THE IMPACT OF TRAINING AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT ON ORGANIZATIONAL PRODUCTIVITY

ABSTRACT
The study is aimed at examining the impact of training and development on productivity in public service, with a focus at the Delta State University, Asaba Campus.  The objective of the study is to determine how training and staff development has enhanced productivity in the Delta State University, Asaba Campus. The data collected during the course of the study were primary and secondary data.  The primary sources of data include the questionnaire and personal interview.  While the secondary sources of data are those gathered from published work e.g textbooks and journals. The study has shown that training and development play a vital role in organization and that it enhances productivity. Finally, the investigation reveals that productivity has direct relationship with human resources training and development since it has been observed that employees perform their job better when they are trained.CHAPTER ONE
1.0     INTRODUCTION
1.1     BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Training and development have become a very important and pivotal phenomenon in most organization including the civil service.  As is well known, it is important to observe that in the civil service, for example, productivity and output are functions of the employee’s abilities and these abilities are enhance through training and retraining.  To sustain this tempo, the Delta State Civil Service has established the Staff Training Centre where courses and training programmes in the Secretarial Cadre are mounted for serving officers.  In addition to the above, officers are deliberately encouraged to embark on programmes and innovations are aimed at improving the overall performance of the employees on their jobs, which in the long run will lead to increased productivity and increase job satisfaction.
Also, training and development would lead to reduced supervision and increased motivation of staff in Delta State University, Asaba Campus.
In the course of this research work, attempt would be made to make a distinction between Training and Development.
Ekakitie (2009) state that training involves the process of developing skills and training concepts, rules or attitudes to increase the effectiveness of doing a particular job.
Sikula (1970) state that development is a long term educational process that utilizes a systematic and organized procedure by which management personnel learn concepts and theoretical knowledge for general purposes.
Another scholar, G. A. Cole defines training as “the preparation for an   occupation of for specific skills.
1.2     STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The main focus of this research work is to establish the impact of training and development in the public service with particular reference to the Delta State University, Asaba Campus. 
It seeks to determine the extent to which training programmes have impacted on the performance of beneficiaries.  This is because, organizations make conscious efforts to invest on the training and development of its staff expecting improved performance.
However, experience has shown that apart from the huge investment on training and staff development, some employee still return from training and fails to perform when faced with real work situation.   
For some others, the facilities and equipment to perform are lacking.
In such a situation, the employee though may have been trained would still not be able to perform, thus making the job uninteresting, and not result-oriented.  This is commonly experienced in the secretarial/computer operator cadre and works superintendent cadre where though the employees may have been trained, the relevant computer accessories and mechanical tools are not provided.
1.3     OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 
The objective of the study is as follows:
1.   To find out if the Delta State University, Asaba Campus does functional and existing Human Resources Development (HRD) department.
2.   To investigate whether the staff of Delta State University, Asaba Campus has ever been sent on training.
3.   To investigate whether the Delta state university, Asaba Campus have a designed training programme for its workforce.
4.   To investigate the impact of lack of training of staff of the Delta State University, Asaba Campus.
5.   To recommend ways of how to improve staff for higher productivity in the Delta State University, Asaba Campus.
1.4     RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The question that readily comes to mind is, how and what should be done to ensure improved performance after training.  In this research work, attempt should be made to provide answers to the following questions.
1.   Does training have any positive impact on productivity?
2.   Does lack of training make a huge gap in productivity?
1.5     SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The study will help to highlight the importance of training and development in achieving organizational goals.  The study will also identify the problems of training and development and suggest ways forward out of such problems.
This study is significant as it would enable employers of labour to design their training programmes to suit their employee needs.  The study will obviously identify the impact of training and development on productivity in Delta State University, Asaba Campus.   This study will cover the impact, problems and suggest solutions.