Job Rotation As Training And Development Tool For Enhancing Employees Performance ( A Case Study Of United Bank Of Africa (uba), Lagos)

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1         Background to the Study

The survival of any organization in the competitive society lies in its ability to train its human resource to be creative, innovative, inventive will invariably enhances performance and increase competitive advantage. Training has been recognized as one of managerial tools that enhanced job satisfaction globally. Training is basically, a practical education through which knowledge and skills are developed, experience and inefficiencies are overcome and closer approximation can be achieved (Atif & Rand Nadeem 2011). Human resource specialists who realize the value of training and development have taken deliberate decisions to encourage management of organizations to give their employees significant autonomy to develop their skills and have made a wide range of training available across their organizations, tailored to meet the needs of employees. Sajuyigbe & Amusat (2012) reported that training and development have enhanced personal employees' performance.

Grund (2001) also agreed that training has improved employees performance in term of increased in productivity. Particularly in areas such as sales, customer services, IT, improvement in retention rate and higher levels of personal job satisfaction. Higher productivity and improved employee performance will rely on employees having the right skills According to Pynes (2008) both training and development programs seek to change the skills, knowledge, or attitudes of employees required by the job post. Programmes may be focused on improving an individual’s level of self-awareness, competency and motivation to perform his or her job well. This in turn makes employees feel that they are part of the organization’s family. It creates a sense of belonging in employees, enhances the employee’s skills, and motivates while improving financial gain. This in the long run makes employees feel indebted to the organization.

There are so many training and development skills such as case study method, role playing methods, outward bond training method (OTM), large scale interactive event (LSIE) method, and personal coaching method. In this study the main focus is the job rotation skill.

Job rotation involve training the trainee from shifting from one job to the other, Job rotation is a job design approach widely used by many companies at various hierarchical levels. By adopting the human structure of the company with technical processes, Job rotation is the consequence of effort and determination. Analyses of job rotation based on individual data are more unusual because they often require access to personnel records, which firms are rarely willing to grant. Moreover, such papers are typically able to study merely one firm at a time (Campion, Cheraskin & Stevens 1994; Kusunoki & Numagami 1998) Job design related applications began to take shape with a scientific management approach in the 1900s.

The study of management scientists such as Taylor and Gilbert on the subject of job design became the foundation stone for scientific management. Models related to job design able to be classified as job rotation, job enlargement, job enrichment, job engineering, quality of work life, social information processing approach and job characteristics approach developed by Hackman & Oldman in 1976 (Kiggundu, 1981, p. 502; Valentine & Gotkin, 2000, p. 118) have extremely important effects on increasing the productivity of human resources (Garg & Rastogi, 2006, p. 574). It is predicted that job satisfaction and productivity will be highest when both job enlargement and job enrichment are jointly applied to redesigning work systems. (Chung &Ross, 1977, p. 114).The conceptual perspective, job design is defined as determining the specific job content, the methods used at work and the relationships between jobs to correspond the firm’s technological and organizational, and the employees’ social and personal Expectations (Gallagher & Einhorn, 1976, p. 359). In accordance with this definition, it is stated that a well-designed and defined job increase employees job satisfaction, increases motivation, decreases workplace-related stress, encourage learning efforts (Lantz & Brav, 2007, p. 270) and is therefore have a positive effect on employees’ performance (Garg & Rastogi, 2006, p. 575).

There are many studies published in related literature investigating the relationship between job design and employees’ motivation. The common points of these studies is that the application of job design has a significant on the specifics of job performance, like motivation, flexibility, job satisfaction (Huang, 1999,) self-control, and skill development. However, the study results will help the management to identify the challenges effects of employees’ job rotation training on organizational performance, hence determine the areas where improvements through training can be done. It will also help the management in planning for the development and implementation of effective and efficient training needs that will lead to increased performance of the banks.

1.2         Statement of the Problem

Training becomes inevitable the moment an organization realizes the need for improvement and expansion in the job. But often times, organizations embark on job enlargement and enrichment to promote employees' morale, motivation and satisfaction when in the fact the real problem with work performance lies in capacity development. The study becomes necessary because many organizations in this contemporary world are striving to gain competitive edge and there is no way this can be achieved without increasing employees' competencies, capabilities, skills etc. through adequate training designs.

1.3         Aim and Objectives of the Study

The overall aim of this study is to determine the impact of job rotation as a training and development tool for enhancing employee’s performance with a particular reference to the organization of study. The objectives’ of this study is to;

1. Find out whether job rotation as a training and development tool enhance job enrichment and satisfaction

2. Determine the inf1uence of human resources training and development in the operation of the bank.

3. To make recommendation where necessary to banks in order to make more meaningful its human resource training and development

1.4         Relevant Research Questions

This study shall address the following research question:

1. What extend does job rotation as training and development tools enhance job enrichment and satisfaction

3. How effective is human resources training and development in the operation of the bank?
4. Can  negative  attitude  of  management  and  supervisors  on  training  and development of their  sub-ordinate     promote organizational performance?

1.5         Relevant Research Hypothesis

The following hypothesis was formulated for the study:

H1: There is no significant relationship between job rotation and job enrichment

H2: There is no significant relationship between human resources training and employee performance

H3 There is no significant relationship between Negative attitude of managers/ superior on training & development and employees turnover

1.6         Significance of the Study

Although there has been countless studies undertaken on job rotation as a training and development tool for enhancing employees’ performance in Nigeria. However this study will no doubt raise the level of awareness of management concerned towards the implementation of proper job rotation in training and development programme in united bank of Africa (UBA) as well as the legitimate role of job rotation in the world of business. By bringing into focus the state of the art in the literature, it is also going to be of assistance to researchers. The service sector, as earlier indicated arc very important to the organization of this country, therefore, since this is assumed to be a thorough study of job rotation training and development in this sector, it will reveal its level of management efficiency and effectiveness .And this knowledge will be vital to both the government and owners of industries. This research work will be important to the company concerned i.e. United Bank for Africa plc, government institution and the general public.

1.7         Scope and Limitation of the Study

This research will cover the impact of job rotation on employees’ performance, the research will focus on united bank of Africa. The study will concentrate on the head office at Apapa in Lagos State, though the organization also has other branches in Nigeria. The practical study will be restricted to a segment of workforce, which will be on the senior and junior staff of the organization. The limitations of this study include such extraneous factors that may equally limit the strength of this study such as time constraint, lack of fund, the nature of the business environment and inadequate current and relevant materials.

1.8         Historical Background of UBA

United Bank For Africa PLC (UBA) has its Head office situated at UBA House, 57 Marina, Lagos State, Nigeria. The slogan of United Bank for Africa PLC is “Africa’s global bank’’, and has served areas worldwide.

UBA's has more than 65 years of providing uninterrupted banking operations dating back to 1948 when the British and French Bank Limited ("BFB”} commenced business in Nigeria, BFB was a subsidiary of Banque National de Credit (BNCI), Paris, which transformed its London branch into a separate subsidiary called the British and French Bank, with shares held by Banque National de credit and two British investment firms, S. G. Warburg and Company and Robert Benson and Company. A year later, BFB opened its offices in Nigeria to break the monopoly of the two existing British in Nigeria then. Following Nigeria's independence from Britain, UBA was incorporated on 23, February 1961 to take over the business of BFB. UBA eventually listed its shares on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE); in 1970 and became the first Nigerian bank to subsequently undertake an Initial Public Offering (IPO). UBA became the first sub-Saharan bank to take its banking business to North America when it opened its New York Office (USA) in 1984 to offer banking services to Africans in Diaspora.

Today's UBA emerged from the merger of then dynamic and fast growing Standard Trust Bank, incorporated in 1990 and UBA, one of the biggest and oldest banks in Nigeria, The merger was consummated on August 1, 2005; one of the biggest mergers done on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). Following the merger, UBA subsequently went ahead to acquire Continental Trust Bank in the same year, further expanding the UBA brand. UBA subsequently acquired Trade Bank in 2006 which was under liquidation by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

UBA is a large financial services provider in Nigeria with subsidiaries in 20 African countries, with representative offices in France, the United Kingdom and the United States. It offers universal banking services to more than 7 million customers across 626 branches. Formed by the merger of the commercially focused UBA and the retail focused Standard Trust Bank in 2005, the Bank purports to have a clear ambition to be the dominant and leading financial services provider in Africa. Listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in 1970, UBA claims to be rapidly evolving into a pan-African full service financial institution. The Group adopted the holding company model in July 2011. As of December 2011, the valuation of UBA Group's total assets was approximately US$12.3 billion (NGN: 1.94 trillion), with shareholders' equity of about US$1.07 billion (NGN:170 billion).

In order to achieve the purpose, exploratory and explanatory research methods were used by employing a qualitative approach. This type of approach enabled the researcher to obtain detailed information on how employees felt their involvement will impact on the organizational effectiveness.

1.8         Definition of terms

Job rotation: This is the method of training involves the shifting of trainees from one job to another so as to widen their exposure and enable them to obtain a general understanding of the totality of the organization

Development: Development is a broad, on-going multi-faceted set of activities (training activities among them) to bring someone or an organization up to another threshold of performance, often to perform some job or new role in the future.

Turnover: This is the number of times a cycle occurs in a given' time period; e.g. the ration of actual monthly, credit sales to the average daily volume of outstanding accounts receivable.

Training: This is a method of improving the set of skills of an employee either by either by education, workshop, conference programme etc., in other to improve the efficient level of productivity, or an organized activity aimed at imparting information and/or instruction to improve the recipient's performance or to help him or her attain a required level or knowledge or skills.

Performance: The accomplishment of a given task measured against pre-set known standard of accuracy, completeness, cot and speed in a contract, performance is deemed to the fulfilment of an obligation, in a manner that releases the performer from all liabilities under the control.