HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT IN THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF SOCIAL STUDIES IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
In carrying out this research it is pertinent to review what some authors and scholars had said about the issue under investigation.
This chapter highlights the definitions of human resources, management, the acquisition of human resources, development of human resources, motivation of human resources, and maintenance of human resources. All these have to be reviewed what authors and scholars had said about them.
2.1 HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT (HRM) DEFINED
Graham and Bennett’s (1993:3) are of the view that human resources management is concerned with the human side of management of enterprises and employees relations with their firms whose purpose is to ensure that the employees of the company are used in such a way that the employer obtains the greatest positive benefits from their abilities and the employees
Obtains both materials and psychological rewards from their work.
Robbins (1982:11) in his own said that effective human renounces management is a process consisting of four functions.
i. Acquisition
ii. Development
iii. Motivation and
iv. Maintenance of human resources
Akanwa (1997:3) gives bit by bit definition of human resources management. Thus “Human”: is concerned with “people,” “resources” is seen as “supplies” of stock, something useful, while management is the art of efficiently getting work done by people.
2.1 HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT (HRM) DEFINED
Graham and Bennett’s (1993:3) are of the view that human resources management is concerned with the human side of management of enterprises and employees relations which their firms whose purpose is to ensure that the employees of the company are used in such a way that employees obtains both materials and psychological rewards from their work.
Robbins (1982:11) in his own view said that effective human resources management is a process consisting of four functions.
i. Acquisition
ii. Development
iii. Motivation and maintenance of human resources
Akanwa (1997:3) gives bit by bit definition of human resources management. Thus “Human” is concerned with “people”, resources” is seen as “supplies” of stcok, something useful while management is the art of efficiently getting work done by people.
2.2 ACQUISITION OF HUMAN RESOURCES
The acquisition function being with human resources planning, relative to human resources requirement, an organization needs to know where they are going and how best to get there.
Acquisition of human resources includes recruitment, selection and socialization of employees the acquisition process is completed when the selected employees have been placed in the organization and have adapted to the organization and their work environment.
According to freeman (1989:329) HRM process can be seen as a continuing procedure to keep the organization supplied with the right people, right position and at the right time. The activities in this process includes human resources planning recruitment, selection, socialization, training and development and performance appraisal.
2.21 HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING
Human resource planning is one of the most important elements in a successful human resource management programs.
Effective human resources planning involves long range career development of talent and long range planning for utilization of human resources in an organization.
Robbin (1982:74) defined human resources planning as the process by which an organization ensures that it has the right number and kind of people at the right time capable of effectively and efficiently completing those task so that organization goals will be achieve.
Stoner and freeman (1989:331) maintain that there are four basic procedures in human resources planning.
i. Planning for future needs
ii. Planning for future balance
iii. Planning for recruitment and selecting or laying off.
iv. Planning for development.
2.2.2 RECRUITMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES
This is the development of a job candidate in accordance with a human resource plan.
Stoner and Freeman (1989:332) put forward that the purpose of recruitment is to provide a group of candidate large enough for the organization to select the qualified employee’s it needs.
Cascio (1989:187)observed that recruitment begins by specifying human resources requirement (number of skills mix, levels and time frame) which are the typical result of job analysis and human resource planning activities. He went on to say that the step following recruitment is initial screening which is basically a rapid high selection process.
2.2.3ORIENTATION/SOCIALIZATION OF NEW EMPLOYEES
As soon as the application has been chosen and posted the next step is to provide him with information he or she needs in order to function comfortably and efficiently in the organization.
Stoner and freeman (1989:344) opined that socialization will covey three types of information
1. General information about the daily work routines
2. A review of the organization history, purpose, operation and products or services.
3. How the employee’s job contributes to the organization needs.
A detailed presentation, perhaps in a brochure of the organization. They worry about how well they will perform in the job, they feel are concerned about how well they will get along with their co-workers. For these reasons, effective socialization programme are deliberately aimed at reducing the anxiety of new employees. Information on the job environment and on supervisors is provided, co-workers are introduced and questions by new employee’s are encourage. All these are necessary to acquaint the new employees with every activities
as obtain in the organization.
2.2.4 PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL OF EMPLOYEES
Performance appraisal is a useful tool in reaching company’s goals. It will be hard to make management decision about individuals without measuring their performance in some manners.
As new comers develop they will probably need further training followed by performance appraisal. Good result should not be expected immediately, individuals learn at patience and understanding of the supervisor and colleagues. The responsibility of performance appraised belongs to line management. The top management must make the final decision on the method to be utilized and implemented byother managers as well as the rewarding procedures.
Fulmer (1988:180) highlighted why appraisal is necessary. Thus it helps to:
i. Allocate resources
ii. Reward employees
iii. Provide feedback for workers
iv. Maintain fair relationship and communication bonds
2.3 LINKAGE BETWEEN EFFORT PERFORMANCE AND REWARD
As a manager, one need to reward the effort of his employees, This does not necessarily mean financial rewards. Rather reward could be in the form of praise, change in job list, published commendation, written commendation, salary increase etc.
An appraisal is meaningless unless it is backed up by good regards. Linking effort with performance and reward shows that the employees is expected to put in effort which makes him to perform and the performance if appropriately rewarded accordance with his expectation from the organization will make him repeat such behaviour that is rewarded.
2.4 MOTIVATION OF HUMAN RESOURCES
High performance we would say depends on ability and motivation matt et al (1985:242) defined motivation as an internal driving force that results in direction intensity and persistence of behavior.
Mockler (1973:530) stated that if a person can be induced to want to be more productive, then he will be more likely to improve his performance at work provided that work conditions are conductive to such improvement. He went forward to mention the mediators.
i. Money
ii. Job security
iii. Management by objective (MBO)
iv. The participative approach to management
Koontz et al (1980:634) is of the opinion that manager can do much to sharpen motives by establishing an environment conducive to certain drives.
2.5 HUMAN RESOURCE FORCASTING (HRF) AND INVENTORY.
Cascio (1989:166) emphasized that the purpose of human resources forecast (HRF) is to estimate labour requirements at some future period. He went further to say that such forecasts are two types:
1) The external and internal supply of labour
2) The external and internal demand for labour he went ahead to further say that internal and external demand forecasts depend primarily on the behviour, of some business factors e.g. (student enrolments, projected sales, product volume) to which personnel need can be related, while.
3) External demand forecasts are subjected to many uncertainties in domestic or worldwide economic conditions in technology and in consumer behaviour. Human resources forecasting helps management to focus attention and shift resources to areas. Most likely to be beneficial effective forecasting gives management information, which enables them to carry out their staffing programme adequately suitably.
Peterson and Tracy (1979: 105) Opioned that there are two types of forecasts needed.
1) Estimate of future man power needs based on such factors as turnover, retirement, promotion and expansion.
2) Estimate of future supply based on economic projections, population movements, trends in education and rate of promotion from within.
This implies that forecasting of human resources helps management to manage swing in staffing requirements, plan ahead for recruiting adequate new talents, match available talents to where they are fitted most so as to reduce costs, improve productivity of employees, attract and retain desired employees and motivate them towards organization goals.
Human resources inventory/audit comes after human resources forecast. It is the analysis appraisal of the organizations current human resources. This is an internal analysis of the workers and skills already available within the organization and a comprehensive job analysis.
These information are pertinent in determining what skills are available. They act as guide for identifying current future threats to the organization ability to perform.
JOB ANALYSIS
Cowling and Maiter (1990:239) defined job analysis as the systematic study and analysis of the tasks that together make up a job of work. He went forward to mention five importance of job information to managers.
1) Planning work loads
2) Deciding better way of doing jobs
3) Selecting and training people for jobs
4) Determining appropriate levels of pay
5) Reorganizing department and work groups.
Job analysis implies getting information about job and using these information to develop job description and job specification and to conduct job evaluation.
JOB DESCRIPTION
Job description is an organized written statement of the duties and responsibilities of a specific job, i.e. what is to be done. It is needed for recruitment purpose. Job description highlights job contents, environments and conditions of employment. It is a yard stick for
1) Describing job potential candidates
2) Providing a point of comparison in appraising whether the actual activities of a job incumbent aligns with the stated duties.
3) Guiding newly hired employees in what they are specifically expected to do. Akanwa (2000: 56) is of the view that by carrying out job description. The employer will be said to match the applicant with the job.
JOB SPECIFICATION
This is a statement of minimum acceptable human qualification experience necessary to perform a job properly. Job specification lists guide lines required by the people who will fill the jobs.
Based on the information gotten through job analysis, the job specification identifies the knowledge, skills and abilities needed to do the job effectively, it is far better for job description to stress skills and performance criteria rather than personally, experience and education.
JOB EVALUATION
Betts (1989: 293) defined job evaluation as a systematic approach to the problem of determining the values of a job in relation to others so that a fair wage scale may be applied. He went ahead to say that successful introduction of job evaluation depends to some extent on the ability of supervisors to make sound assessment and on the careful compilation of the wages structure, analyzing relative worth of jobs and careful compilation of the wages structure, analyzing relative worth of jobs and placing them in ranks. Which can be used as a basic of pay structure? Betts mentions some standards which provide four comparisons between various jobs. They include:
1) Physical and mental effort
2) Education and training
3) Degree of authority and responsibility
4) Experience
5) Particular skills and attitudes
6) Working conditions
A suitable design should be completed for every job and the findings then carefully assessed on a comparative basis when all jobs are assessed they are arranged in sequence of value and related to the wages structure by using the most logical method possible.