Human Resource
ABSTRACT
Public enterprises in Nigeria have remained stagnant and underperforming because of setbacks and decay in management. This has resulted in public enterprises being branded ‘‘ineffective and inefficient’’. Performance management, which is a relatively new concept in human resource management, focuses on maximizing team and individual performance to achieve a motivated workforce resulting in higher goal attainment in a quest to enhance organizational competitiveness.
This paper gives a perspective of public enterprises in Nigeria and espouses the challenges of performance management in these enterprises. It also presents performance management as a tool that can enhance the performance of public enterprises in Nigeria.
INTRODUCTION Since the 1930s and particularly after World War II, numerous State Owned Enterprises, also called Public Enterprises (PEs) were created in both developing and developed countries to address market deficits and capital shortfalls, promote economic development, reduce mass unemployment, and/or ensure national control over the overall direction of the economy especially in developing countries. By providing capital and technology to strategic areas where the private sector either shied away from or lack the capacity to invest (such as heavy industries, infrastructure, etc.) most government resorted to Public enterprises to increase capital formation, produce essential goods at lower costs, create employment and generally contribute to the economic development of the nation state. This trend continued until the early eighties. (The World Bank, 2000) However, rising corruption, management inefficiency, overstaffing (without regard to their economic viability, government treated PEs as easy conduit for job creation and a convenient vehicle for patronage distribution), inflation and rising current
Public enterprises in Nigeria have remained stagnant and underperforming because of setbacks and decay in management. This has resulted in public enterprises being branded ‘‘ineffective and inefficient’’. Performance management, which is a relatively new concept in human resource management, focuses on maximizing team and individual performance to achieve a motivated workforce resulting in higher goal attainment in a quest to enhance organizational competitiveness.
This paper gives a perspective of public enterprises in Nigeria and espouses the challenges of performance management in these enterprises. It also presents performance management as a tool that can enhance the performance of public enterprises in Nigeria.
INTRODUCTION Since the 1930s and particularly after World War II, numerous State Owned Enterprises, also called Public Enterprises (PEs) were created in both developing and developed countries to address market deficits and capital shortfalls, promote economic development, reduce mass unemployment, and/or ensure national control over the overall direction of the economy especially in developing countries. By providing capital and technology to strategic areas where the private sector either shied away from or lack the capacity to invest (such as heavy industries, infrastructure, etc.) most government resorted to Public enterprises to increase capital formation, produce essential goods at lower costs, create employment and generally contribute to the economic development of the nation state. This trend continued until the early eighties. (The World Bank, 2000) However, rising corruption, management inefficiency, overstaffing (without regard to their economic viability, government treated PEs as easy conduit for job creation and a convenient vehicle for patronage distribution), inflation and rising current
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