INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS AND PERSONEEL MGT

At the dawn of the third Republic in Nigeria in 1999 after the infamous military misadventures into succeeding military rule in Nigeria, the challenges that faced the Army as an institution were multifaceted. Particularly the image of the army was brushed, battered and as low as it could get in the public opinion within and outside Nigeria while the men and women in the Army were demoralized and the institution was in decay. The coup history that brought the succeeding military governments demonstrates the important shaping factor played by military coups, not only on the Nigerian Army's structure and capabilities but also the country's psyche. The omnipresent threat of military coups has hung like a cloud of paranoia in the halls of government and the army. While coups d'état are certainly not a phenomenon known only to Nigerians, coups have come to be seen as routine events in the lifespan of the average Nigeria citizen. They have decimated the ranks of the military, with Nigeria losing many of her brilliant officers to coups and countercoups. The losses came in many forms, from casualties during the initial fighting, execution by firing squad, imprisonment, or the less severe mandatory retirements. Part of the challenges of post military rule was how to build a Nigerian Arm Forces that imbibed professional ethics and subordinated to a civilian regime. It was in the light of this that the Obasanjo led government conceived the attitudinal change project. The change dimensions therefore become an interesting subject, which was keenly followed by the general public as a means to sustain the nascent democracy and keep the army in their barracks. The ongoing armed conflict with the Boko Haram, which openly dramatized the decays and professionalism level in the Army, makes this study timely and relevant. The basic question was not whether the attitudinal change was necessary or not but what dimension of change was conceived by the political class and the top military officers that led the change project but what does change actually represented to the men and women in the armed forces? This is largely an area that has not received much attention in the commentaries

The study examines the aspects of job-competency management [JCAM] tools that are applicable in Nigerian organizations in particular to establish the level of awareness and specify the areas of applications using a sample of human resource managers from different sectors. The study found that the JCAM tools is widely known and applied across the sectors particularly in areas of human resourcing with limited applications to performance management, talent and leadership development while compensation-based application is low. The study recommends the adoption of the JCAM tools as viable HRM models for improving performance effectiveness and enhancing organizational competitive advantage in Nigeria.

This paper draws on the knowledge management and absorptive capacity theoretical framework to argue that there is a significant knowledge gap between nationals and the expatriate managers, which are important in building local managerial capacity and enhancing organizational performance in the emerging markets. The relationship between expatriates knowledge and capacity building was explored with a moderating factor of willingness to share knowledge and to some degree problems of skills adaptability to local environment. The data show that expatriates population in the study using the 9-box performance-potential grid may not necessarily be superior to all nationals but those expatriate managers with superior technical and managerial competence are essential for local managerial capacity building and development in the emerging markets. The regulatory agencies ability to monitor and ensure that only competent expatriates are employed was discussed.

There is a reasonable level of acceptance amongst policy makers, academia and international development agencies of the criticality of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) as important agents of development particularly in employment and income generation and the provision of goods and services. Successive governments in Nigeria continue to promote policies and agendas targeted to raise the competitiveness of the sector as part of the diversification of the economy and promote foreign direct investment (FDI). These efforts are yet to manifest in any significant reduction in importation of basic goods as well as double-digit unemployment rate. Several studies have focused on aspects of SME's performance with a sparse attention to the criticality of the impacts of conflict in the performance of the organisations leading to a wide gap in knowledge as to whether a conflict situation actually occurs in the SMEs, and if they do, how do they manifest? What are the impacts on performance and how effective are the administrative tools for managing them? This study attempts to bridge this gap. We adopt a survey method using a sample of 224 employees across a spectrum of industries located in Lagos, Ogun and Kwara States of the Federation of the Republic of Nigeria. While the prevalence of conflict was established in the study amongst the employees, compensation, reward and performance rating issues are most frequent sources of the conflict with behavioural manifestation including productivity scale down, battering the reputation and image of the employers as well as discouraging potential applicants. The study also found that most of the administrative tools to manage conflict are not considered very effective while a variation in the gender awareness to conflict was observed at the level of statistical significance. The study recommends conflict minimization strategies through a proper goal definition, conflict management skill upgrades with training, open communication, fair reward and compensation system. The risk of of the error occurrence is examined from the accountants' perspective. For this purpose, a questionnaire survey was used for data collection focusing on areas that are considered to be the most important by the accountants and the areas which are the most problematic.

This study examines workforce planning on organizational performance in two private manufacturing companies at Apapa area of Lagos State. This study adopted a survey research design in which sample size determination table was used to choose 300 copies of the questionnaire administered, out of which 166 were recovered and used for data analysis, representing 55 per cent of the copies of the questionnaire recovered. The data collected were analysed through the descriptive and inferential method, and both Pearson’s moment correlation and regression analysis were used in testing the stated hypotheses. The findings show workforce planning has an influence on organizational performance. The study recommends that a there is a need for the government to have an economic blueprint that will help manufacturing sector to perform better than the contribution it is making now and also ensure that irrespective of the economic contraction or recession the manufacturing sector is facing, it should...

There is a reasonable level of acceptance amongst policy makers, academia and international development agencies of the criticality of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) as important agents of development particularly in employment and income generation and the provision of goods and services. Successive governments in Nigeria continue to promote policies and agendas targeted to raise the competitiveness of the sector as part of the diversification of the economy and promote foreign direct investment (FDI). These efforts are yet to manifest in any significant reduction in importation of basic goods as well as double-digit unemployment rate. Several studies have focused on aspects of SME's performance with a sparse attention to the criticality of the impacts of conflict in the performance of the organisations leading to a wide gap in knowledge as to whether a conflict situation actually occurs in the SMEs, and if they do, how do they manifest? What are the impacts on performance and how effective are the administrative tools for managing them? This study attempts to bridge this gap. We adopt a survey method using a sample of 224 employees across a spectrum of industries located in Lagos, Ogun and Kwara States of the Federation of the Republic of Nigeria. While the prevalence of conflict was established in the study amongst the employees, compensation, reward and performance rating issues are most frequent sources of the conflict with behavioural manifestation including productivity scale down, battering the reputation and image of the employers as well as discouraging potential applicants. The study also found that most of the administrative tools to manage conflict are not considered very effective while a variation in the gender awareness to conflict was observed at the level of statistical significance. The study recommends conflict minimization strategies through a proper goal definition, conflict management skill upgrades with training, open communication, fair reward and compensation system. The risk of of the error occurrence is examined from the accountants' perspective. For this purpose, a questionnaire survey was used for data collection focusing on areas that are considered to be the most important by the accountants and the areas which are the most problematic.