INTRODUCTION
As a matter of fact, human resource management is part of the process of management in general. It is a constituent element in this complex business of managing an enterprise such as Enugu Guaranty Trust Bank. The Human Resource Manager is expected to be a goal getter which is most often the hallmark of every business organization. The practice of managing people at work with a special attention to the banking staff of Enugu Guaranty Trust Bank gives rise to ensuring the achievement of organizational goals. Owing to the fact, that Enugu Guaranty Trust Bank renders services to its customers; it is, therefore, necessary to put human energies into productive use. There is no gainsaying the fact that the tasks necessary to accomplish goals of an organization is performed by human resources. To accomplish this, a Human Resource Manager with the needed skills, intellectual capital, creative and innovative abilities is expected to contend with this constant change in Guaranty Trust Bank banking technology and should be motivated to perform by the management of the Bank. Regardless of what product or services an organization provides and no matter its size, age and location, it must use human resources in order to remain viable.
Furthermore, if a Human Resource Manager in an organization is to survive, he must design programmes to develop his human resources, to their fullest capacities and to maintain ongoing employee commitment aimed at achieving organizational goals especially at Enugu Guaranty Trust Bank. Human Resource Manager should adopt measures that must be put in place to maintain and retain the services of employees who make positive contribution to an organization. The human resource is unique in yet another significant way. Managing human resource is complex and problematic. People as individual or as members of a work group, do not automatically embrace and take as their own, the objective of the organization that employs them as workers. People as individual bring their own perceptions, feelings and attitude towards the organization, systems and style of managing their duties and responsibilities, and the conditions under which they are working. Invariably, these individual objectives, which are known to influence employees’ behaviour at work, may conflict with the corporate objectives or organizational goals of Enugu Guaranty Trust Bank.
Background
Over the years, the change-management issues emanating from organizational re-engineering, outsourcing, downsizing and above all, political and economic downturn have really re-awakened our consciousness of invaluable of human resources as life-blood of any enterprise. The so-called re-engineering or manipulation of accounts especially in hiding of information under other assets/liabilities and off-balance sheets has become a sense of worry in achieving the goals in banking industry. The aforementioned issues are in no doubt precipitated the acknowledgement of Human Resource Manager’s role in attainment of organizational goals which the banking sectors are part and parcel of.
The recent gradual entrenchment, growing use of the term, and much emphasis on Human Resource Manager is our focus in the study. Human resource has become institutionalized as a practice in most Nigerian banks. Management has been defined as “getting things done through people”. Management is seen as application of man, material, money and machine in order to achieve organizational goals. According to Robbins and Coulter (2007:282), they held the view that management recognizes four basic resources: man, material, money and machine. Those resources are commonly called the 4Ms of management, which are of great importance to management.
However, the most important of them all is the human resource. Baird and Meshoulam (1988:355), put it right by saying that technological, economic and social changes are causing organizations to depend more and more on human resources to accomplish their objectives. It is an indisputable fact that Human Resource Manager is always on the driver’s seat to propel an organization to attain its goal. Human resources are clearly the most valuable assets of any organization, and a resource which needs to be managed cost-effectively and strategically. No wonder we have been made to be aware of the increasing importance and use of the terminology ‘people management’, ‘the management of people’ or ‘Human Resource Management’. Weihrich and Koontz (1994:356), did say that managers often say that people are their most important assets. Taking a cursory look into the Role of Human Resource Manager in the Achievement of Organizational Goals with a particular emphasis on Enugu Guaranty Trust Bank afforded us the opportunity to appreciate the fact that human assets remain sacrosanct. Virtually, every sector of the economy is manned by Human Resource. According to Wehrich and Koontz (1994:356) another term now frequently used for the managerial function of staffing is human resource management. They maintained that this is done by identifying work-force requirements, inventorying the people available, and recruiting, selecting, placing, promoting, appraising, planning the careers of, compensating, and training or otherwise developing both candidates and current jobholders so that they can accomplish their tasks effectively and efficiently. It is pertinent to note that captains of industry, business organizations, and banking industries place high regard on human resource training and development. Consequently, human resource is a cardinal element of management. Dessler (2001:22), notes that it is easier to answer the question why human resource management is important? He itemized some mistakes a manager would not want to make while managing as the answer to the above question.
It is against these and other issues that this study seeks to delve into the usefulness of human assets and work of a Human Resource Manager in the banking industry. The project work would unravel the problem associated with Enugu Guaranty Trust Bank’s role of Human Resource Manager in the achievement of organizational goals.
Statement of the Problem
The role of Human Resource Manager is bedeviled by a number of problems which do hamper the achievement of organizational goals in Guaranty Trust Bank. These are as a result of the following short-comings such as high incidence of non-performing loans, capital deficiencies, weak management and poor corporate governance. In recent times, many banks appear to have abandoned their essential intermediation role of mobilizing savings and inculcating banking habit at the household and micro enterprise levels. The apathy of banks towards small savers, particularly at the grass-root level, has not only compounded the problems of low domestic savings and high bank lending rates in the country, it has also reduced access to relatively cheap and stable funds that could provide a reliable source of credit to the productive sectors at affordable rates of interest (Soludo 2004:6). Edvinsson and Malone (1997:108), claim that the knowledge, skills and competence of a company’s employees and managers are seen as drivers of values. Today, the reverse has been the order of the day. The spate of frauds, ethical misconduct, falsification of returns by the banks to the Central Bank, unprofessional use of female staff in some banks in the name of marketing; and so on are the effects of misuse of knowledge, skills and competence of banking staff and managers.
Diversification of the productive base of the economy remains a foundational challenge of economic management, and banks will increasingly be challenged to become more innovative in their intermediation function, and especially to increase financing to the productive sectors (Soludo, 2004:7). In consonance with Polit and Hungler (1978:142), it is better to state problems in an interrogative form (raising it like questions) which answers, the investigative effort aims at answering.
We can summarize the major problems of many Nigerian banks as follows:
Why weak corporate governance, evidenced by high turnover in the Board and management staff, inaccurate reporting and non-compliance with regulatory requirements in the banking industry;
Subsequently, how late or non-publication of annual accounts that obviates the impact of market discipline in ensuring banking soundness;
Accordingly, how gross insider abuses, resulting in huge non-performing insider related credits;
In what way does insolvency, as evidenced by negative capital adequacy ratios and shareholders’ funds had completely been eroded by operating losses; and
Then, finally, on how over-dependency on public sector deposits, and neglect of small and medium class savers affect the banking industry (Soludo 2004:6-7).
Armstrong (2006:26-27) sees the challenge to Human Resource Management as being caused by environmental and contextual changes that present a number of competitive challenges to organizations. These comprise:
However, there are three interconnected strands of analyses that explain our problematique. First, the drive for revenue growth by GTB management undermines the creative and innovative activities of the Human Resource Manager. Due to the inability and power to develop new ideas, managing and using these ideas such as a new service or a new way of doing things by Human Resource Manager undermine the profit drive. By and large, intolerance for new ideas, mistakes and not translating them into innovations or practical applications. Second, poverty of intellectual capital of the Human Resource Manager of GTB has adversely affected the Bank. Indeed, failure to find, assimilate, compensate and retain human capital in the shape of the talented employees or workforce that is responsive to its customers by Human Resource Manager has negatively impacted Enugu Guaranty Trust Bank. Finally, the constant change in GTB banking technology undermines the functions of Human Resource Manager. The challenge for not adjusting to technical know-how or banking technological advancement rapidly and continuously has really undermined the functions of Human Resource Manager at Enugu Guaranty Trust Bank. That is, not coping with the competitive challenges resulting to technological change in Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
Research Questions
The following research questions guided the study:
Objectives of the Study
The general objective or purpose of this study is to identify: The Role of Human Resource Manager in the Achievement of Organizational Goals at Enugu Guaranty Trust Bank.
Meanwhile, the specific purposes indicate:
Significance of the Study
The study is aimed at adding value, benefit all and sundry. The spectrum of people that would be positively affected directly or indirectly by the results of the work are divided into two major parts: the academic and the practical.
Statement of the Hypotheses
There is an apparent need to test hypotheses in every project study without which the research problem would not worth its salt. Ikeagwu (1998:82) defines hypothesis as a suggested answer to a problem. Thus, this study will test the following hypotheses:
Justification of the Study
It is necessary at this juncture to delve into some of the rationale behind the undertaking of this research project titled: The Role of Human Resource Manager in the Achievement of Organizational Goals (A study of Enugu Guaranty Trust Bank). Much more than before, it is increasingly dawning on everyone that the future of the banking industry lies on creative and innovative activities of the Human Resource Manager. The implication is that those who would be at the forefront of banking leadership and productive base of the economy are those who are able to break the frontiers of product and service line to add something new or find a better way of doing old things especially at Guaranty Trust Bank.
Another justifying factor to the research study is the reason for effective banking and managerial decisions. Human Resource Manager in all spheres of life makes decisions almost on daily basis. Some of the decisions are strategic while others are operational. Whichever is the case, workable decisions used by the Human Resource Manager are predicated on the quality of information available. Definitely, good decisions made would bring about an enduring intellectual capital required by the Human Resource Manager to move Guaranty Trust Bank forward.
Meanwhile, basis for sound policy formulation is one of the justifications of this study. One expects that the research would add to and provide a sound evidence and platform basis for making feasible and realistic banking, socio-economic and political decisions particularly in the achievement of banking goals at Enugu Guaranty Trust Bank. Again, it should be borne in mind that constant change in GTB banking technology requires constant sound policy initiatives to cope with modern technology trend.
Scope of the Study
There is no gainsaying the fact that the project topic being discussed narrowed and delimited its focus on Enugu Guaranty Trust Bank. It should be made clear that a special attention was paid to three interconnected strands of our research problems which bothered on creative and innovative activities of the Human Resource Manager, poverty of intellectual capital of Human Resource Manager and finally on the constant change in banking technology at Enugu GTB.
Furthermore, it is pertinent to note that there are other issues that the research work will not cover such as misuse of knowledge, skills and competence of Human Resource Manager which are seen as drivers of value, the spate of frauds, ethical misconduct, insolvency and the lists are endless. The scope is on the disciplinary content of the study under investigation. It is due to the impossibility to cover all the issues in a particular subject of a discipline. Definitely, the information obtained delimits our research work and help enormously in maintaining and achieving focal, direct and being specific to the points.
Definition of Terms
Generally speaking, an excellent way to improve on one’s working vocabulary is to practice making definition. Actually, you never have a full command of a word until you can define it. It is on this note that some of the terms are defined so as to make non-professional in the field to comprehend the meaning and context of making use of them. This will surely embellish the project details.The terms are arranged alphabetically to enhance the beauty of this project work.
Bank: It provides means by which capital is transferred from those who cannot profitably use it to those who can use it most productively for the benefit of the society as a whole. Hornby (2005:351) defines it as an organization that provides various financial services, for example, keeping or lending money.
Creative: It is an approach which stresses the importance of an imagination in the strategic process or management process.
GTB: Guaranty Trust Bank.
Human Resource Management: Armstrong (2006:3) defines it as a strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organization’s most valued assets-the people working there who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of its objectives.
Human Resource Manager: Is one responsible for the management of an organization’s most valued assets (human assets) in a strategic and coherent manner so as to achieve its business goal. He is in charge of management of managers and the like.
Human Resources: A general term for all of the employees of an organization or the workers in a society.
Innovation: It is the process through which new ideas and inventions become a business reality in the form of new products, processes, marketing strategies and new methods of organization and management. It is important to banking and human resource manager’s survival and growth.
Intellectual Capital: Is the capability to find, assimilate, compensate and retain human capital in the shape of the talented individuals or workforce that is both responsive to its customers and also ensures rapid increase of opportunities of technology.
Profit: Hartzell (2006:315) has it as any financial gain resulting from business activity. It is basically the excess of income over expenditure for a given period of time.
Technology: Needle (1994:34) defines it as broad concept referring to the application of available knowledge and skill to create and use material, process and produce.