THE IMPACT OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT ON ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE (A CASE STUDY OF NATIONAL FINANCIAL CREDIT BANK KUMBA)  

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the study

Training is effort initiated by an organization to foster learning among its workers, and development is effort that is oriented more towards broadening an individual’s skills for the future responsibility. (George & Scott, 2012). Training and development are a continuous effort designed to improve em- ployees’ competence and organize performance as a goal to improve on the employees’ capacity and performance. Human Resource Management has played a significant role in the economic develop- ment of most developed countries like Britain America and Japan. In a developing country like Came- roon, with its rich natural resources and financial support, one can also experience such economic suc- cess if the appropriate attention is given to the development and training of her human resources. Eve- ry aspects and activities in an organization involves people. For instance, a manager will not be suc- cessful if he has subordinates who are not well equipped with skills, knowledge, ability, and compe- tence (SKAC).

To run an organization, be it big or small, requires staffing the organization with efficient personnel. Specific job skills, ability, knowledge and competence needed in the workplace are not efficiently taught `in the formal education. As such, most employees need extensive training to ensure the neces- sary SKAC to bring out substantive contribution towards the company’s growth. For employees to be flexible and effective in their job, they need to acquire and develop knowledge and skill, and for them to believe that they are valued by the organization they work for, then they need to see valuable signs of management commitments to their training needs. Each new employee must be properly trained not only to develop technical skills, but to make them an integral part of the organization. Training and development is an aspect that must be faced by every organization, and its major aim is to improve the employees’ competencies such that the organization can maximize effectiveness and efficiency of their human resources. It can be an advantage for an organization if they win the “hearts and minds” of their workers, getting them to identify with the organization (Armstrong, 2009). For workers to be equipped to perform well there must be an investment in the training processes. These processes are part of the entire human resource management approach which results in employees being motivated to perform. However, training vary from organization to organization in relation to the quality and quantity of training factors, which may include: the degree of external environment change, the degree of change in the internal environment, current suitable skills in the existing work force and the level to which the management see training as a motivating factor in the workplace, (Cole, 2002).

Several companies address their needs for training in an impromptu and indiscriminate way, training in such companies are pretty much impromptu and unsystematic. Different companies however begin distinguishing their training needs, then outline and execute training exercises in a normal way, lastly evaluate after effects of the training.

Objective of the study

The main objective of this work is to know how training increases the performance of employees, and the productivity of an organization. Other objectives are to find out whether organizations have train- ing and development programme, and if the programmes are conducted for all employees. Also, to examine the hurdles in the implementation of such programmes, and to find out the practical effects training and development has on performance. Lastly to identify the weak areas of employee required training to be given to overcome the problems.

Research Problem

The researcher observed tension in organizations resulting from employees’ poor mastery of some responsibilities. Some of the weaknesses of such employees are often not well handled, resulting in sanctions, demotion, transfer, or dismissals that instead cause social tension at work. The researcher becomes interested in finding out just how seriously organizations consider training, and the effects it has on performance.

Research Questions

To adequately address the research problem, the researcher came up with the following questions:

- Does NFC have training and development programmes?

- Are training programmes conducted for every employee?

- Does T and D influence worker’s performance and productivity in NFC Kumba?

- What key internal and external factors influence the impact of training?

- What are the training practices and policies in NFC Kumba?

- What are the major purposes of T and D programmes applied in this institution?

Limitation of the study

Usually, it is almost impossible for a piece of work of this nature to be realized without difficulties or limitations. Some limitations were as follow:

Language barrier, the fact that most documents where written in French, served as a limitation to the researcher as she could not properly get necessary information, since she is from the English-speaking part of the country.

Swearing the oath of bank secrecy as one of the banking policies, the researcher was limited to the study as some workers felt uncomfortable responding to interviews (confidentially and indifferences in the bank).