthetic values and iconographic allegiances.
Much of this early programming is in terms of the types of symbols that
Suzanne Langer (1957) calls ―presentational symbols‖ (in contrast to the
arbitrary and abstract ‗discursive‖ symbols of language and mathematics). The
development of the capacity for presentational symbolic communication has its
roots on the somatic, imaginal, and emotional consciousness mentioned above.
It continues to develop as our shared, inter subjective matrix of symbolic
systems of which we become increasingly self aware and capable of
manipulating with maturation and education. The discursive symbolic system of
mature adult communication may be very complex and abstract. However, it
they do not remain grounded in a somatic and imaginal sense of personal
identity, they are experienced as alienating and devoid of human meaning.
Culture and Human Intelligence
Looked at from the perspective of the psychology of knowledge (cognitive
psychology), culture is the shared ability of specific human groups to
communicate, organize, and develop useful information about the world and its
inhabitants, including information about individual and collective selves.
(communication is intentionally placed first were because it is the usefulness of
symbolic processes on the communication of information, both within and
between pschyes, that leads to their further elaboration into ever more complex
conceptual and social systems).
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From this part of view, culture is the collective embodiment and
expression of human intelligence. It is the actualization of the ability of human
groups to use signs and symbols to effectively communicate and use information
about the world. Individual intelligence is the ability to effectively manipulate
particular subsets of this symbolic universe. But the full human meaning of
individual intelligence can only be understood when it is applied in social settings
for the purpose of solving human problems and creating the social forms that are
so essential to the human species.
Recent studies of human intelligence suggest that the human ability to
organize and manipulate information about the world is not a unitary
psychological phenomena. (The search for an underlying ―g factor‖ by the first
generation of intelligence testers proved fruitless). Recent investigations have
conclude that there are certain ―clusters of information management skills that
―hang together‖ for logical, and ultimately for underling neuropsychological and
genetic, reason. Howard Garder‘s (1983) ―theory of multiple intelligences‖
proposes five types of intelligence (the last one being indeterminately plural):
Lingusitic intelligence, musical intelligence, logic-mathematical intelligence,
spatial intelligence, bodily kinesthetic intelligence, and the personal intelligence,
and the personal intelligences. Daniel Goleman (1995) ha recently made the case
for ―emotional intelligence‖. C. G, Jung‘s (1971) theory of psychological types is
also a theory about the different conceptualizing strategies people use to
organize information about the world. Based on pattern observed in the process
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of psychotherapy, jung‘s types have proven particularly useful in classifying
strategies for organizing information about the social world. Jung‘s system
identifies sixteen types based on the individual‘s classification in terms of four
bipolar variables: introversion-extroversion, sensation-intuition, thinking-feeling,
and perceiving-judging sensation and feeling keep life grounded in bodies, while
intuition and thinking allow us to project ourselves into infinite realms of
possibilities.
Another approach to understanding the varieties of human intelligence are
the cortical function models, which have correlated various types of human
knowing with specific areas of brain activity.
The generic method of these studies is to correlate controlled
phenomenon logical reports of what the subject is ―thinking‖ with
neurophysiologic activity (or lack thereof), generally based on electrical
measurements and/or known lesions. These methods have pinpointed the
neurological centers of a wide variety of types of mental activity, but the most
global of these models is the ―left-brain (right-brain‖ model, based on the work
of Sperry and Gazzaniga and their colleagues and synthesized at a more popular
level by Robert Ornstem (1972): This model has obvious similarities with
Susanne Langer‘s (1957) model of ―discursive‖ and ―presentational‖ symbols,
mentioned above, which was grounded on a ―philosophy of symbolic forms‖
developed by Ernest Cassirer and Alfred North white head.
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Langer characteristics two types of symbols: presentational and
discursive. All symbols represents or points to something else, a sensation, a
feeling, a material object, and action, or another symbol can ―idea‖. With
discursive symbols, the form of the symbols is completely arbitrary, s with
letters, words, and mathematical symbols. Different languages can represent the
world with different words and even different alphabets which carry essentially
the same meanings (although the Gestatt properties of languages can vary
considerably).
According to Langer, a fundamental valve of all the arts, including music,
is that they offers us representations of human feeling and emotion for the
purpose of reflection and self-reflection. The same holds true for the symbolic
forms of myth, ritual, and religion.
In the model being propose here, therefore, the ―culture‖ of any particular
―society‖ can be understood as the sun, total of its abilities to communicate and
develop useful information in any of its multitude of possible forms. The most
basic element of any particular culture, the element that differentiates are
culture from another, is the complex of basic ideas, insights and intuitions that
form the world view that holds the culture together. If there is a common.
According to Geertz (1973): sacred symbols function to synthesize a
people‘s ethos the tone, character, and quality of their life, its moral and
aesthetic style and mood their world view the picture they have of the way
things in sheer actuality actually are, their most comprehensive ideas of order. In
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religions belief and practice a group‘s ethos its rendered intellectually reasonable
by being shown to represent a way a life ideally suited to the actual state of
affairs the world view is rendered emotionally convincing by being presented as a
image of an actual state of affairs peculiarly well arranged to accommodate such
a way of life.
The view of spirituality as the ultimate ―act‖ (in Brentano‘s sense) of
cultural synthesis tends to validate Durkheim‘s view of religion as the group‘s
worship of itself, as well as Freud‘s intuition of the relationship between religion
and infantile (or early childhood) consciousness, However, rather than accepting
the rationalist inference of these classic writes that religion is an illusion, would
offer the alternative position (probably closer to that of Gregory. Bateson) that
spiritual consciousness represents, an ultimate act of cognitive synthesis that
necessarily dissolves at the limit, into mystery from this point of view, the
concrete achievement of any spiritual tradition can be illuminated by reflecting
on its history. But its prophetic claims to truth valve are always limited by what
James B. Klee (1960) has described as the uncertainty of ―facing forward in time.
The point of the of this is not to provide a definitive delineation of the
parameters of human culture, but only to suggest its richness and complexity.
Culture Somas, and Human Development Society
The sharing of a particular world view is what enables groups of people to
function collectively as a society that adapts to the natural world and creates
social reality. In other words, it is culture that is the fundamental enables and
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expression of distinctly human life. And this process begins with somatic
development. Of course, the shared worldview need not be identical for all of the
members of a society individual worldviews need only be sufficiently coordinated
to permit coordinate social action.
The cultural worldview of any particular society must be learned by its
members. In order to become a functioning members. In order to become a
functioning members of a particular society, a child must learn something about
all or most of the dimensions of this riches and complexity within a remarkably
short period of time. This process begins with somatic and emotional
development, and for the sake of the psychological health of a society and its
members, the symbolism of identity must remain grounded in somatic,
emotional, and imaginal awareness. The gestural and postural languages of a
culture are as important as aspect of its shared sense of identity as are its
shared language art, and ideologies.
The cultural worldview of any particular society must by learned by its
members. In order to become a functioning member of a particular society, a
child must learn something about all or most of the dimensions of this richness
and complexity within a remarkably short period of time. The development
challenge of the individual is to learn to participate in and master a reasonably
repertoire of these forms. A rough stage developmental model of how this work
can be correlated with Erik H. Erikson‘s (1963).
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Cultural Development Stages
Stage 1
(Preoedipal & Oedipal stages) learns language.
(Discursive) and basic repertoire of presentational symbolic firms‘.
Stage 2
Consolidation of symbolic skills and worldview.
Stage 3
Initiation into adult roles and sexuality; Piagaet‘s ―formal operations‖.
Stage 4
Consolidation, modification and transformation of the cultural repertoire.
Modern Culture and Society
The historical development of ―modern civilization‖ (the world-view that
has been evolving in the renaissance) has been characterized by a steady
underlying trend to shift the fundamental systematic base of social organization
from presentational to discursive symbolic firms. This has been based on the
substitution of the discursive symbolic firms of economics and ―social contracts‖
for the presentational intuitions (mythology, religion) that were the basis of all
previous societies. This trend has taken a quantum leap forward with the
development of communication and information processing technology. Thus
technology has permitted the integration of the world‘s national economies into
integrated, transnational economic trading system. But its is also making us
inescapably aware of the need for more fully developed ecological awareness,
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and of the diversity of cultural, identities and worldviews that exist in different
societies around the globe. As a result, there has been a process of
differentiation of the social systems of ethnicity (Culture as a shared identity)
and of society (culture as a strategy for large – scale integration).
This cultural system of modernity was created by the reformation, the
enlightenment, and the industrial revolution modern industrial culture has been
based on elaboration of scientific, technological, economic, and legal-managerial
symbolic firms, which have in turn led to relative mastery of these systemic
aspects of the world. The intelligence represented by these firms of mastery is
leading to the global integration of the economic systems of manufacturing
trade, and finance, as well as to the global integration of all firms of electronic
communication. But this global integration is an turn leading to the mergence of
a ―post modern‖ global society in which the failures of the ―Enlightenment
complex‖ (of technology, economics, and law) to master the realities of culture
(ethnicity), ecology and the human spirit are becoming increasingly evident.
These failures are leading to the emergence of local and international
conversations about how to manage these areas of problematic concern.
One of the implications of this cognitive developmental new of culture is
that the evaluation of the symbolic forms crating modern civilization have moved
ever further from the basic somatic, emotional and aesthetic categories of the
basic programming of the psyche. Postmodern society relies on complex
discursive symbolism to get its work done, while presentational symbols as
29
advertising and entertainment, are chiefly used to persuade the average citizen
to act as a politically docile, passive consumer. In extreme circumstances when
anxiety gets out of control creative exploration of the emotional realm is
encouraged, but only a, the isolation and privacy of the psychotherapist‘s office.
Since the conscious creation of human systems goes by the name of
politics, it also requires a democratic politics that respects the different
psychological identities and valve system that are a result of different cultural as
well as individual developmental histories.
2.2 PERSONNEL RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION HISTORY.
Personnel recruitment and selection is one of the core functions of the human
resource function and they are integral to the practice of human resource
management (HRM) in all organizations, irrespective of its size or structure. In
organizations, there is the need to recruit and select new staff to occupy vacant
positions and fulfill the needs of such organization in the global scheme. This is
one of the oldest and most vital roles of HRM an organization, which is a
fundamental requirement for the growth of any organization other than one-man
firm. (Robert; 1997:50).
The first idea of recruitment was developed in China during the Chu-
dynasty about 300-800—BC (Before Christ), through rigorous examination based
on intelligence and physical test. While the origin of personnel management is
traced to Egypt around 1300BC as a result of human
knowledge/organizing/managing use during the great building of pyramids. The
30
essence of personnel recruitment and selection is to test an individual‘s
endurance and adaptation to situation/environment and the ability to keep a
secret no matter the physical stress.
Major evens and occurrences have had great impact on industries and
business thereby becoming the key driver towards the development of personnel
recruitment and selection in Nigeria. Historical development of personnel
recruitment and selection is group into three (3) stages
a. Pre-Industrial Revolution: The roles of human resource management
were usually carried out by the proprietor or, in certain cases, delegated
to a supervisor or an outsider. The business environment is characterized
by relatively low labour mobility, minimal competition, low inflation and
general economic stability. The key drivers in this era are technical skills,
trade or craft and the method of recruitment and selection were usually
on the basis of walk-ins (i.e. unsolicited applicants) and referrals (from
proprietor or his friends/partners and acquaintances). Thus, personality
trait, attitudes and behavioured traits were limited to the relevance of
personnel recruitment and selection of new staff.
b. Post-Industrial Evolution: this era ushered in automation, mass
production to industry, trade unionism, abortion of slavery, colonialism,
and other inhuman and exploitative practices as well as legislative and
judicial protection of workers‘ rights etc. multinational that employed
hundreds of staff became the dominant players in the economy. There
31
were changes in the types of skills required, increased labour mobility, the
growth of print and electronic media of mass communications, the
replacement of slave labour by cheap migrant labour and colonials as well
as the emancipated slaves themselves. Formal recruitment and selection
techniques were introduced to ensue that employers were able to secure
the services of the best available employees, this follows a simple
procedure: advertisement of vacant positions, after collecting of
applications, followed by one or more tests interviews (oral and written),
other techniques includes graphology handwriting analysis, bio-data
analysis.
c. 20th Century Period: there has been a rapid transition from the
industrial age to the jet age through the application of computer and
internet, which ahs resulted into rapid technological developments, in the
area of telecommunications, air travel and information and communication
technology, thereby facilitating the globalization of comer and industry.
The recent developments in research and technology have effected
changes in global operations, labour market and the workplace in general.
Its features include highly mobility of labours, willingness to accept jobs
outside their immediate environment, greater control of their careers by
employees. Realizing that people play a vital role in the actualization of
organizational success, it then become imperative that personnel
recruitment and selection practices must deliver recruits that best fit the
32
organization‘s requirements and such decisions enjoy a high degree of
reliability and validity. Possession and selection, other traits such as
personality attitudes and interpersonal relationship are equally important
to the employers.
Diversity management and affirmative action are two examples of
concepts that have emerged in the 20th century. Employers now pay great
attention to racial and ethnic composition of their workforce and take extra pains
to ensure diversity.
2.3 RECRUITMENT TOOL AND TECHNIQUES
Tools and processes have been developed with the objectives of enabling
employers to identify the ideal traits they would like their employees to posses,
to enable them identify potential recruitments that fit the ideal profile. The basic
process remains the same: advert-screen-test- interview-select-placement.
Miner and Donald (1995:15) states that in selecting candidates for
employment, there is a mass tool and techniques available which considerably
varies in terms of reliability, validity, practicability and sensitivity. The cardinal
objective of recruitment is to provide the organization with high quality staff that
will enable the organization achieve its objective now and in the future. It is
therefore necessary for recruitment tools and techniques to serve as accurate
predictors of future performance. The range of tools and techniques that serve
as accurate predictors of future performance in work place and they include:
33
a. JOB ANALYSIS: Ezigbo (2007:320) defines it as the process of gathering
information about a particular job for the purpose of knowing the
qualification and duties of personnel needed to perform the determinant
by which candidates are measured against their job requirements.
Consequently, it is necessary to identify and define the contents (roles
and responsibilities) of the job, discuss the competences required to carry
out the job effectively and there after assess candidate‘s competence
against the defined job requirements. Job analysis comprises of two
elements, Job Description and Job specification.
b. PSYCHOMETRIC TESTS: it is the oldest selection tool which dates back
as far as 500BC; used by Chinese to facilitate selection government
officials. It is generally concerned with the identification of the mental
(psycho-attributes and measure (metric) against attributes). It is further
divided into two ability tests and personality tests.
i. Ability Aptitude Test: it is defined as a mass of measuring
objectively an individual‘s capacity in specific areas under standardized
conditions that allows the tester or administrator to make direct
comparison between individuals. There is no empirical evidence to
measure the effectiveness of aptitude tests in Nigeria because if used
in isolation, it has a low predictive value. Thus a high score by an
individual in aptitude test is not an indication that the potential
34
employee would be a high performer on the job, therefore, it lack
reliability as a selection tools.
ii. Personality Tests: This is test designed to help the tester gain
insight into the personality traits of prospective employees. It comes in
form of questionnaire, used in assessing prospective employees on
their likes and dislikes, in relations to different job situations.
Personality tests are never used in isolation but are used to produce a
profile of the individuals that the recruiter can benchmark against
behavioural pattern expected for job performance or establishment
norm. Its main weakness as a selection tool is that it has a very wide
margin of error ranging from external information, lack of integrity and
honesty. While its main advantages is that it provides useful
information at later stages of the recruitment/selection process
personality profile obtained from personality tests can be probed
during interviews to test the accuracy of the responses provided.
c. BIO-DATA ANALYSIS: This refers to the use of biographical
information provided in a candidate‘s curriculum vitae (CV) for selection
decisions. It is a factually based view of a person‘s life that serves as a
good predictor of his/her job performance. Its defects lie in
discrimination, sentiments and bias as well as associated risk. According
to Leopold and Tony (1999:80), the risks associated with bio-data
analysis are mitigated by the fact that the selector/recruiter often has
35
access to independent information by virtue of which the claims in the
CV can be verified.
D. GRAPHOLOGY: This has to do with handwriting analysis whereby
applicants submit application in his/her handwriting. It is widely used in
France, and in Nigeria, it is the least as a means of screening job
applicants. With rise to ICT, most
- It indicates stability overtime and shows consistency, while it
demerits includes; handwriting can be distorted and it cannot
measure real job related competencies.
E. INTERVIEWS: An interview can be defined as a conversation with a
purpose (Ugbam; 2009:48). The purpose of the selection interview is to
obtain and assess information about a candidate which will enable a
valid prediction to be made in relation to future job performance.
1. Structured Interview: It allows the interviewer to prepare a list of
questions in advance and during the interview, he/she sticks to those
questions without deviation. It is easy, requires little training to conduct
and is relatively inexpensive, but it has limited amount and type of
information needed research had shown that structured interview are
reliable and valid than other approaches.
2. Semi-Structured Interview: The interviewer prepares a list of only
major questions to be asked and depend on the interviewee response for
36
further questions and interactions. It is more flexible and required a
trained interviewer.
3. Unstructured Interview: It does not require a prepared list of
questions but based on oral discussions. It is the most flexible and
expensive type of interview because it is conducted by an expert. Skilful
interviewer used it to make significant insights and distinctions among
applicants.
4. Situational Interview: It seeks to predict ability of performance based
on hypothetical future behaviour. It involves a description of a typical
situation and candidates are asked on how they will deal with such case.
It has higher validity than future oriented hypothetical questions.
5. Behavioural Interview: This involves the candidates to give specific
examples of how he/she has performed a certain procedures or handled a
problem in the past. The interviewer progresses through a series of
questions, each based on a criterion, which could be a behavioural
competence in the form of a fundamental skill, capability/aptitude that is
required to achieve an acceptable level of performance. It focuses on
actual past behaviour.
6. Stress Interview: This is a special type of interview designed to create
anxiety and put pressure on the applicant and see how he/she would
respond to it generally speaking, creating stress in the interview is
37
dysfunctional to the selection process and create a negative perception
about the organization.
7. Multiple (Group) Interview: This occurs when several managers
interviews one applicant in a small group or as part of a panel or when a
group of applicants reacts to each other rather than to an interview but on
the other hand, since all interviews produces more consistent results.
8. ASSESSMENT CENTER: This is one of the best known multiple selection
methods. It is an approach that uses several techniques to give a
thorough picture of the strengths and weaknesses of a candidate,
Assessment Centres evaluate applicants or current employees with regard
to how they might perform in a managerial or high level position. Though
it is used mainly to determine employees that qualify for promotion, it
could equally be used as method of selecting new employees. Moreover,
the assessment centres are used when there is more than one candidate
(between 6 and 12) that suits perfectly the job profile and the hiring
company would like to offer a chance to each one of them. According to
Luminita (2008:439) Assessment centre is one of the most efficient
methods in personnel selection process and it is recommended for the
middle management positions, specialized positions or positions that
require a permanent communication with clients or business partners. It
makes extensive use of in-basket exercise, leaderless group discussion
and business games via stimulating managers‘ jobs.
38
2.4 PURPOSE & IMPORTANCE OF RECRUITMENT
- Attract and encourage more and more candidates to apply in the
organization.
- Create a talent pool of candidates to enable the selection of best
candidates for the organization.
- Determine present and future requirements of the organization in
conjunction with its personnel planning and job analysis activities.
- Recruitment is the process which links the employers with the
employees.
- Increase the pool of job candidates at minimum cost
- Help increase the success rate of selection process by decreasing
number of viably under qualified or overqualified job applicants.
- Help reduce the probability that job applicants once recruited and
selected will leave the organization only after a short period of
time.
- Meet the organizations legal and social obligations regarding the
composition of its work force.
- Begin identifying and preparing potential job applicants who will be
appropriate candidates
- Increase organization and individuals effectiveness of various
recruiting techniques and sources for all types of job applicants.
39
2.4.1 RECRUITMENT STRATEGIES
Recruitment is of the most crucial roles of the human resource
professionals. The level of performance of and organization depends on the
effectives of its recruitment function organizations have developed and follows
recruitment strategies to hire the best talent for their organization and to utilize
their resource optimally. A successful recruitment strategy should be well
planned and practical to attract more and good talent to apply in the
organization for formulating an effective and successful recruitment strategy, the
strategy, should cover the following elements.
1. Identifying and prioritizing jobs – requirement keep arising at various
levels in every organization. It is almost a never ending process it is impossible
to fill all the positions immediately. Therefore, there is a need to identify the
positions requiring immediate attention and action. To maintain the quality of the
recruitment activities, it is useful to prioritize the vacancies whether to focus on
all v vacancies equally or focusing on key jobs first.
- Candidates to target:- The recruitment process can be effective
only if the organization completely understands the requirements of
the type of candidates that are required and will be beneficial for
the organization. This covers the following parameters as well.
- Performance level required:- Different strategies are required
for focusing on hiring high performers and average performers.
40
- Experience level required: The strategy should be clear as to
what is the experience level required by the organization. The
candidate‘s experience can range from being a fresher to
experienced senior professionals.
2.4.2 FORMS OF RECRUITMENT
The organizations differ interms of their size, business, processes and
practices. A few decisions by the recruitment professionals can affect the
productivity and efficiency of the organization organizations adopt different forms
of recruitment practices according to the specific needs of the organization. The
organizations can choose from the centralized or decentralized forms of
recruitment, explained below.
A. CENTRALIZED RECRUITMENT
The recruitment practices of an organization are centralized when the
HR/recruitment department at the head office performs all functions of
recruitment decision for all the business verticals and departments of an
organizations are carried out by the one central HR (or recruitment) department
centralized from of recruitment is commonly seen in government organizations.
Benefits of the centralized form of recruitment are:
- Reduces administration costs
- Better utilization of specialists
- Uniformity in recruitment
- Interchangeability of staff
41
- Reduces favoritism
- Every department send requistisans for recruitment to their central
office
B. DECENTRALIZED RECRUITMENT
Decentralized recruitment practice are most commonly seen in the case of
conglomerates operating in different and diverse business areas. With diverse
and geographically spread business areas and office. It becomes important to
understand the needs of each department and frame the recruitment policies
and procedures accordingly. Each department carries out its non recruitment.
Choices between the two will depend upon management philosophy and needs
of particular organization. In some cases combination of both is used. Lower
level staffs as well as top level executives are recruited in a decentralized
manner.
Equal employment opportunity
Equal opportunity employment refers to the approach of the employers to
ensure the practice of being fair and impartial in the employment process. The
term ―equal opportunity employment‖ was first given by president Lyndon B.
Johnson he sined executive order 11246 which was created to prohibit federal
contractors form discriminating against employees on the basis of race, sex,
creed, religion, kolar, or national origin. The scope of the order also covered the
discrimination on the basis of the minority status.
42
Discrimination in employment
Discrimination refers to the any kind of prejudice, biasness or favoritism
on the basis of
- Disability
- Race
- Age
- Sexuality
- Pregnancy
- Marital status
- In unemployment
No person should be treated less favoruably than other on the basis of the
specified issue above many.
- Diversity in workforce with the globalization and the increasing size of the
organizations, the diversity in the workforce is increasing i.e. people from diverse
background, educational background, age groups, race, genders, abilities etc
come together to work for one organization and common objectives. Therefore,
it is the responsibility of the employer to create and equality in based and
discrimination free working environment and practices.
Equal opportunity means treating people equal and fairly irrespective of
their face, religion, sex, age, disability etc. Growing women on equal treatment
and access to opportunities at the workplace. Nay employee should be ill-treated
or harassed by the employer or other employees. Equal employment opportunity
43
principles help to realize and respect the actual worth of the individual in the
basis of his knowledge, skills, abilities and merit. And the policy should cover all
the employees of an organization whether permanent or temporary, contractual
etc.
Equal employment opportunity is necessary to ensure.
- To give fair access to the people of all development opportunities
- To create a fair organization, industry and society
- To encourage and give disadvantaged or disabled people a fair chance
to grow with the society.
2.4.3 THE HUMAN RESOURCES CHALLENGES IN RECRUITMENT
Recruitment is a function that requires business perspective, expertise,
ability to find and match the best potential candidate for the organization,
diplomacy, marketing skill (as to sell the position to the candidate) and wisdom
to align the recruitment processes for the benefit of the organization. The HR
professionals handling the recruitment function of the organization are constantly
facing new challenges. The biggest challenge for such professionals is to source
or recruit the best people or potential candidate for the organization. In the last
few years, the job market has undergone some fundamental changes in terms of
technologies, sources of recruitment, competition in the market etc. In an
already saturated job market, where the practices like poaching and raiding are
gaining momentum, HR professionals are constantly facing new challenges in
44
one of their most important function recruitment. They have to face and conquer
various challenges to find organizations.
The major challenges faced by the HR in recruitment are:
1. Adaptability to globalization: The HR professionals are expected
and required to keep in tune with the changing times, i.e. the changes
taking place across the globe. HR should maintain the timeless of the
process.
2. Lack of motivation: Recruitment is considered to be a thankless job.
Even if the organizations is achieving results, HR department or
professionals are not thanked for recruiting the right employees and
performers.
3. Process analysis:- The immediacy and speed of the recruitment
process are the main concerns of the HR in recruitment. The process
should be flexible, adaptive and responsive to the immediate
requirements. The recruitment process should also be cost effective.
4. Strategic prioritization:- The emerging new systems are both an
opportunity as well as a challenge for the HR professionals. Therefore,
reviewing staffing needs and prioritizing the tasks to meet the changes
in the market has become on challenge for the recruitment
professionals.
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2.4.4 RECRUITMENT VS SELECTION
Both recruitment and selection are the two phases of the employment
process. The differences between the two are:
1. Recruitment is the process of searching the candidates for employment
and stimulating them to apply for jobs in the organization whereas
selection involves the serves of steps by which the candidates are
screened for chaining the most suitable persons for vacant posts.
2. The basic purpose of recruitments is to create a talent pool of
candidates to enable the selection of best candidates for the
organization, by attracting more and more employees to apply in the
organization where as the basic purpose of selection process is to
choose the right candidate to fill the various poantions on the
organization.
3. recruitment is a positive process i.e. encouraging more and more
employees to apply whereas selection is a negative process as it
involves rejection of the unsuitable candidates.
4. Recruitment is concerned with tapping the sources of human resources
coheres selection is concerned with selecting the most suitable
candidate through various intervenes and tests.
5. There is no contract of recruitment established in recruitment whereas
selection between the employer and the selected employee.
46
2.5 CULTURAL FACTORS INFLUENCING PERSONNEL RECRUITMENT
AND SELECTION IN NIGERIA.
Personnel recruitment and selection in different organizations and mostly
in the Nigeria civil service are weighed down by certain cultural factors that
affect and violate meritocracy. The cultural assumptions examined here seem to
primarily affect recruitment, selection and appraisal HRM activities. Cultures with
perceived control over their environment feel that people can and do have and
impact on their environment and therefore, consider merit (e.g.
accomplishments, experience) and skill as the critical criteria for recruiting and
evaluating (appraising) personnel.
1. Submit cultures seek assistance from those in their environment so
that personal contacts are an important source for being recruited and
evaluated. It also value long term employment.
2. Control cultures value training to enhance their control over their
surrounding. Control cultures value limited employment, as long as
employees skills are needed to meet organizational goals.
The following are the cultural factors that influence personnel recruitment
and selection among organizations in Nigeria.
a) Ethnicity/Tribe: The public service is an important organ of
government, hence it staff of great interest to stakeholders in the society.
During recruitment and selection of applicants into vacant positions in an
organizations their tribe and ethnic grouping tends to influence the
47
recruitment and selection process because when the recruiter comes from
an ethnic/tribe in the country (e.g. North/Hausa) he/she will be bias and
favour those from his/her ethnic/tribe group in the process of selection,
thereby lacking merit. This is against the idea of Max Weber‘s model of
bureaucracy in which civil servants and non-civil servants alike should be
selected purely on the basis of merit (Mukoro; 2005).
b) Religion: The place of worship one attends also has a great influence in
the recruitment and selection of personnel into vacant positions among
organizations (Christianity and Islam) and among the Christian religion
there are subdivision which includes Catholics, Orthodox and Pentecostal
group. Most recruiters tends to favour their members during recruitment
process as part of their fraternity and to encourage continued
membership; and it is also being preached that those seeking employment
should come to their church(s) and they will be provided with work within
a merit because if I the recruitment process other church member(s) or
religion did very well in the recruitment exercise; he/she will not be
selected as long as they do not have the same faith.
c) Corruption: This is the act of giving bribe (a huge sum of money/sex)
depending on the sex of the applicant, so that during recruitment and
selection, such giver(s) may be favoured and eventually employed into the
organization. Every efforts made to curb the act has yielded no results as
the unemployment situation in the country keep rising and applicants are
48
desperate by the days so as to contend life challenges. This days, we see
happened in almost every recruitment exercise and currently the rate paid
in the Armed Forced recruitment ranges from sixty thousand naira to
eighty thousand naira (N60,000 to N80,000) while the civil service it is
fifty thousand naira to one hundred and fifty thousand naira (N50,000 to
N150,000). This also have kills meritocracy and frustrate qualified
applicants in their search for a befitting job.
d) Quota System: The objectives of the Federal Character Commission of
Nigeria reflects the followings:
- To foster a sense of belonging among all Nigerians.
- Ensure equitable sharing of positions in the public service without
sacrificing merit.
- Fair distribution of socio-economics amenities.
- To foster even development and promote national unity as well as
command national loyalty. But operationally, it has sacrifice merit
and excellence at the alter of quota system. Momoh (1987:57)
argued that in operating the principle of Federal character (Quota
system). Nigeria must seek to level upwards rather than
downwards. He said, the aim of the system should be to make a
poor as rich as the wealthy in out midst.
49
e) Collective Beliefs: This selects employees that fit the workgroup
conformity and loyalty, to appraise and promote employees. Likewise the
general belief within an environment tends to affect the recruitment and
selection process when other recruiters stick to it.
f) Gender Differences: most recruitment exercise emphasizes gender
difference especially in the banking sector when the recruiters tend to
favour the feminine among applicants. The purpose of training and
performance appraisal in masculine cultures is to stress performance on
specific tasks as well as to help people achieve feminine cultures tends to
emphasize the ability to work with others and service to the organization
in recruitment, training and appraisal of employees because they value
processes as much as results. Masculine cultures reward results; whereas
feminine cultures reward processes or how the results are achieved as
well.
g) Power Distances (PD): This factor is mostly used in training and
promotion to already existing employees in the organizations. High power
distance cultures emphasize on status wherein clerical jobs and
managerial jobs are higher in status than non-managerial jobs. In such
cultures one‘s boss determines one‘s training needs. Training is conducted
to convey specific skills, and the trainers have higher status in the training
situation so she/he lectures primarily. High PD cultures have wider salary
gaps between organizational levels to reflect the higher status of those in
50
higher jobs. Low PD cultures minimize status difference, so they view
clerical and blue collar jobs as equal and salary gaps between
organizational levels are not as large. Since people in lower status
positions in the organization can share decision power, they can initiate
some of their training needs. Training is provided to give individuals more
autonomy in performing their jobs. During training sessions, power
sharing occurs between trainer and trainee as the trainer uses more
participative techniques such as discussions and role play.
h) Uncertainty Avoidance (UA): High UA cultures fear the unknown and
tend to be more suspicious of foreigners who are unknown to them and
are more reticent in recruiting and selecting persons having a different
cultural background. As risk takers, high uncertainty avoidance cultures
are more comfortable in hiring people having a different cultural
background. Training is geared towards developing specialist in high UA
cultures because having experts helps reduce uncertainty. High
uncertainty Avoidance cultures value security so they emphasize seniority
and loyalty in performance appraisals and in promoting people. Low
uncertainty, avoidance cultures rely on merit and task performance for
appraisals and promotion because they value risk over security.
i) Context: Low context cultures derive meaning from verbal
Communication so criteria for recruitment, selection and appraisal are
explicit and appraisals are done regularly to add to its explicitness. They
51
prefer training sessions and materials that are specific in nature; while
high context cultures tend to prefer implicit criteria that can be derived
from the situation. Training sessions and materials may be more general
in nature; performance appraisals include subjective standards and more
subtle and implicit criteria to avoid embarrassing as individual in the case
of negative feedback so as not to break the bond of trust between
members.
j) Human Nature: In cultures where people are seen as lacking
responsibility (evil), the manager decides when employees need training.
In such cultures personnel performance is evaluated using the manager‘s
goals. In cultures that view people as ―good‖ managers will trust
employees to tell them of their training needs. In such cultures,
employees are comfortable in using goals jointly developed with their
managers (e.g. management by objectives) to evaluate their own
performance. In such cultures, people can be trusted to develop
meaningful goals for their work.
k) Time: Cultures that stress monochromic times like to break up work and
training into sequential tasks/steps so employees are recruited/trained for
specific tasks. Once the tasks are completed, the employee may no longer
be needed. Polychronic cultures based their work on relationships. The
longer an employee works for an organization, the more they can develop
their network of relations at work. These relations make them more
52
effective; therefore, such cultures value long term conditions of
employment. Training in such cultures may be designed to develop
several skills at once.
l) Space: Private space cultures emphasize tasks so people are hired into
tasks with specific job descriptions. Public space cultures emphasize
relationship so people are hired because of their ability to build
relationships and develop new ones in order to accomplish their jobs.
People‘s assignments may vary and be less systematic.
m) Employment Requirement: This refers to the abilities and qualifications
that are required of recruits. A good recruiter should know which
requirements are absolutely necessary and which are merely desirable.
Where the requirements are low; there is the tendency that the recruits
that will be attracted to the organization will turn out to be incompetent, if
on the other hand, the recruitment are unrealistically high, it will lead to
unnecessary costs.
n) Corporate Image: What people think about an organization or the
impression they have, goes along way to determine the image of the
company. It is mainly a function of what it does and whether it is
perceived as providing a good place to work in. it is also affected by the
size of the organization and its industry.
o) Labour Market Condition: The rising rate of unemployed graduates in
the country has slightest recruiting effort may by any organization skillful
53
and prolong recruiting will be necessary in order to attract the right
quality and quantity of employees desired.
p) Government and Union Restrictions: This arises mainly due to
government efforts to ensure equal employment opportunities for its
citizens. Usually, where there are disadvantaged and minority groups,
there is the tendency that they will be marginalized in resource allocation
and employment. As a result, it makes and enforces legislations that every
citizens is given equal opportunities for employment.
2.6 STRUCTURES OF PERSONNEL RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION IN
PUBLIC ORGANIZATIONS OF NIGERIA.
Selection according to Agbo (2003:152) is the assessing of the candidates
by various means and making a choice followed by an offer of employment. This
involves evaluating and choosing among job applicants. The staff selection
process can be seen as a series of steps that are performed on a continuing
basis to know if the organization was supplied with the right people in the right
positions at the right time. This step includes: Human resources planning,
recruitment, selection, induction and orientation, training and development,
performance appraisal, transfer, promotion, demotion and separation. The
following are used as selection goals in building a viable human resources
department: application forms accept resume (CV), conducting interview and
reference checks.
54
The selection function is affected by both internal and external factors
ranges from organization size, it financial strength and the company policy as
regards recruitment. The four commonly used selection criteria according to
Ugbam (2009:44-45) are: (i) Education (ii) Working Experience (iii) Physical
Characteristics (iv) Personal Characteristics.
The goal of the selection process is to accurately determine the
candidates that pose the knowledge, skills abilities and other characteristics
(KSAOs) that are necessary for one applicant to perform well in the job selection
exercise.
The structures of selection process as can be seen in most public organizations
are stated below:
Fig. 1. Structure of selection process
Adapted; Ugbam, 2009:46.
Preliminary screening:
Application soliciting &
Interview
Medical /Physical Examination
Employment Interview
Employment tests
(Written)
Background and
Reference checks
Selection decision
Employment final
55
The process of selection raises from job to job and from organization to
organization depending on quality, competency and vacant position.
There are different selection patterns that exist among organizations and they
include:
- Systematic Selection: It involves following a pattern that is adaptable
for all vacancies and capable of being expanded or contracted as
necessary.
- Compensatory Approach: This allows applicants to proceed through
the entire selection process, securing measure and assessments of
their qualifications at each step.
2.8 PROBLEMS OF RECRUITMENT IN NIGERIA CIVIL SERVICE
The efficiency and effectiveness of any work place (whether the private or
the public sector) largely depend on the caliber of the workforce. The availability
of a competent and effective labor force does not just happen by chance but
through an articulated recruitment exercise (peretomade and peretomade 2001).
Recruitment is a set of activities used to obtain a sufficient number of the sight
people at the right time from the right places (Nickels et al; 1999), and its
purpose is to select those who best meet the needs of the work place, and to
develop and maintain a qualified and adequate workforce though which an
organization can fulfill its human resource plan.
A recruitment process begins by specifying human resource requirements
(numbers, sill, mix, levels, time frame), which are the typical results of job
56
analysis and human resource planning activities (Cascio, 1986). Information from
job analysis and human resources planning activities activates the next phase in
the recruitment process, namely, attracting potentially candidates to apply for
vacant positions on an organization. This can be done through recruitment within
the organization (internal sources), and or recruitment outside the organization
(external sources). After this phase, the organization should devise selection
tools to help sort out the relative qualifications of the job applicants, and
appraise their potentials for being good performers in a particular job (Jones et
al, 2000). These tools include applications and resume, interviews reference
checks, test (Snell, 1999). The essence of these recruitment activities is for the
organization to appoint the best applicant with the right ability, temperament
and willingness (Mullins, 1996).
Recruitment of personnel for the civil service is one of the crucial tasks of
modern government and lies in the heart of the problem of personnel
administration (Bassy, 1994). The state and federal civil service commissioners
serve as employment agents for the civil services in Nigeria and they do the
recruitment without a fee (Nwachukwu, 2000). Specifically, the authority for
recruitment into the Nigerian Federal civil service is the Federal Civil Service
Commission (FCSC). However, the commission delegates powers to federal
ministries and extra-ministerial departments to recruit junior staff to post graded
GL 01 – 06 (A1 – Gazali, 2006).
57
The Nigerian Federal Civil Service system emphasizes uniformity,
standardization, and transparency (Babaru, 2003) in recruiting competent
applicants. Despite these emphases, it is perceived that the recruitment process,
lacks equity and transparency, making it, difficulty if not impossible to recruit the
best qualified applicants for available jobs in the service. The perceived problems
of recruitment in Nigerian federal civil service could be attributed to factors such
as inadequate and invalid standards for evaluating job candidates (as a result of
absence of job analysis), sources of locating the potential applicants,
transparency and independence of the recruiting authority, and the
administrative machinery for determination of qualifications. Environmental
influences such as technological social, political and economic demand also cause
problems that affect recruitment into the federal civil service. The recruitment
process and its impact on the recruitment exercise in order to attract broad
range of potential applicants, and screen out unsuitable applicants.
Therefore, aims to identify the prevalent problem affecting recruitment in
Nigerian public sector and to determine the extent of the application of job
description and job specification in the recruitment process.
The Nigerian public sector has to make standard and objective
recruitment decision by appointing the right applicants in the service and
accurately matching them with position classification. A good recruitment
exercise enhances productivity. It also reduces cost as it reduces labor turnover
rate and employee dissatisfaction (Nwachukwu, 2000).
58
There are a number of resources that contribute towards the success of
any organization, such as manpower, money machine, material, information,
idea and other inputs. While these resources are important, the human factor is
the most significant one because it is the people who have to coordinate and use
all other resources (Chandan, 1987). Recruitment is integral part of human
resource, and involves the process of identifying and attracting or encouraging
potential applicants with needed skills to fill vacant position man organization
(Perotomode and Peremode 2001), matching them with specific and suitable
jobs, and assigning them to these jobs. (Chandan, 1987). Job analysis, which is
the study of what is to be done, where, how, why and by whom in current and
predicated job, begins the recruitment process (Mc-Cormick, 1976).
- Public sector recruitment is the process through which suitable candidates
are induced to compete for appointments into the civil services. The civil service
is a professional body of officials, permanent, paid and skilled (Finer, 1949). It is
a system that offers equal opportunities to all citizens to enter the government
service, equal pay to all employees doing work requiring the same degree of
intelligence and capacity, equal opportunities for advancement, equal favorable
conditions and equal participation in retirement allowances and makes equal
demands upon the employees (Willoughby, 1964). The major requirements of
the civil service are that it should be impartially selected, administratively
competent, politically neutral and imbued with the spirit of service to the
community (Ghadden, 1984). The civil service is indispensable to the functioning
59
of the modern state (Basu, 1994), that is why the condition of a society is largely
determined by the performance of the public service (Philips, 1990). The civil
service is the major facilitators for implementation of the will of the state as
expressed through public policy. The civil servant is a person who is employed
into the civil service. He should not be a political or judicial office holder and his
remuneration should be solely paid out of government funds.
Due to the increasing significance and importance of the civil service in
modern society and the assumption of responsibility by the government for the
performance of various social and economic functions, it has become necessary
to recruit competent applicant into the services. The recruitment process should
attract the best available talents to the civil service. The key to most recruitment
process in the civil service is the notion of position classification, which is
arrangement of job an the basis of duties and responsibilities and the skills
required to perform them (Denhardt and Denhardt, 2006). This classification is
derived from a rough job analysis. The use of position classification system is
important in the public sector recruitment process because it maintain an
objective inventory that connects positions to the tasks and skills required to fill
them. Once it has objectives statements about positions, a civil service is able to
source potential applicant by creating awareness of the existence of vacancies.
The recruitment process into the public sector involves a number of
problems because of diversification of the civil service functions and the growth
of democratic and equalitarian principles. Some of these arise from the location
60
of the recruiting authority, methods or sources of recruitment, qualifications of
the employees and methods of determining qualifications (Basu, 1994). Other
problems include unavailability of skill needed (Manchester, 1998), emphasis on
corporate culture and unattractive work places (Nickel et al, 1999). These other
problems arising from the environment are monitored and appropriate corrective
measures taken in order to ensure the ability to recruit the right type of persons
for the right jobs based on the principles of merit and equal opportunity for all.
2.7.1 EMERGING SELECTION TOOLS AND METHODS
There is the need to streamline and get value for the huge investment any
organization is making throughout the recruitment and selection exercises. Thus,
the most emerging selection tools and methods are discussed below:
1. Behaviour Based Interview: Helps to
- Predict future performance from past behaviour.
- Resolve tie-breaking situation.
- Reduces time, cost and expected surprises in the situation process
and also assess soft skills.
- Reduce turn over and create unified corporate culture.
2. Talent Alliance: This is an abridged method used to help the process
of recruiting high caliber staff into the organization through resources
pooling by different organizations. It is meant to serve both employee
61
and employers through a brand range of services offered through four
main categories:
- Job/Applicant matching
- Training and education
- Career growth centers
- Future forum
Its operation is conducted in strict confidentiality and organization discipline.
3. Employee Referral: This is a recruitment method that involves the
generality of staff in the organization whereby they are encouraged to
scout for good and quality persons who qualified for some certain jobs
within the organization. On discovery, information are supplied to
management for a follow up and the lead is rewarded.
4. Internet/On-Line Recruitment: It is the newest tool used in
recruitment and selection. The use of internet/world wide web (www)
to recruit qualified manpower enable firms to have database for all
applicants and reduces the number of applications
(classified/specialized) as well as reduces paper work significantly.
62
REFERENCES
Candan JS (1987): Management theory and practice, New Delhi: Vikas Publishing
House.
Capra, F. C. (1996): The web of life, New York: Doubleday.
Cascio W. F. (1986): Managing Human Resources: Productivity, Quality of work
life, profits. Mc Graw-Hill international edition Management series.
Clifford JP (1994): ―Job analysis: why do it and How it should be done,‖ public
personal management, 23 summer.
Cortegay Gasset, J. (1957): Mand and People. New York: Norton S. F Ornsetmi,
R. (1972). The psychology of consciousness. San Francisco: W. H.
Freeman.
Denhardt RB, Denhardt JV (2006): Public administration: An action orientation,
5th edition, USA: Thomsan Wadswarth. Etnk (1992). The Nigerian
Public service: In search of creative excellence, Ibadan: Spectrum
Book Limited.
Eriskon, E. H. (1963) Childhood and Society (2nd ed). New York: Norton.
Federal Republic of Nigeria (FRN 2000c), 2000 Annual Report of the Federal Civil
Service commission, Abuja; Federal Civil Service Commission.
Federal Republic of Nigeria (FRN, 1998), Guidelines for Appointments, promotion
and discipline, Abuja; issued by the federal civil service
commission.
Federal republic of Nigeria (FRN, 2004), public service rules, revised to January
21st 2000, Lagos; Federal Government Press.
63
Finer H. (1949): Theory and practice of modern government, New York: Henry
Holt and Co.
Garder, H. (1983). Frames of mind New York: Basic Books.
Geertz, C (1973): The interpretation of culture. New York: Basic Books.
Gladden EN (1948): The civil service, its problems and future, London: Staples.
Goleman, D. (1995): Emotional intelligence. New York: Bantan Books.
Jung, C. G. (1971): Psychological types. The collected works of C. G. Jung (vol.
6). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University press.
Kegan, R. (1994): In over our heads. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University press.
Klee, J. B. (1960): Religion as facing forward in time. Existential inquiries, 1(2),
19-32.
Langer, S. K. (1957): Philosophy in a new day (3rd ed). Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University press (First edition, 1942).
Machester P. (1998): ―The skill shortage: A world wide problems‖, financ times
Jan 7.
McCormick EI (1976): ―Job and Task Analysis‖ in Dunnetee edition Handbook of
industrial and organizational psychology. Chicago: Rand McNally.
Pp. 651-696.
Nickets W. G. McHugh JM, McHugh SM (1999): Understanding Business 5th
Edition, USA: Inwin/McGraw-Hill.
Nwachukwu, C. C. (2000), Human Resources Management, 2nd Edition, Nigeria:
Davidstones Publishers.
64
Peretomode VF, Peretomode O. (2001): Human Resource Management:
principle, policies and practices, Lagos: anpspomegbowho
Ogbinaka Publishers.
Phillips D. (1990): The 1988 Nigerian Civil Service Reforms and their post—1992
prospects, NISER occasional, paper No. 3, Ibadan, Nigeria.
Roszak, T, Gomes, M. E.; & Kanner, A. D. (eds). (1995). Ecopsychology san
Francio: Sierra club.
Schachtel, E. G. (1959): Metamorphosis. New York: Basic Books.
Snow C. P. (1961): Two cultures and the scientific revolution. New York:
Cambridge University Press (Originally delivered as the Rede
lecturers in 1959).
Willonshby W. f. (1964): Principles of Public Administration, New York.
65
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN
Nachimias and Nachimias (1985) stated that research design is a blue
print of ways and means to address problems of scientific inquiry. These
scientific inquires‖ could be obtained on conducted in three major ways VIX.
Survey, experimented, and ex-post factor designs (Onwumers, 2005).
The current study adopt ed a survey design, analyzing and interpreting
the data related to the hypotheses. The study further employed questionnaire,
the direct observations to gather data which was analyzed for the hypothesis.
The researcher went further to test the data with statistical instruments to
ascertain the acceptability of the will hypotheses earlier stated.
3.2 SOURCES OF DATA
Two sets of data were utilized for this study; primary and secondary data.
3.2.1 Primary Data
The primary data were obtained through questionnaires, interviews and
observations.
The questionnaires were designed in Likert form to eliminate bias in the
choice of selection by the respondents. Section one covered the background
characteristics of the respondents. Section two focused on the primary strategies
for marketing agricultural produce.
66
3.2.2 Secondary Data
These are data collected from publications and articles on workers of
other researchers and writers which are closely related to the study.
3.3 POPULATION OF THE STUDY
A population of study according to Onwumere (2005) comprises all
elements, subjects and perhaps observations in relation to a particular
phenomenon. It means a group of things that have certain characteristics
(Osuala, 1993) for the purpose of this study, the population of the study includes
in the ministries of Education commerce and industry in Enugu state.
3.4 SAMPLE SIZE DETERMINATION
By employing Taro Yamani Sample size statistical determination model,
thus,
n = N
1 + N (e)2
Where n = Sample size (?)
N = population size
i = Constraint
e = tolerate error
hence; n = 220
1 + 220 (0.05)2
= 220
2.01 n = 109
67
The researcher therefore used a sample size of 109 for the investigation.
They are considered appropriate for a study of this nature.
3.5 SAMPLE SELECTION METHOD
This is the procedure used in selecting a sample for investigation. It is
generally grouped into probability or random sampling methods, and non-
probability or non-random sampling method. This particular study adopted the
probability random of the population equal chance of being selected. Reason
being that the researcher will randomly distribute his questionnaire to every
member of the population.
3.6 METHOD OF DATA ANALYSIS
In the study, the researcher analyzed interpreted and presented the data
collected in meaning full and simple for the understanding of the readers.
The data collected were analyzed with tales and percentages so as to
make the data more understandable and reasonable to readers while chi-square
was used to test the hypotheses based on its scientific nature.
The formular for the chi-square in this study is as follows:
X = (O – e)2
Where X = Computed chi-square
O = Observed frequencies
E = Expected frequencies
= Summation sign
68
3.7 DECISION CRITERIA FOR VALIDATION OF HYPOTHESES
The decision criterion is that if the calculated chi-square (X2) value is
greater than the critical value, the null hypotheses will be rejected and the
alternative hypothesis will be accepted. Conversely, if the calculated value is less
than the critical value, is less than the critical value, the null hypothesis is
accepted.
69
REFERENCES
Nichimas, D. and Nachimas C. (1985): Research Methods in Social Science. New-
York: St. Martins press.
Onwumere, J. U. (2005): Business and Economics Research Methods. Lagos:
Don Vinton Ltd.
Osuala, E. C. (1982): Introduction to Research Methodology, Onitsha: Africana-
FCP Publishers.
70
CHAPTER FOUR
4.1 DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
Basically, primary data were collected from the use of questionnaires and
oral interview for the purpose of analysis. The questionnaires were distributed
among staff of Enugu state ministry of education and commerce and industries
and their responses obtained, tabulated and analysed for easy interpretation and
a better understanding of the topic: The Influence of Culture on Personnel
Recruitment and Selection in Nigeria. The total numbers of questionnaires
distributed were seventy-one (220) and sixty-five (109) questionnaires were
completed and returned representing 92% while six questionnaires were not
returned representing 8%.
4.2 ANALYSES OF THE QUESTIONNAIRES
Table 4.1 Job Application
OPTIONS RESPONSES PERCENTAGE
Yes 109 100%
No - -
Total 109 100
The table below shows that 100% of the respondents have ever applied
for a job.
71
Table 4.2 Criteria for Recruitment in Public Organization
OPTION RESPONSES PERCENTAGE
Strongly agreed 29 26%
Agreed 25 22%
Undecided 10 9%
Disagreed 25 22%
Strongly disagreed 20 18%
Total 109 100
The above table shows that 22 percent of the respondents agreed tat the
criteria for recruitment in most public organization is open to the general publics
and this was strongly agreed by 26% respondents while 22% respondents
disagreed that the criteria for recruitment is most public organization is not to
the general public and this was also supported by 18% respondents who strongly
disagreed to it and 9% respondents were undecided.
Table 4.3 Aim of the Recruitment Exercise is Base on Merit
OPTION RESPONSES PERCENTAGE
Strongly Agreed 21 19%
Agreed 25 22%
Undecided 10 9%
Disagreed 36 33%
Strongly disagreed 17 15%
Total 109 100
The result above reveals that 33%of the disagreed that the aim of the
recruitment exercise in Nigeria is not based on merit this was also strongly
disagreed by 15% respondents while 22% respondents agreed that the aim of
72
this was also supported by 19% respondents who strongly agreed to it and 9%
of the respondents were undecided.
Table 4.4 Ethnicity/Tribe Group Affect Recruitment Exercise
OPTION RESPONSES PERCENTAGE
Strongly Agreed 34 31%
Agreed 41 37%
Undecided 9 8%
Disagreed 15 13%
Strongly disagreed 10 9%
Total 109 100
The table above shows that 37% of the respondents agreed that
ethnicity/tribe group has affected the recruitment exercise in most organizations
and this was supported by 31% of the respondents who strongly agreed it. While
13% of the respondents disagreed that ethnicity/tribal grouping has not affected
the recruitment exercise in most organizations and this was also supported by
9% of the respondents who strongly disagreed to it. And 8% of the respondents
were undecided.
Table 4.5 Recruitment Exercise Lack Equity and Transparency
OPTION RESPONSES PERCENTAGE
Strongly Agreed 29 26%
Agreed 43 39%
Undecided 21 19%
Disagreed 10 9%
Strongly disagreed 6 5%
Total 109 100
73
The table above shows that 39%% of the respondents said that the
recruitment exercise among organizations in Nigeria lacks equity and
transparency and this was strongly agreed by 26% of the respondents while
19% of the respondents were undecided but 9% of the respondents disagreed
that the recruitment exercise among organizations in Nigeria lacks equity and
transparency and this was also supported but 5% of the respondents who
strongly disagreed to it.
Table 4.6: Selection for Interview was based on Aptitude Test
OPTION RESPONSES PERCENTAGE
Strongly Agreed 20 18%
Agreed 38 34%
Undecided 22 20%
Disagreed 20 18%
Strongly disagreed 9 8%
Total 109 100
The table above shows that 34% of the respondents said that under the
selection criteria, their invitation for interview was based on aptitude test
performance or official connections by agreeing to it; and this was strongly
agreed to by 18% of the respondents. While 18% of the respondents disagreed
that the selection criteria, used for interview was based on aptitude test
performance or official connection and this was also supported by 8% of the
respondents who strongly disagreed that their invitation for interview was not
based on aptitude test performance or official connections.
74
Table 4.7: Federal Character Commission Preaches Equity and Fareness
in Job Selection in Government Establishment.
OPTION RESPONSES PERCENTAGE
Strongly Agreed 27 24%
Agreed 43 39%
Undecided 9 8%
Disagreed 10 9%
Strongly disagreed 20 18%
Total 109 100
The table above shows that 39% of the respondents agreed that the
federal character commission preaches equity and fairness in job selection in
government establishments and this was supported by 24% of the respondents
was strongly agreed that the federal character commission preaches equity and
fairness in job selection in government establishments and this was also
supported by 9% of the respondents who disagree to it and 8% of the
respondents were undecided in relation to the statement.
Table 4.8: Factors Influencing your Securing Present Job.
OPTION RESPONSES PERCENTAGE
By merit 30 27%
On recommendation 23 21%
Man know man 15 13%
By Divine Grace 32 29%
Bribery and corruption 9 8%
Total 109 100
The table above shows that among the factors that influence their
securing their present job includes: By Divine Grace, 29% of the respondents
75
rate it highest, followed by 27% of the respondents who said that they got their
jobs by merit and 21% of the respondents said theirs was on recommendation;
while 13% of the respondents got their jobs via man know man and only 8% of
the respondents said they got their jobs through bribery and corruption.
Tables 4.9: One’s Tribe/Religion Influences Job Opportunity.
OPTION RESPONSES PERCENTAGE
Strongly Agreed 36 33%
Agreed 45 41%
Undecided 9 8%
Disagreed 10 9%
Strongly disagreed 9 8%
Total 109 100
The above result reveals that 41% of the respondents agreed that one‘s
tribe or religion influences one‘s opportunity of securing jobs in organization and
this was supported by 33% of the respondents who strongly agree to it while 9%
of the respondents disagree to it that one‘s tribe or religion does not influence
one‘s opportunity of securing jobs in organization and this was also supported by
8% of the respondents who strongly disagree to it and 8% of the respondents
were undecided about the issue.
76
Table 4.10: Qualified Candidates have been denied Job Opportunity
Inspite of Passing Job Interviews.
OPTION RESPONSES PERCENTAGE
Strongly Agreed 41 37%
Agreed 36 33%
Undecided 13 11%
Disagreed 9 8%
Strongly disagreed 10 9%
Total 109 100
The above result reveals that 37% of the respondents agreed that in most
cases, qualified candidates that have passed series of interviews in the
recruitment exercise were denied the job opportunities because they do not
know any senior executives in the organization and this was supported by 33%
of the respondents who agreed to it; while 8% of the respondents disagreed that
such qualified candidates have not been denied the job advertised because they
do not know any executive in the organization and this was also supported by
9% of the respondents who strongly disagreed to it and 11% of the respondents
were undecided.
Table 4.11: Promotion is Based on Job Performance and Experience.
OPTION RESPONSES PERCENTAGE
Strongly Agreed 28 25%
Agreed 32 29%
Undecided 19 17%
Disagreed 20 18%
Strongly disagreed 10 9%
Total 109 100
77
The above table shows that 29% of the respondents agreed that in term
of promotion/placement, it was based on job performance and experience and
this was strongly agreed by 25% of the respondents; while 18% of the
respondents disagreed that promotion/job placement as not on job performance
and experience and this was strongly agreed too by 9% of the respondents. And
17% of the respondents were undecided on the issue at hand.
Table 4.12: Culture has Influenced all aspects of our National Life
Including Personnel Promotion.
OPTION RESPONSES PERCENTAGE
Strongly Agreed 26 23%
Agreed 30 27%
Undecided 10 9%
Disagreed 24 22%
Strongly disagreed 19 17%
Total 109 100
The table above shows that 27% of the respondents agreed that the
influence of culture has affected all aspects of our national life including
personnel promotion and placement in public service and this was strongly
agreed by 23% of the respondents; while 22% of the respondents disagreed
that the influence of culture has not affected all aspects of our national life
including personnel promotion and placement in public service and this was also
strongly disagreed by 17% of the respondents. And 9% of the respondents were
undecided about the issue at hand.
78
Table 4.13: Quota System and the Problem of Social Aggregates of
Ethnic Groups In Government
OPTION RESPONSES PERCENTAGE
Strongly Agreed 40 36%
Agreed 31 28%
Undecided 17 15%
Disagreed 12 11%
Strongly disagreed 9 8%
Total 109 100
The table above shows that 36% of the respondents strongly agrees that
the issue of federal character/quota system has not addressed the problem of
social aggregates of ethnic groups at all tiers of government; and this was
agreed to by 28% of the respondents. While 15% of the respondents were
undecided about the issue; but 6% of the respondents disagreed that the issue
of federal character/quota system has addressed the problem of social
aggregates of ethnic groups at all tier of government, which was also strongly
disagreed by 8% of the respondents.
Table 4.14: Factors Influencing Position Occupied Now.
OPTION RESPONSES PERCENTAGE
Cultural factors 22 20%
Meritocracy 33 30%
Divine Grace 33 30%
Educational qualification
and experiences
16 14%
Lobbying 5 4%
Total 109 100
79
The result above reveals that among the factors that influences position
occupied in the organization now, meritocracy and Divine Grace were rated high
with 30% each, followed by educational qualification and experiences that has
14% while cultural factors has 20% and lobbying has 4% responses.
Table 4.15: Promotion/Placement in Organization is Based on Merit
and Seniority.
OPTION RESPONSES PERCENTAGE
Strongly Agreed 27 24%
Agreed 38 34%
Undecided 25 22%
Disagreed 10 9%
Strongly disagreed 9 8%
Total 109 100
The table above shows that 34% respondents agreed that promotion and
placement in organization is based on merit and seniority which was strongly
agreed to by 24% of the respondents while 22% of the respondents were
undecided about who disagreed that promotion/placement in organization is not
based on merit and seniority, likewise 8% of the respondents strongly disagreed
to it.
80
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
From the result of the questionnaires and oral interview conducted and
the data analysis made, the. Following are its findings all the respondents have
applied for a job before their employment and the criteria for recruitment in most
public organization is open to the general publics which was agreed by most of
tea respondents, and most of them also disagreed that the aim of the
recruitment exercise is not based on the merit, as ethnicity tribal grouping had
affected the recruitment exercise in most organizations.
It was also agreed that the recruitment exercise among organizations in
Nigeria lacks equity and transparency despite the fact that selection for interview
was based on aptitude test performance.
It was also agreed that the quota system of the federal character commission
preaches equity and fairness in Job selection into federal establishments.
Among the factors that influence respondents‘ securing their present job
Divine Grace was ranked highest, followed by merit, on recommendation and
man know man respectively. It was also discovered that one‘s tribe or religion
greatly influences one‘s opportunity of securing job in business organization. And
in most cases, it was strongly agreed that qualified candidates that passed series
of interview in the recruitment exercise have been denied such opportunity
81
because they do not know any senior executives in the organization. It was
agreed that job performance and experience has become the bases of promotion
and placement.
The influence of culture was also agreed to have affected all aspect of our
national life including personnel promotion and placement in the public service;
this can be seen in the issue of federal character /quota system which has not
addressed the problem of social aggregates of ethnic groups at the ties of
government.
Divine grace and merit were ranked the highest as major factor that
influences respondents‘ occupied position in their organization, which was
followed by educational qualification and experiences, and cultural factors as well
as lobbying respectively.
Finally, it was agreed that promotion and placement in the organization is
based on merit and seniority.
5.2 CONCLUSION
It was important to know that recruitment and selection are process are
inseparable, in that organizations evaluate the suitability of candidates for
various vacant jobs. These they do by centralizing all employment activities and
keep an update record of all improvements of the efficiency of the process
through the review of the past activities.
82
There have been various ways of conducting recruitment and selection
exercise in which certain standards and requirements were set, so as to attract
only the best and qualified candidates for the vacant jobs.
The goal of every selection exercise is to accurately determine the
candidates that posses the knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics
(KSAOs) that are necessary for one to perform in the job in question. The result
greatly reveals that culture has influence personnel recruitment exercises lack
equity and transparency among organizations in Nigeria.
In cultures where people are seen as lacking responsibility (evil), the
manager decides when employees need training. In such cultures personnel
performance is evaluated using the manager‘s goals. In cultures that view people
as good managers will trust employees to tell them of their training needs. In
such, culture employees are comfortable in using goals jointly developed with
their managers (e.g., Management By Objectives) to evaluate their own
performance. In such cultures people can be trusted to develop meaningful goals
for their work. Training sessions and materials may be more general in nature.
Performance appraisals include subjective standards and more subtle/implicit
criteria to avoid embarrassing an individual in the case of negative feedback so
as not to break the bond of trust between members.
―The Assessment centre according to Ugbam (2009:57) is an approach
that uses several techniques to give a thorough picture of the strengths and
weakness of a candidate‖. Assessment centres evaluate applications or current
83
employees with regards to how well they might perform in a managerial or high
level position. Though it is used mainly to determine employees that qualify for
promotion. Assessment centres are the actual work environment and measure
performance on multiple job dimensions.
The influence of culture on the functional elements of the management
processes has manifested in their effective recognition, analysis and adaptation
by management. Nigerian attitude to work could not be fully understood without
considering same in the light of the cultural values. It is observed that cultural
values do exercise a great influence on the pace and pattern of enterprise
development, the emergence of management and supervisory styles and the
varieties and intensities of motivations.
5.3 RECOMMENDATIONS
The following recommendations are made in the light of personal
experience and literature available for this study. The assessment centre is a
relatively new method for personnel recruitment and selection that becomes
more and more popular among the human resource managers. It has proven to
have efficiency both in personnel recruitment and selection and training needs
identification. It is in line with this, that it is highly recommended tat business
organizations should adopt the assessment centre in their human resource
department, which will offer very good opportunities of finding how compatible
are the candidates with the organizational culture.
84
Personnel recruitment and selection criteria should be given to third party
human resource consulting firm who will deliver the best and qualified
candidates in the recruitment exercise devoid of sentiments and biases.
Human resources department in most organization in Nigeria should
imbibe the virtue of meritocracy and educational qualification when it comes to
promotion and placement in the organizations.
Public and private organizations should establish the human resources unit
that would help to plan, manage and evaluate the process of personnel
recruitment and selection in Nigeria, as well as assist management in achieving
their corporate goals.
The human resources manger should organize it‘s department based on
competency and skills that would ensure effective delegation of authority and
actualisation of defined tasks thereby providing coordination of authority
relationship organizations should live up to the contract of employment between
them and their employees, which must be in line with international standards.
Since culture presupposes a collectivity, our uses of values will be limited to the
desires which are also absolute, universal and eternal. They posses the qualities
of goodness and usefulness and constitute the vital tool without which the world
system cannot survive. It is in line with this, that culture should be seen as a
collectivity of relevance ethic and virtue which is practical and achievable in the
following virtues:
85
Decency/beauty; honesty/faithfulness, co-operation, humility and hard
work/perseverance. All these would be seen as the positive values of culture in
personnel recruitment and selection in Nigeria rather than their negative
influences. Organizations should carefully plan and control job analysis,
descriptive, specification and evaluation which would help to determine the
human qualification, responsibility and person‘s cultural assumption and value
influences primarily the goals and criteria used in managing human resources in
organizations.
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Department of Management, Faculty of Business Administration, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus.
January, 2011
Dear Sir/Madam, I am a post graduate student of the above-mentioned institution. I am carrying
out a research on the influence of culture on personnel recruitment and selection
in Nigeria.
Please kindly complete the enclosed questionnaire for my analysis. Be rest
assured that any information given here will be treated in strict confidence and
will be used purely for academic purposes.
Thanks for your co-operation. Yours faithfully, Odueh Nita Onyeisi PG/MBA/09/54349
91
QUESTIONNAIRE
INSTRUCTION: PLEASE TICK ( ) IN THE ABOVE RIGHT BOX OR SPACE
OR FILL IN WHERE APPROPRIATE. PERSONAL DATA
I. Sex: Male ( ) Female ( )
II. Age: 21-30 ( ) 31-40 ( ) 41-50 ( ) 51 and above ( )
III. Educational Qualifications: WAEC/SSCE/NECO ( ) OND/NCE ( )
HND/B.Sc/MBA ( ) M. Sc/Ph.D ( )
IV. Occupation/Profession
GENERAL QUESTIONS
1. Have you ever applied for a job? (a) Yes ( ) (b) No ( )
2. The criteria for recruitment in most public organization are open to the
general publics. (a) Strongly Agreed ( ) (b) Agreed ( )
(c) Undecided ( ) (d) Disagreed ( ) (e) Strongly Disagreed ( )
3. The aim of the recruitment exercise was based on merit.
(a) Strongly Agreed ( ) (b) Agreed ( ) (c) Undecided ( )
(d) Disagreed ( ) (e) Strongly Disagreed ( )
4. Ethnic/tribal grouping has affected the recruitment exercise in most
organizations. (a) Strongly Agreed ( ) (b) Agreed ( )
(c) Undecided ( ) (d) Disagreed ( ) (e) Strongly Disagreed ( )
5. The recruitment exercise among organizations in Nigeria lacks equity
and transparency. (a) Strongly Agreed ( ) (b) Agreed ( )
(c) Undecided ( ) (d) Disagreed ( ) (e) Strongly Disagreed ( )
92
6. Under selection criteria, your invitation for interview was based on
aptitude test performance or official connections.
(a) Strongly Agreed ( ) (b) Agreed ( ) (c) Undecided ( )
(d) Disagreed ( ) (e) Strongly Disagreed ( )
7. The quota system/Federal Character Commission preaches equity and
fairness in job selection of personnel into federal establishment.
(a) Strongly Agreed ( ) (b) Agreed ( ) (c) Undecided ( )
(d) Disagreed ( ) (e) Strongly Disagreed ( )
8. Which of the following factors influenced your securing your present
job? (a) By Merit ( ) (b) On Recommendation ( ) (c) Man Know
Man ( ) (d) By Religion ( ) (e) By Divine Grace ( ) (f) Bribery And
Corruption ( )
9. One‘s tribe or religion influences ones opportunity of securing jobs in
organizations. (a) Strongly Agreed ( ) (b) Agreed ( )
(c) Undecided ( ) (d) Disagreed ( ) (e) Strongly Disagreed ( )
10. In most cases, qualified candidates that passed series of interviews in
the recruitment exercise have been denied such opportunities as a
result of them not knowing any senior executive in the organization.
(a) Strongly Agreed ( )
(b) Agreed ( ) (c) Undecided ( ) (d) Disagreed ( )
(e) Strongly Disagreed ( )
11. In term of promotion/placement, it was based on job performance and
experience. (a) Strongly Agreed ( )
(b) Agreed ( ) (c) Undecided ( ) (d) Disagreed ( )
(e) Strongly Disagreed ( )
93
12. The influence of culture has affected all aspects of our national life
including personnel promotion and placement in the public service.
(a) Strongly Agreed ( ) (b) Agreed ( ) (c) Undecided ( )
(d) Disagreed ( ) (e) Strongly Disagreed ( )
13. The issue of Federal Character/Quota System has not addressed the
problem of social aggregates of ethnic groups at all tiers of
governments. (a) Strongly Agreed ( ) (b) Agreed ( )
(c) Undecided ( ) (d) Disagreed ( ) (e) Strongly Disagreed ( )
14. What are the factors influencing the position you occupy now?
(a) Cultural Factor ( ) (b) Meritocracy ( ) (c) Divine Grace ( )
(d) Educational Qualification and Experiences ( ) (e) Lobbying ( )
15. Do you agree that promotion/placement in the organization is based
on merit and seniority. (a) Strongly Agreed ( ) (b) Agreed ( )
(c) Undecided ( ) (d) Disagreed ( ) (e) Strongly Disagreed ( )