Abstract

Employees are major assets of any organization. The active role they play towards a company’s success cannot be underestimated. As a result, equipping these unique assets through effective training becomes imperative in order to maximize the job performance. Also position them to take on the challenges of the today’s competitive business climate. Although extensive research has been conducted in the area of Human Research Management, the same cannot be said on employee training especially as it concerns developing countries.

The purpose of this thesis was to evaluate the effects of training on employee performance, using the Buea Council in Cameroon as case study. In order to understand the study aim, four goals were developed and these focused particularly on identifying the training programs’ existing in the Organisation, the objective of the training offered, the methods employed and finally the effects of training and development on employee performance.

The study was based on three case study of the Buea Council. A qualitative research approach of the data collection was adopted using a questionnaire comprising of 21 questions. Based on this sample the results obtained indicate that training have a clear effect on the performance of employees. The findings can prove useful to Human resource managers, Human resource policy decision makers, as well as government and academic institutions.

Keywords: Training, Performance, Buea Council, Cameroon

                                                            Chapter one

                                                             Introduction

1.1 Background of the Study

Training is defined as the organized activity aimed at imparting information and/or instructions to improve the recipient’s performance or to help him or her attain a required level of knowledge or skill (Rajeswari&Palanichamy 2014). Training is the process of increasing the knowledge, and skills for doing a particular job. It is an organized procedure by which people learn knowledge and skill for a definite purpose. The purpose of training is basically to bridge the gap between job requirements and present competence of an employee. Training is aimed at improving the behavior and performance of a person and also it is a never ending or continuous process.

The success of any business depends on the quality of its human capital and, while it is recognized that training plays an important role, there are still concerns as to which kinds of training and skills acquisition bring economic success. More importantly such training has to be quantifiable.

Training should assist individual performance to impact positively on organizational productivity both in the short term and in the future, (Franklin, Richard &Anis 2014). “Performance is defined as the accomplishment of a given task measured against preset known standards of accuracy, completeness, cost, and speed, (Franklin, Richard &Anis 2014). In a contract, performance is deemed to be the fulfillment of an obligation, in a manner that releases the performer from all liabilities under the contract.

Training has the distinct role in the achievement of an organizational goal by incorporating the interests of organization and the workforce (Raja, Furqan& Muhammad 2011). Now-a-days training is the most important factor in the business world because training increases the efficiency and the effectiveness of both employees and the organization. The employee performance depends on various factors. But the most important factor of employee performance

is training. Training is important to enhance the capabilities of employees. The employees who have more on the job experience have better performance because there is an increase in both the skills and competencies because of more on the job experience (Raja, Furkan& Muhammad 2011).    

Employee performance also depends on many factors like job satisfaction, knowledge and management but there is relationship between training and performance (Amisano, 2010). This shows that employee performance is important for the performance of the organization and training and development is beneficial for the employee to improve its performance.

Human resource management is today considered as a strategic partner of the other functional areas of business organization, namely; marketing, finance production, purchasing, management information systems and administration (Eric 2012). The human resource of any organization is that which is expected to bring about the competitive difference, since the success or failure of an organization is dependent on the quality of this resource as well as its orientation. This is based on the notion that human resource is the competitive advantage a business organization has. This is because as said earlier, while equipment, infrastructure, methods of production, packaging and distribution strategies could all be copied by other competitive organizations, however the innate quality, innovativeness, knowledge, abilities and skills of the human resource cannot easily be copied (Hitt, Ireland &Hoskisson 2007).

Training is a very important part of the human resource development (HRD) activity of human resource management practice. For employees to carry out their duties effectively and efficiently they must have the relevant skills, knowledge, values, attitudes and competencies and as well as understand their organization‘s culture.

Organizational performance depends on employee performance because human resource capital of an organization plays an important role in the growth and the organizational performance. So to improve the organizational performance and the employee performance, training is given to the employee of the organization. Thus the purpose of this study is to show the effect of training on the employee performance.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

As various studies indicate, organizational goals and objectives can be effectively achieved with an active and responsible contribution of its employees. Falola et al. (2014) asserts that employees are the indispensable asset and key element of gaining competitive advantage of any organization, and training is essential tool for its actualization. That is, training and development are believed to be indispensable strategic tools for effective individual and organization’s performance. For this reason, organizations have been spending money on it with confidence that it will earn them a competitive advantage in the world of business (ibid).

Both developing and developed countries have suffered from the ineffectiveness of their training programs. There is a significant body of literature which discusses the reasons why training programs in developing countries do not lead to the desired outcomes. Many studies argue that most of the training and development programs in developing countries have failed to achieve their expected results mainly due to their inability to design a training program that targets specific objectives (Healy, 2001). Healy (2001) states that various training programs were offered in government organizations in some developing countries, but they were very ineffective in the sense that they were very theoretical and too broad, and were not directed towards achieving any specific objectives. According to Healy (2001), the training programs were not responsive to the needs of the employees as theirneeds or weaknesses have not been identified, and there was also no coordination among thedifferent stakeholders within these organizations.

 Like other organisations, the Buea Council has been doing a lot in training and developing its workers performance through the center responsible for their training known as “Centre de Formation Pour L’Administration Municipal” (CEFAM) which was recently replaced by “National School of Local Administration” (NASLA) through Presidential Decree No. 2020/111 of 2 March 2020. Buea council strength in the area of human resources lies on the size of the council staff. In spite of the size, the council is very weak in terms of core competencies and professionalism. Over 2/3 of these staff members have never received formal professional training related to their duties and responsibilities. They rely only on learning-by-doing. A small budget for municipalities often leads to lack of qualified staff resulting in obstacles to exercise tasks properly. This is especially the case if there is lack of work organisation or technical management teams (Desbrosses,2014).

 Thus, this study was appraising the nature of trainings and development granted by the Buea Council. Moreover, this research was carried out to examine the extent to which the training and development programs of the Buea Council are effective, responsive to the needs and expectation of its staff, and how this affects staff performance. By doing this, the study seeks to fill the information gap and to show if there is anything done by the Council to make adjustments on how and in what areas training could be offered. This study, therefore, sets out to assess the effect of training on the human resource.

1.3 Basic Research Questions

The following research questions were developed to guide the study:

• What training programs exist in Buea Council?
• What are the training objectives?
• What methods are used, and do these methods meet the training objectives?
• How does training affect employee performance?

1.4 Research Objectives

The study was undertaken with the following objectives        

1. To find out the training programs that exists in the Buea Council.
2. To know the training objectives.
3. To analyze the methods used in carrying out the training and to evaluate if they meet the training objectives.
4. To find out how training affects employees’ performances.

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