MANPOWER PLANNING AND ORGANISATIONAL COMPETITIVENESS

Introduction

1.1 Background Of The Study

Manpower planning is concerned with the scientific acquisition, optimum utilization, development and adequate maintenance of human resources. Although, manpower planning is relatively new in the field of personnel management, in the past not much has been written about manpower planning. But with recent discovery of the need for planning human resources in an organization because changes are envisaged in large organizations, manpower planning is now accorded high attention.

However, manpower planning gives organizations overview of the entire staff by highlighting the strength and weakness of human resources. This makes it easier to have very good plans and programmes that will enable them meet their projected needs.

The introduction of manpower planning in management circles has helped organizations in seeking ways of maintaining and improving their ability to enhance their corporate image and achieving corporate objectives. It has also helped organizations in developing strategies that are designed to increase the present and future contributions of manpower towards the survival of the organization.

To this end, it is apparent that manpower planning must be part of overall strategic planning of a competitive organization. It must be integrated within the business objective and goals for high organizational competitiveness to be achieved.

Ndukwe (2003) maintains that the only competitive advantage that any company has today is its ability to learn faster than its competitors. A culture of achievement is only possible when change is not only accepted but also embraced.

Nwachukwu (1997) noted that one of the major problems confronting management in any organization is to determine the most effective ways of matching people with jobs what makes an organization to be a successful one is the ability to forecast the future effectively. Any organization that cannot have effective manpower planning will always be on a risky mission. In Nigeria where both managerial and technical skills are few, it is therefore necessary for organizations to critically plan ahead to avoid problems developing in the near future.

Manpower planning is necessary because it gives apex management a better view of the human resources dimensions of business decisions. It should be noted however, that the days of unsystematic and intuitive manpower management have ended. Hence, it manpower planning is not adequately implemented it will be worse than an unplanned scenario because its multiplier effect will affect all other functional area of organization.

Manpower planning covers more than simply planning for future requirements of organizational competitive ness. It takes into considerations the current level of skills in an organization and the expected vacancies due to retirements, promotions, transfers, sick leave, discharges or other reasons.

In all, manpower planning is concerned with ensuring optimum use of the human resources currently employed and the provision of the future manpower needs of the organization in terms of skills, sizes and a host of other criteria.

Therefore, at every point in time in the life of the organization, there must be the right number of employees with the right level of skills in the right jobs at the right time and performing the right activities in order to achieve the goals and objectives of the organization. In this way, the organization is said to be competitive.

1.2 Statement Of The Problem

In the banking industries, more emphasis is laid on areas like information technology, marketing and product development at the expense of human resources development especially in the aspect of manpower planning. There is no stable or consistent programme and policy that enhances the right and appropriate manpower needs of organizations. As a result, most people who are unqualified for a particular job are just posted to function in such areas after minimum or little training. These have done more damages than good to these organizations.

Most banks make a paltry budget for manpower planning in most financial years. In most cases, a large chunk of their budget is earmarked for information technology, marketing, new product development and advertisement.

Key decision makers in most banks always acknowledge that strategic manpower planning is a since qua non for any bank. Therefore, any organization that intends to remain in this highly competitive post consolidation era, must realize that in most cases, the benefit accruable from this, is in no way comparable with the cost in the long run.

However, for any bank to be reckoned with in this era of technological changes; its workforce planning vis a vis its organizational competitiveness has to be constantly modernized and upgraded to correspond with the level of technological advancement in baking. For instance, prior to now flexi cube banking software was the most popular software among banks. It is now gradually being phased out with finable, equinox and a host of other more efficient banking software.

In all, any serious organization would appreciate the fact that no matter the level of the cutting edge technology, human inputs would still be needed to make it work hence the need for strategic manpower (workforce) planning. This is important because the human being is the brain behind everything in an organization; hence if one critically examines the success or failure of any organization, it would be noted that the human resources play a prominent role in the eventual outcome. Therefore, an effective and time-tested planning is necessary.

1.3 Purpose Of The Study

The interest for study is done out of the fact that although some organizations may have abundant resources in terms of machines, employees and other outputs, many lack the right caliber of personnel with organizational requisite for competitiveness, hence they find it difficult to break through challenges. Human resources in an organization could also be termed as transformation capacity; that is, they can transform the rich resources into goods and services for which demand exists or can be created. Therefore, any organization that takes its human resources ordinarily and disregards having a systematic plan for them may in the long run tum the organization from a market leader to a market follower. Thus, the study shall highlight the importance of manpower planning in organization competitiveness. Lastly, the study seeks to undertake both descriptive and empirical analysis of manpower planning with the role objective of determining the usefulness of these techniques at improving organizational competitiveness.

1.4 Research Questions

In this study some pertinent questions would be asked that will highlight the problems of manpower planning and organizational competitiveness faced by most organization in the banking industry and hence provide possible solutions to them. Such questions include:

1. Is the nomination of manpower for planning and organizational competitiveness based on identified planning and competitive needs?
2. Do employees work effectively and efficiently when they plan for organizational competitiveness?
3. Is the planned manpower available and sufficient? Is there any relationship between manpower planning, organizational competitiveness and modernization to meet the pace of technological advancement?
4. What are the major constraint in realizing the manpower planning and organizational competitiveness of Zenith Bank?

1.5 Research Hypothesis

To provide systematic answers to the researcher’s questions, attempt was made to explore the relationship among variables highlighted in the study.

Hence, the following hypothesis will be tested:

Hypothesis I

• Ho: There may be no significant impact of manpower planning on organizational competitiveness.
• HI: There may be a significant impact of manpower planning on organizational competitiveness.

Hypothesis II

• Ho: There may be no significant impact of planning function on organizational competitiveness.
• HI: There may be a significant impact of planning function on organizational competitiveness

Hypothesis III

• Ho: There may be no significant difference between manpower planning, organizational competitiveness and modernization to meet the pace of technological advancement.
• HI: There may be a significant difference between manpower planning, organizational competitiveness and modernization to meet the pace of technological advancement.

1.6 Significance Of The Study

It is hoped that the result of this study will be very useful to practicing mangers who would acknowledge the importance of planning their human resources carefully in advance before they become unmanageable. It is recommended for the researchers on the field of management, management consultants, scholars who want to know more about the impact of manpower planning as it affects organizational competitiveness.

1.7 Scope And Limitation Of Study

The study is intended to look at the importance of manpower planning as a lead to organizational competitiveness. For the purpose of empirical testing, some members of the head office and selected branches of Zenith bank (based on some criteria) were chosen.

For the purpose of description, quite a number of textbooks and journals were consulted to consider the views of different management practitioners on the area of study.

However, the limitations inspired by this study need to be emphasized and these arise from:

• The time given to carry out the study was considerably short and the possibility of obtaining information from many sources was not possible which limited the sample chosen as a representative of the target population.
• The study was restricted to Lagos state owing to its metropolitan nature, besides, the research’s decision was guided by the fact that Lagos is the commercial capital of the country and as such conclusions reached in the research work could be representative enough. Selection of samples was based on judgmental and convenience sampling techniques.