INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The concept of personnel management is a common term to mean management of staff in an organisation.   The conceptual approach refers to the administration of staff matters in an organisations. The operational approach deals with what personnel officers naturally do. The major functions of personnel management deal with the general administration perform by personnel officers such as staffing, training programs, salary, administration, motivation of workers, integration of the worker force and separation matters.

          Personnel management is also responsible for handling staff matters such as recruitment, selection and placement of employees in their various places of work in organisation, compensation, fringe benefit, integration of workers or brings together the interest of the worker with that of the organisation objectives, so that worker don’t pursue their personal goals, motivation or understanding the needs of the workers which brings better integration and separation of workers through retirement, termination, dismissal of appointment and death.

          It is much easier to describe what personnel officer do than it is to define difference between an effective and an ineffective one.  The personnel officers often conduct his operating function without yardstick of excellence and merely rate himself/herself against certain checklists of activities which are carried on my many personnel officers have been excessively concerned in recent years with activity and some what less about input. The system of management by (MBO) proposes that the first step in managing would be a clear definition of output expected. This would then followed by taking count of limited resource available to achieve the objective and then the conduct and control of activities.  Because of the importance to personnel management in an organisation especially the teachers have choose this topic with a case study of Akwa ibom State Civil Service Commission and also that their various instruments of data collection will be explored and these includes, the questionnaire, interview and documentary method.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE AKWA IBOM STATE CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION

          The present Akwa ibom State Civil Service Commission came into being since the creation of Akwa ibom State in 1976 after the abolition of North Central State by the Murtala Regime.

          The Civil Service Commission has a constitutional right of existence as provided for in section 197 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria of 1999, and the appointment of the chairman and members, except in the case of ex-officio members or where other provisions are made in this constitution, the chairman of this constitution, be appointed by the Governor of the State, and the appointment shall be subjected to confirmation by resolution of the House of Assembly of the State.

          The membership of the civil service commission are appointed from suitable qualified citizens, whose wealth of management, and proven integrity are not in doubt, particularly from the retired senior public servants.

          They (members) shall hold office for a tenure of 5 years and shall not be dissolved until found wanting by 2/3 of the members of the State House of Assembly or until the tenure expires.

POWERS, FUNCTIONS AND RESPONSIBIITIES OF THE COMMISSION

          The Akwa ibom State Civil Service Commission is vested with among others, the powers of appointment of all persons into the State Civil Service, confirmation of appointment, discipline, promotion, retirement, withdrawal of service, advancement, transfer of service, acceptance or otherwise of resignation of appointment as established by the provision of the Federal Republic of Nigeria constitution 1999.  In exercising these powers, the commission is guided by the provision of the scheme of service, civil service rules, civil service regulations, establishment circulars and any other rules and regulations that might be enforced from time to time.

Delegation Of Powers

          In pursuance of these duties, the civil service commission delegates the power of control and discipline, regarding and upgrading, confirmation of appointment of officers either on temporary, permanent or acting basis on GL 01 to 06 permanent Secretary and heads of departments. The exercise of these powers is subject to the approval of civil service commission. The delegation could be withdrawn if the commission observes that the powers have been abused.

Department of the Civil Service Commission

          The commission has three (3) departments, these are, administrative and finance department, planning research and statistic department and recruitment and training department.

          The commission is consisting of a chairman, commissioner, in which they have commissioner I, II, III and commissioner IV. The commission also have the permanent secretary and all the department have directors and some others schedule officers in the commission. We have executive officers, accountants etc, civil service commission is a purely advisory body and it has no authority to enforce its recommendation which considering the work of the commission, it is important to appreciate the distinction between the commission and the staff of the commission which consist of a number of public servants who prepare papers for the consideration of the commission and subsequently take executive action on those matters.  The staff the commission prepares briefs on the numerous subjects, which are referred to the commission. These are submitted to the commission by the Secretary.   The commission then considers the briefs at one of its meetings and makes its recommendations to the governor.   His decisions on the recommendation are conveyed to the commission and the Secretary arranges executive action on these.

          The commission is requested to advice on the confirmation of the appointment of all officers in the executive and technical grades and in the professional and administrative grades who are on the permanent establishment.  In the case of officers in the clerical and manipulative grades, it advice is sought only if confirmation is not recommended

          Discipline:  The advice of the commission is sought in the case of all except minor discipline matters. These case range from loss of stores and money to absence without leave and conviction for a variety of offences.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

           It is the responsibility of the personnel department to recruit, select and place staff in the various sections in line with the general personnel policy of the organization.

          It is apparent that recruitment officers in Akwa ibom State Civil Service were not able to recruit employees due to embargo placed on employment into government organisation with that circular, they do not seem to determine and locate its personnel requirement and are not given first hand to effectively recruit, select and place employee from identifiable sources for efficient performance in order to attain the set objectives.

          The research desire is to find the methods and processes that recruitment, selection and placement could be personnel policy.  This study is addressing the following problem question

(1)     Does civil service commission occasionally have vacancies to be filled?

(2)     What are the methods of filling these vacancies?

(3)     What are the sources of personnel for filling these vacancies?

(4)     Does civil service commission fill the vacancies available quotably within the local government in the state?

(5)     Does civil service recruit, select and place employees to fill these vacancies?

(6)     Has it clearly defined recruitment policy?

(7)     Does it conduct the preliminary interview?

(8)     Does it shortlist applicants for interview?

(9)     Doe sit conduct employment interview?

(10)   Is recruitment, selection, and placement in civil service mostly by internal advertisement?

(11)   Does the staff responsible for recruitment, selection and placement have enough knowledge of selection process?

(12)   Is there enough trained personnel in the CSC engaged in the recruitment, selection and placement process?

(13)   Does proper recruitment, selection and placement enhance productivity?

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

          The research work is aimed at examining critically the procedure or policies that might exist during the course of exercising the recruitment, selection and placement exercise in Akwa ibom State Civil Service Commission and also to enable know the system they are operating on:

(1)     To identify the problems concerning recruitment, selection and placement in Akwa ibom State.

(2)     To explain recruitment, selection and placement according to finding from civil service commission, Akwa ibom.

(3)     To distinguish between recruitment, selection and placement.

(4)     To discover whether civil service commission Akwa ibom is making use of quota system or fair representation among their local government in state civil service.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

          The major significance of this research is that it will serve as an addition to advance the research on recruitment, selection and placement in various states, civil service, parastatals etc.  It will also serve as a foundation for further research by students and other researchers.

SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

          This study is limited to Akwa ibom State Civil Service Commission and especially the personnel management and its responsibility in recruitment, selection and placement of employees and to see its effectiveness and efficiencies.

          It is the scope of the research to find out how recruitment, selection and placement standard are, and between 1997 to 1999.

LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

          The research while collecting the data for this research work, the researcher encountered so many problems some of them are:

(1)     The management of Akwa ibom State Civil Service was not willing to give us data on some of their activities and especially of their annual reports.

(2)     The researcher also faced a problem compiling the data on the historical background of the case study (Akwa ibom State Civil Service).

(3)     The researcher has to use his case study office at Akwa ibom because some of the information needed could not be found.

STATEMENT OF HYPOTHESIS

          To achieve the purpose of this study, the researcher have to formulate or put forward the following hypothesis or assumption, which would be tested by investigation, so as to either accept or reject the hypothesis.

Ho     :  The method of recruitment, selection and placement by the civil service commission Akwa ibom has adequately satisfied the personnel policy of the ministries and department in the state.

HI      :    That recruitment, selection and placement by the civil service commission Akwa ibom has not improved the personnel objectives of the Ministries, board and parastatals in the state.

DEFINITION OF KEY CONCEPTS

Compensation:   Entitlement given to workers at the end of the month as salary or on the retirement of worker as pension and gratuity

Integration:  Coordination of workers from various departments to achieve the organisation goals.

Motivation:  An incentive given to workers as a resort of inducement to be more effective in their worker

Personnel Department:  It is the department that is charged with the responsibility of recruitment, selection and placement, promotion, training, termination, dismissal, transfer etc.

Placement:  When a new applicant is recruited in an organization, he/she will be placed or assigned to a position suitable to his/her qualification or placed in a vacant place.

Recruitment:  When employed in service of suitable candidate or person to fill a vacant position in an organisation i.e taking a new member.

Selection:  A series of steps which an organisation establishes for each job applicant to successfully complete before a final hiring  decision can be made.

Separation: This is where a staff is no longer to live together with his organisation either as a result of retirement, dismissal, termination of appointment, withdrawal/resignation etc.