Organizational Activities of Civil Service and its Effect on Utilization of Human Resources

Background to the Study

Management of Human Resources is that function of all enterprises which provides for effective utilization of people to achieve both the objective of the enterprises and the satisfaction and development of the employees. Within the Nigerian Civil Service, every cadre of employees is quite important and indispensable for the present and future survival of the civil service. Therefore, organizational activities in the civil service depend largely on the proper management of her material and human resources. Ugwu (2013) observed that the management of both resources and all other resources is in the hands of specific human beings within the organization. In any organization, be it private or public, a lot of money is spent on recruiting, training and motivational incentive towards improving the welfare of employees; all in connection with better production and operating activities of the enterprises. It is important to ensure adequate management of such resources and properly and effectively to achieve the predetermined objectives of the civil service.

Therefore, it is the concern of managers, with the assistance of personnel, to ensure that there are people in the organization to do the job that need to be done. The old time management believed that concentration on the material resources was not sufficient. Today, it has been realized that to achieve satisfactory production, management must depend on all necessary skill and knowledge of the worker as a social and human factor. To provide an efficient service by human resources, it requires a clear management of human functions in the provision of its service. Therefore, human beings the springboard to productivity and where much money is being spent to acquire them, need to be adequately managed so as to achieve the purpose for acquiring them. For most organizations, human resources management is one of the most important, if not the most important function. After all, in almost every organization, the most valuable resource is the human resource.

The civil service has always been the tool available to Nigerian government for the implementation of developmental goals and objectives. It is seen as a pivot for growth of Nigerian economy. It is responsible for the creation of an appropriate and conducive environment in which the economy can perform optimally and it is this catalytic role of the public service that propelled government all over the world to search continuously for better ways to deliver their services (Amoako, 2003). However, there have been several factors affecting the efficiency of the Nigeria civil service. Ajayi (2018) noted that manpower utilization and the closely related poor remuneration of employees in civil service are key factors. Secondly, there are the issues of poor assessment of manpower needs and the use of wrong criteria to appraise staff performance. There tends to be a lack of qualified technical support staff as opposed to the abundance of general staff.

Undoubtedly, the main instrument for promoting productivity and service delivery in the civil service is effective utilization of the human resources which is basically an outcome of effective organizational activities in the area of manpower planning, capacity development, compensation, welfare and remuneration. Human resource management and utilization deal with the process of skillful procurement, utilization, development, motivation and control of staff to accomplish the organizational objectives. It is associated with human resource planning, recruitment, selection, orientation, training, appraisal, motivation with an organization that focuses on people. The ability of any organization or society to achieve its goals depends on the caliber of its human resources, otherwise known as personnel and more importantly, on how effectively they are managed. Therefore, organizational activities are geared towards human resource management which encompassed activities designed to provide for and co-ordinates, all human element within the organization. This will ensure its stable continuity and achievement. The human personnel element represents one of the company’s largest investments. It is based on this note that this study intends to examine the linkage between organizational activities of civil service and its effect on utilization of human resource with specific focus on Oyo State National Youth Service Corps, Ibadan.