STAFF MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN PENTECOSTAL SEMINARIES IN SOUTH-EAST, NIGERIA

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ABSTRACT

 

The main purpose of this study was to examine staff management practices in Pentecostal seminaries in South-East, Nigeria comprising of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi Enugu and Imo States. The study specifically sought to examine staff management practices with regard to: staff recruitment procedures; staff development; staff remuneration; staff motivation; staff supervision; factors militating against staff management and measures used in improving staff management. Based on the purposes of the study, seven research questions and five null hypotheses were used. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The population consisted of 601, made up of 230 governing council members, 189 academic staff and 182 non-academic staff of the Pentecostal Seminaries. The entire population was used for the study. Two instruments: questionnaire and interview schedule were used. An instrument titled: Staff Management Practices of Pentecostal Seminaries Questionnaire (SMPPSQ) was used to collect data from the respondents. The interview schedule titled: Interview Schedule for Governing Council Members, Rectors/Provosts and Academic Staff in Pentecostal Seminaries (SGCMRPASPS) was used to gather information. The interviews were conducted with the aid of a mobile phone, a camera and voice recorder. The Cronbach Alpha Method was used to test the reliability of the instrument. The internal consistency reliability co-efficient values yielded 0.66, 0.77, 0.74, 0.54, 0.80, 0.93 and 0.95 for clusters A, B, C, D, E, F and G respectively and overall reliability figure of 0.77.  The data collected were analyzed using inferential statistics while mean scores and standard deviations were used to answer the research questions.  Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings showed too that procedures to staff recruitment were practiced at a low degree in Pentecostal Seminaries in South-East Nigeria. The degree (level) of encouragement of staff development of Pentecostal Seminaries authorities is moderate. Findings also showed that staff remuneration in Pentecostal Seminaries is moderate. Staff motivation is to a great extent not in line with traditional management practices. Findings showed too that the approaches to staff supervision were efficient and effective compared to what is obtainable in educational management practices. Findings also showed that the factors militating against staff management of Seminaries are high. Findings showed too that the measures used in improving staff management in Pentecostal seminaries in South-East, Nigeria, are high. Based on the findings, it was recommended that recruitment of staff should be conducted based on merit, devoid of favouritism, ethnicity and preferential treatment. Also, it was recommended that administrators (rectors/provosts) of Pentecostal Seminaries should adopt and adapt some measures for regular staff development programme, and that seminary authorities should harmonize the salary structure (remuneration/salaries and wages) of staff of Pentecostal seminaries to be in line with that of the government.                

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

 

The importance of staff management is increasingly being realized in the educational system. This realization is apparently as a result of increasing complexity of the tasks which administrators perform. There are perceived problems in the areas of recruitment, training and development, remuneration, motivation, supervision, discipline and performance appraisal of their staff. Pentecostal institutions are not insulated from such problems. While staff is a great asset to every educational institution, it becomes problematic if not properly managed. Hence the import of this study is to examine staff management practices in Pentecostal Seminaries in South-East, Nigeria.

Management has been variously defined.  Obi (2003) is of the view that the word ‘manage’ seems to have come into English usage directly from Italian word “managerial”, meaning to “handle”. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the words manage and manager over appeared in usage, and today’s meaning of the word manage is coloured by these early variations. Management was originally a noun used to indicate the process for managing, training or directing. It was first applied to sports, to housekeeping and later to government and business organizations and from there to education.  To manage is to forecast and plan, to organize, to command, to coordinate and to control (Obi, 2005). In Pentecostal Seminaries, each rector/provost, supervisor, director, executive among others, is a manager in the area of his responsibility. Each of

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them co-ordinates and directs the efforts of others in a major part of the management job in the institution. Management is a process of creating, directing, maintaining and operating purposeful educational programmes through coordinated, cooperative human efforts. According to Ogunu (2000:1), “management is the effective organization and utilization of the human and material resources in a particular system for the achievement of identified objectives.” It is the effective handling of all school activities that go on within the educational system, which require judicious use of human and material resources towards the realization of objectives. Management has also been defined as “a social process which is designed to ensure the cooperation, participation, intervention and involvement of others in the effective achievement of a given or predetermined objective” (UNESCO, 1999). Nwadiani (1998), on his part, defined management as human and material resources and programmes available for education and carefully using them systematically for the achievement of educational objectives. In other words, management is the art, or science, of achieving goals through people. Since managers also supervise, it therefore implies that management means looking over, that is, ensuring that people do what they are supposed to do. Broadly then, management is the process of designing and maintaining an environment in which individuals, working together in groups, efficiently accomplish selected aims of an institution.

Therefore, management entails the acquisition of managerial competence, and effectiveness in the areas of problem solving, administration, human resource management, and institutional leadership which most managers have not acquired. Management, according to Cole (2002), refers primarily to the activities of specialist staff responsible for implementing the key objectives of the institution in respect to its use of people (employees). Generally, staff management is concerned with the issues of recruitment, welfare, training, promotion, motivation, transfer and discipline of staff.

In essence, staff management connotes the activities of staff selection, recruitment, development, training, transfer/posting, welfare, discipline and supervision. Ogunu (2001) on his part, perceived personnel management as:

that specialized activity of the organization which caters for the employment, development and utilization of the organization’s human resources. It is that function of all enterprises which provides for effective utilization of human resources to achieve both the objectives of the enterprise and the satisfaction and development of the employees (p: 96).

 

In line with this perception, educational managers need to acquire some form of managerial skills either formally or informally to respond to the various challenges to their performance in office. The areas where Pentecostal seminaries affect the staff behaviour and performance are likely to be in staff recruitment, training and development, remuneration (salaries/wages), motivation, supervision, discipline, performance appraisal for general development of work norms to achieve educational goals and objectives. In an organization the staff personnel services is co-ordinated and supervised by a staff personnel manager or director or controller.

A manager is one who performs a variety of roles, such as the roles of counselor, mediator, company spokesman, problem-solver and change agent. From the above, it implies that the personnel manager undertakes all those functions which are concerned with human elements or relations as well as material elements in the
educational system. The focus of the personnel manager is to ensure that human resources are purposefully utilized for the optimum good of the institutions and the workforce. The basic role of the personnel manager is the management of manpower resources of an organization. Management, according to Mamoria and Gankar (2010), is concerned with leadership both in group and individual relationship, and labour-management relations.

Staff who are motivated in terms of remuneration, training and development, supervision, discipline and appraised regularly tend to perform better in job orientation. This assertion is generally applied to every workforce globally, especially in Nigeria where material motivation in the form of compensation, remuneration, fringe benefits payments, promotion, leave allowances, among others, tend to facilitate workers’ motivation and effectiveness.

Seminaries are Christian educational institutions established for the training of priests, ministers or rabbis who are equipped both educationally, morally, and spiritually with the right kind of knowledge, skills, attitudes and habits suitable to enhance spiritual formation of their adherents for the development of the society (Allen and Hollenweger,1999). Seminaries in the context of Nigeria, and South-East states in particular, are believed to be central to the restoration of human dignity even though it appears that seminary education is the least in priority compared to other disciplines such as engineering, law, medicine, offered in the institutions of higher learning such as universities, colleges of educations and polytechnics. However, Anibueze (2010) observed that Nigeria is still a developing nation which exhibits various cultural, political, social, and economic features such as poverty, high level
of illiteracy   , over (50%) unemployment, and very low human development index (0.943). In addition there is also high level of corruption, poor investment on education (about 11.5% of annual budget), erratic power supply, low-industrial-economy, very low knowledge economy, ignorance, poor democratic culture, and problematic education system.

The current world economic recession or financial crash are serious lessons for the nation. It is a warning to all to learn to do the first things first, keep our homes in order, rely more on home grown policies and ideas meant to face the real challenges of the times and the future. This requires the development of enlightened and disciplined citizenry, manpower and human capital. Otherwise, as Anibueze (2010) opined, we seem to be doing everything upside down and “one step forward two steps backward”. This means that Nigeria of today is bedeviled by crisis in social, psychological, economic, political, religious, environmental and personal social vices that demand a lot of attention. This goes to imply that seminaries have to be abreast with problems and, be well remunerated, trained and developed, supervised, appraised, motivated and disciplined so as to create new approaches to solving human dilemma.

The seminaries, apart from getting involved in the spiritual formation and development of their staff and students, also perform secular (civil) duties like paying taxes to the government, participating in community development, maintaining peace and order in the society requiring not only proper motivation but effective staff motivation if they are to perform optimally. In South-East, Nigeria, there are different types of seminaries run by different denominations – Roman Catholics, Presbyterians, Anglicans, Methodists and Pentecostals. The researcher is interested in examining staff management practices of Pentecostals seminaries. This is because it is believed that one of the biggest problems facing management of Pentecostal seminaries in South-East, Nigeria is anchored on staff recruitment procedures, training and development, remuneration, staff motivation, staff supervision, staff discipline and staff performance appraisal.

Pentecostal churches in Nigeria are not homogenous entities. They have their own peculiar beliefs and theological framework. It is the convergence of African spirituality in the Pentecostal churches that gives fascination to Pentecostalism in Nigeria. These churches stress radical spiritual conversion, often called “born again,” through the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, recalling the Day of Pentecost. In addition, they emphasize speaking in tongues, divine healing and miracles. They profess that material success and prosperity of their members are signs of divine grace and benevolence.

These Pentecostal churches offer responses to the spiritual yearnings of the African people based on their pre- Pentecostal Christian formation and their life experiences. There is continuity between prophetic African churches and Pentecostal Charismatic. Both churches are engaged in what is termed the African primal quest for the sacred and the transcended (Kalu, 1998). The quest for healing, wellbeing, material success, and long life. Pentecostal churches exercise some degree of religious independence in that, unlike the Mission churches before them, they are not under large foreign mission. The churches derive their success from their appeal, however unacknowledged, to African spiritual sensibilities.

In harmony with global Pentecostalism, churches under the classical Pentecostalism include: The Apostolic Church of Nigeria, Assemblies of God, Nigeria, among others. The New- Pentecostal conglomerations are represented by the Deeper Life Bible Church, the Church of God Mission, the Latter Rain Assemblies, the Household of God, Christ Embassy, and Synagogue of All Nations, among others. Another typology of Pentecostal/charismatic churches initiated by the prosperity churches, following the trend of materialism, are scattered all over the country. The principal representatives are the Church of God, Riches of Christ, Universal Praying Church, and Christ Pentecostal Mission, amongst others.

In Pentecostal churches, services are characterized by lively singing with the opportunity at communion services for extemporary prayer and the exercise of the gifts of tongues, interpretation and prophecy by church members. Their emphasis, according to Mbefor (1990), was on dreams and visions. Healing and exorcism were seen as logical consequences of the divine intervention through prayer. God reveals His plans and ordinances to those who pray and even reveals his personal name to them, empowering them with the spiritual gifts. Atansuji (1990) is of the view that African’s instituted churches took into cognizance the socio-cultural context of Nigeria both in the theological formation and pastoral orientation. God intervenes in the world events to order them for the benefit of those who pray to Him. These churches did not only introduce an intensive practice of prayer into Nigerian Christianity, but also seek to liberate Christianity from the western practices.  With the accentuation of prayers and demonstration of spiritual gifts by the emerging African indigenous Pentecostal churches, the Christian faith in Nigeria was given a Pentecostal direction.

For much of its early history, Pentecostalism was led mainly by evangelically oriented activists with little concern for academic biblical scholarship, extended theological education or social care. But these are now generally accepted as part of the work and mission of the church. Thus, Ferguson, Wright and Packer (1991) described formation in Pentecostal seminaries as,

The training of pastors usually undertaken at full-time colleges, and some churches run their own day schools or social care and rehabilitation centres. Having become conscious of its own history, Pentecostalism is now producing its own biblical scholars and church historians (P:505).

 

Generally, then, it appears that apart from ministerial training in the seminaries and theological faculties, there are various denominational and interdenominational centres established for training and formation of the faithful either for evangelical works or for their general Christian formation. These Pentecostal institutions are now common in Nigeria and South-East States in particular, offering training in evangelization and ministry to those who cannot afford professional theological education.

Pentecostal Seminaries are owned by private individuals or organizations. The seminaries have been operating by personal or individual ownership in which assets and properties belonging to the institutions are controlled and proceeds of their operations manned by an individual. With the exception of few institutions owned by some organized organizations, such as, Assemblies of God, Deeper Life Bible Church, The Redeemed Christian Church, Christian Pentecostal Mission and The Apostolic Church amongst others, these institutions have the advantage of being easy to set up and dissolved because there are no laws or policies to regulate their operations (Bergstrom, 2005).

Pentecostal Seminaries in South-East states of Nigeria have governing council members, academic staff and non-academic staff charged with the responsibility of planning, controlling, organizing, staffing, directing and decision-making relative to the effective management of the institutions. Besides, to a certain degree, it seems that there are similarities in management practices with other seminaries owned by   orthodox (denominations) churches like, Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Baptist in terms of objectives for which the institutions were established ranging from recruitment, training and development, remuneration, motivation, supervision, discipline and performance appraisal aimed at evangelizing the world, using the Bible as major curriculum in the dispensation of Christian values.

Staff in the seminaries perform both spiritual duties (preaching, teaching, counseling, exorcism-deliverance, prayers, etc) and academic and social duties. Other staff (non-academic staff), like gardeners, drivers, gate keepers, clerks/typists, messengers, electricians, carpenters, masons, among others, constitute academic staff in the institutions. The management practices commonly observed in Pentecostal Seminaries includes employment, welfare, training, discipline, motivation and performance appraisal, among others.

The researcher’s interest in staff management practices in Pentecostal Seminaries is due to the perceived problems of management practices in the institutions in the areas of recruitment, training and development, remuneration, motivation, discipline, supervision and performance appraisal of their staff. With respect to welfare of staff, Cole (2002) noted that, welfare, in the sense of financial provision, is covered by pay and salary administration. Thus pensions, sickness benefits, health schemes and the like are provided for as part of the total remuneration of employees. Unfortunately, in Pentecostal Seminaries staff incentive payment methods, staff training and development, motivation, supervision, discipline and performance appraisal seemed less frequently used or reflected in any documented policy, neither are they if any, uniformly carried out in the institutions in South-East, Nigeria.

The major worry in staff management in Pentecostal seminaries is about the way staff are recruited, trained and developed, remunerated, motivated, supervised, disciplined and appraised. Evidently, the staff management practices in Pentecostal seminaries do not appear to cohere or fall in line with conventional managerial practices of other higher institutions like universities, colleges of education and polytechnics.

Regrettably, it has been observed that Pentecostal Seminaries do not have competent staff management structure that could respond adequately to the social, political, economic and intellectual needs of its workforce. There are reports of lamentation by the clergy over the inability of foreign missions, agencies and national denominations to produce visionary and pragmatic educational administrators. Allegations of inadequacy of remuneration to governing council members, academic and non-academic staff have caused or led staff to pursue material objectives and devote less time to the central goal of the seminaries (Kalu, 2008). These challenges affect staff management in many ways.

Recruitment is the discovering of potential applicants for actual or anticipated seminary vacancies. In other words, it is linking and bringing together those with jobs and those seeking for jobs. That is, recruitment is a two-way street: it takes a recruiter (management) and a recruitee (job seeker). The recruiter chooses whom to recruit and whom not. So also the prospective employee (recruitee) has to make the decision if he should apply for that seminary job. Thus, recruitment, as opined by Mamoria and Ganker (2010), entails the discovery of potential applicants for actual or anticipated organizational vacancies. It is an activity that brings together those with jobs and those who seek jobs. The principal purpose of recruitment activities in Pentecostal Seminaries is to attract sufficient and suitable staff to apply for vacancies. Hence detailed plans and procedures for recruitment are to be devised and put in place. These are necessary to ensure that recruitment practices are systematic, consistent and responsive to internal needs. Recruitment plans typically contain references to quantity, quality, time and cost as well as identifying those responsible for achieving the required results of the institutions.

Staff remuneration on the other hand, is the mechanism by which  the seminary authorities plan on how to attract, retain, reward and motivate  its salaried (staff); that is those who are paid monthly under the terms of an annual rate of pay. It includes employees benefits. Staff remuneration is not just about pay, that is, wages and salaries. It is also concerned with non-pay benefits, or benefits –in-kind. These non-pay benefit are known as ‘employee benefits’ and sometimes as ‘fringe benefits or ‘perks’

Staff remuneration, which has to do with wage and salary administration, means any economic compensation paid by the employer under some contract to the employees for the services rendered. Wages include family allowances, relief pay,
financial support and other benefits. But, in the narrower sense wages are the price paid for the services of labour in the process of production and include only performance wages or wage proper. It is just one of the many expenses which must be incurred regularly in running educational institutions (Lunenburg and Ornesterin, 2008). This is probably the most important single cause of dissatisfaction expressed amongst staff of Pentecostal Seminaries due to the authorities’ inaction to establish a principle of fair compensation for services rendered or work performed.

Training is any learning activity which is directed towards the acquisition of specific knowledge and skills for the purpose of an occupation or task. The focus of training is the job or task. Development on the other hand is any learning activity which is directed towards future needs rather than presents needs, and which is concerned more with career growth than immediate performance. The focus of development tends to be primarily on seminaries future manpower requirements, and secondly on the growth needs of individuals in the institution. In general, Pentecostal seminaries provide the bulk of the church education activities carried out in the society. Mission agencies create the training and development opportunities required to prepare the individuals for future roles in the institutions.

Furthermore, staff development, according to Mamoria and Ganker (2010), is a complex process and is concerned with increasing the capabilities of individuals and groups so that they may contribute effectively to the attainment of organizational goals. It is an effort made by management authorities to provide staff with the abilities they will need in future. This is not the case in Pentecostal Seminaries. In other words, development of staff tends to focus on long term requirements for the overall enrichment of the institutions’ human resources.

Moreover, supervision has to do with seminary authorities efforts to indoctrinate staff with specific details regarding the sections and jobs where they are to be assigned such as safety rules, pay, promotion, transfer, lay-off or discharge. It is a practice whereby management prepares requisition outlining specific qualifications of employees needed to fill specific positions; help create reputation that will attract public interest and make specific job assignments that will utilize the staff highest skills to promote maximum production in the institutions. Igwe, (1990) defined personnel supervision,

as  set of activities which are carried out by the supervisors with the basic aim of sensitizing, mobilizing and motivating staff in schools towards performing their duties optimally in line with the achievement of the stated aims and objectives of the educational system (P:10).

 

In seminaries, it appears that the main constraints associated with staff supervision are lack of qualified rectors/provosts who do not understand the importance of supervision while carrying out the duties of a supervisor.  Appointment of rectors/provosts seems to have been politicized and discriminatory. This situation tends to pose a huge threat to effective supervision of Pentecostal Seminaries.

Also, staff Motivation is concerned with the ‘goal-directed’ aspect of human personality. Cole (2002) saw this more in terms of how the individual has achieved his or needs and ambitions, rather than with trying to identify these needs. From this point of view, staff motivation encompasses the process, both instinctive and rational, which occupies in an individual when seeking to satisfy perceived needs and wants in a work environment in Pentecostal seminaries.

Staff motivation on the other hand, come as a result of the internal forces that ignite, propel, energize, arouse, direct, regulate and sustain behaviour towards goal attainment. Motivation has been defined by Lunenburg and Ornstein (2008) as those processes within an individual that stimulate behaviour that benefit the organization as a whole; the forces acting on and coming from within a person that account, in part, for the willful direction of one’s efforts towards the achievement of specific goals. In Pentecostal Seminaries it is observed that staff are not motivated in terms of provision of adequate infrastructural facilities, which result to dissatisfaction, frustration, redundancy, leading to difficulty in attaining organizational goals.

Staff Discipline on the other hand, refers to administrative practice guided by a set of rules or guidelines for dealing with instances of bad behavior or rule-breaking amongst staff (employees) in the seminaries. The most common sanctions usually applied to recalcitrant staff are warnings, suspension and dismissal. In other words, discipline is a process of training a staff so that he can develop self-control and become more effective in his work place. It is a force that prompts an individual or group to observe the rules, regulations and procedures which are deemed to be necessary to the attainment of an objective in the education system such as Pentecostal seminaries.

Staff discipline in another sense, has to do with rules and regulations guiding behaviour. Cole (2002) observed that discipline is a question of devising appropriate rules of behaviour for employees and of providing fair and consistent means of enforcing them. That implies that the standards expected of staff are set out in various documents such as rule-books, staff (employee) handbooks and disciplinary procedures. Nowadays, in some cases, dismissals are prescribed by rectors without approval of the governing council members. These practices tend to undermine Christian values of Pentecostal Seminaries.

Managers of the education sector, Pentecostal seminaries inclusive, have realized that a multi-faceted approach to staff management, which must include staff training and development, motivation, supervision, discipline and performance appraisal are valuable and that their proper management can tremendously help the institutions maximize the quality of their products (graduates and staff) and ultimately achieve the goals for which they were established.

In addition, Performance appraisal is the process of evaluating the performance and qualification of the employee (staff) in terms of the requirements of the job for which he is employed. Its aim is for purposes of administration including placements, selection for promotions, providing financial rewards and other actions which require different treatment among staff as distinguished from actions affecting all members in Pentecostal seminaries.

The term appraisal, as perceived by Arvey and Murphy (1998), is a formed structured system for measuring, evaluating, and influencing an employee’s job related attributes, behaviours and outcomes. Staff performance appraisal is the act of evaluating in an unbiased manner staff performance on the job. However, performance appraisal in Pentecostal Seminaries is yet to be carried out effectively and efficiently in order to achieve the goals of the institutions. In Pentecostal Seminaries, it appears that poor recruitment procedures and selection of staff make the human resources management task very vulnerable to failure. Moreover, the relative remuneration based on the strata of the staff do not correspond with the contribution they make to the institution.

The challenging vicissitudes of the national economy, coupled with administrative lapses perceived in the management of Pentecostal Seminaries, tend to discourage the staff, and compel them to go in search of other schools to either teach or work in order to augment what they are being paid. Moreover, staff who are qualified by their training but are not given the opportunity to work at management positions, probably because of preferential treatment by their missions, are discouraged on the job. However, those trained by the missions are given management positions. This brings about resentment among staff leading to lack of cooperation in the institutions.

It seems therefore that Pentecostal Seminaries are not operating on any uniform standard as is obtainable in government or public institutions which are guided by policy guidelines from Ministry of Education. This appears to influence staff performance on the job for the achievement of the goals and objectives of the seminaries. Against this background, there is need to examine staff recruitment procedures, staff training and development, staff remuneration, staff motivation, staff supervision, staff discipline and staff performance appraisal of Pentecostal Seminaries, in South-East, Nigeria. Moreover, there is dearth of literature in this area of study which the researcher wants to make a contribution to with respect to knowledge dissemination in educational administration of Pentecostal Seminaries in South-East, Nigeria.

Statement of the Problem

Staff management practices are that part of management concerned with how organizations manage their workforce. It involves the management of people towards achieving desired goals of an educational system. Generally, it is a function of guiding and directing human resources into dynamic organization that aims at attaining its objectives with high degree of morale and satisfaction of staff in a workplace.

Also, it is a way of identifying procedures for staff recruitment, finding out the approaches to encourage staff development, determining the means used for enhancing staff remuneration, determining the extent to which staff are motivated, approaches used for staff supervision, identifying factors militating against staff management and measures for enhancing staff management in an organization in general, specifically in Pentecostal seminaries.

However, in Pentecostal seminaries in South-East, Nigeria, recruitment procedures are undermined by discrimination, favouritism, regional, tribal and quest for ethnic representation and dominance in the institutions. Moreover, staff development programmes such as, conference visits, workshops among others are packaged to provide staff with the abilities the seminaries need to achieve immediate needs only. While staff remuneration is based on academic qualification or training and experience for academic staff, but non-academic staff are remunerated based on seniority. On the other hand, staff are not motivated in terms of salary payment, promotion and position of infrastructural facilities. Generally, it is observed that there is acute shortage of qualified and motivated supervisors to supervise the staff on duty in the seminaries. The management has therefore shown unwillingness to prioritize staff working conditions, carrying out discipline in the areas of lateness, absenteeism and checkmate indecorous behavior of some staff. Thus, performance appraisal of staff are rarely done, except when it becomes imperative, it is only conducted at the office of the manager.

As a result, in recent decades, it is shocking to observe that most staff exhibit resentment, dissolutionment, dissatisfaction, and in some cases mass exodus of experienced workers in search of better paid jobs and good working conditions in other institutions in order to meet their needs. Apparently this is due to lack of uniform policy guidelines to run the seminaries owned by individuals and organizations and particularly perceived lapses of management in such issues as: recruitment, developments, remuneration, motivation, supervision, and performance appraisal of staff on duty.

Although, in recent past, authorities of Pentecostal seminaries have been working assiduously to tackle the problems that constitute to poor working conditions and overwhelming sentiments expressed by the workforce, it is still observed that staff management practices are viewed as ancillary activity and not as a central element in the management of the institutions. Consequently there are no uniform articulated policies governing staff management practices that fall in line with conventional educational management practices. Each seminary is governed or run according to its tenets of faith and objectives.

Hence, the study set out to determine how staff management practices are carried out in Pentecostal seminaries in South-East, Nigeria; identify the factors that
militate against management of Pentecostal Seminaries; and identify what measures can be used in improving staff management practices in Pentecostal seminaries in South-East, Nigeria.

Purpose of the Study

The aim of this study is to determine staff management practices of Pentecostal Seminaries in South-East, Nigeria. Specifically the study:

  1. identified the procedures used by Pentecostal Seminaries for staff recruitment.
  2. found out the approaches used by Pentecostal Seminaries for staff development.
  3. found out the means used by Pentecostal Seminaries to remunerate staff.
  4. determined the extent to which motivational practices of Pentecostal Seminaries motivate staff.
  5. determined the approaches used for staff supervision in Pentecostal
  6. identified the factors militating against effective staff management practices in Pentecostal Seminaries.
  7. identified measures for improving staff management practices in Pentecostal

Significance of the Study

This study is significant from the theoretical and practical dimensions. From the theoretical dimension, the study is anchored on contingency theory, postulated by Legge (1978), and expounded by Boselie, Deitz and Boon (2005). This theory states that Human resources management is influenced by organization’s environment and circumstances. It stresses that definitions of human resources aims, polices and
strategies, lists of activities and analysis of the role of the Human Resource Department are valid only if they are related to the situation of the organization. In his explanation, Panure (2004) stated that;

Contingency theory states that the relationship between the relevant independent variables (example, Human Resources Policies and practices) and the dependent variable (performance) will vary according to the influences such as company size, age and technology, capital intensity, degree of organization, industry/sector ownership and location (pp.4-8).

 

 

According to Armstrong (2009), the contextual factors that influence Human Resources policies and practices are the external and internal environment of the organization. The external environment consists of social, political, legal and economic developments and competitive pressures. Organizations are reacting to this competition by becoming customer-focused,’ speeding up responses time, emphasizing quality and continuous improvement, accelerating the introduction of new technology, operating more flexibly and ‘losing cost’. The pressure has been for businesses to become ‘lean and mean’, downsizing and cutting out layers of management and supervision. They are reducing permanent staff to a core of essential workers, increasing the use of peripheral workers (sub-contractors, temporary staff) and outsourcing work to external service providers.

The internal environment that influences Human Resource policies and practices according to Armstrong (2009:65) include:

  • The size of the organization
  • The age or maturity of the organization
  • The technology or key activities of the business which will determine how work is organized, managed and carried out.
  • The type of people employed, (professional staff, Knowledge workers, technicians, administrator, production workers, sales and customer service staff).
  • The organization’s culture-the established pattern of values, norms beliefs, attitudes and assumptions that shape the ways in which people behave and things get done.

This theory could be applied to this present study for some reasons. Firstly, it is accommodating. That means it considers internal and external work environments and provides for adequate staff well being. It provides a conducive environment where both individuals and organizational goals are achieved. Secondly, following the external factors of fluctuating economic, social, political nature of Nigeria, this theory is useful. This is because it helps the seminaries adapt to the ongoing changes in the Nigeria society. Thirdly, it will create insight into the internal environment of the voluntary and service oriented nature of Pentecostal seminaries. This internal environment includes recruitment, development, remuneration, motivation, supervision, discipline and performance appraisal of staff in South-East, Nigeria. Fourthly, the pattern of the ownership of the seminaries and the aims, goals, and objectives are mainly work oriented which influence staff management practices in the institutions. Fifthly, Pentecostal seminaries in South-East, Nigeria are not situated only in a community setting. Some are in the urban and metropolitan cities. This setting may influence to a large extent staff management practices in the South-East Zone. Contingency theory takes cognizance of these facts: accommodates and makes provisions for effective staff management in the various locations of the seminaries in the zone.

From the practical dimension, the findings of this study would be beneficial to the governing council members. It would help them formulate policies on recruitment procedures. They would achieve this by identifying the needs of Seminaries and that of staff to fill the vacant positions for recruitment purposes.

Similarly, the findings of this study would be beneficial to governing council members and rectors/provosts to design policy guidelines for encouraging staff training and development in the Pentecostal Seminaries in South-East, Nigeria. This is achieved by providing regular in-service training programmes such as retreats, job rotation, conferences, workshops, coaching and apprenticeship to enhance staff performance on the job.

The findings of this study would be beneficial to the governing council members, and rectors/provosts to design specific guidelines on staff remuneration. They would achieve this by fixing staff salaries based on comparable salary scale for tertiary institutions, regular payment of salaries, higher qualification attracting higher pay and consider whether the pay package offered to staff are competitive.

The findings of this study would equally help governing council members, rectors/provosts, academic and non-academic staff to make policies for staff motivation. They would achieve this by formulating policies on annual pay review, follow due process for the promotion of every staff and give priority attention to remuneration package of all categories of staff.

The study would equally help rectors/provosts of Pentecostal Seminaries formulate rules and regulations for staff supervision. They would achieve this by forming committees for monitoring staff on duty and by providing a manual that would guide supervisors, who would from time to time engage in supervision of staff under them.

The findings of this study would be beneficial to the governing council members, rectors/provosts, academic and non-academic staff to design measures for improvement of staff management of Pentecostal Seminaries. They would achieve this by adopting and adapting the conceptual model for staff management practices; especially by making favorable working environment to achieve educational goals in the institutions.

The findings of this study is expected to help staff (academic and non-academic) acquire information management skills through in-service training, workshops, seminars, symposia for the purposes of keeping accurate records of both human (staff) and material resources (equipments) of the seminaries. The result of the study is also expected to provide an empirical basis, to the general public, for improving staff management practices, through training and development programmes of staff in the seminaries. Finally, the society will also benefit from the study. It will be beneficial to the society in that the seminaries will produce quality clergy and non-academic staff worthy in character, integrity and conduct who will go into the wider society as God’s mouth pieces to impact the world positively for godly living and expansion of God’s kingdom. It is anticipated that the results of the study would be useful to researchers in further theoretical investigations in related areas.

Scope of the Study

            Geographically, this study is limited to South-East, Nigeria, comprising Abia, Imo, Anambra, Enugu and Ebonyi. The concern of this study is the stakeholders perception of staff recruitment procedures, training and development, remuneration, motivation, supervision, discipline and performance appraisal of those Pentecostal seminaries in the states.

Research Questions

The study was guided by the following research questions:

  1. What are the procedures used by Pentecostal Seminary authorities in staff recruitment?
  2. What approaches are adopted by Pentecostal Seminaries for staff development?
  3. What means are used to remunerate staff of Pentecostal Seminaries?
  4. To what extent are motivational practices of Pentecostal Seminaries motivate staff?
  5. What approaches are used by the Pentecostal Seminaries in staff supervision?
  6. What factors militate against staff management of staff in Pentecostal Seminaries?
  7. What measures can be used in improving staff management practices in Pentecostal Seminaries in South- East, Nigeria?

 

Hypotheses

The following null hypotheses guided the study and were tested at 0.05 level of significance:

  1. There is no significant difference among the mean ratings of governing council members, academic and non-academic staff of the Pentecostal Seminaries on the procedures used in staff recruitment.
  2. There is no significant difference among the mean ratings of governing council members, academic and non-academic staff of Pentecostal Seminaries on the approaches adopted for staff development.
  3. There is no significant difference among the mean ratings of governing council members, academic and non-academic staff on staff remuneration packages among staff in Pentecostal Seminaries.
  4. There is no significant difference among the mean ratings of governing council members, academic and non-academic staff on the extent to which motivational practices on Pentecostal Seminaries motivate staff.
  5. There is no significant difference among the mean ratings of governing council members, academic and non-academic staff of Pentecostal Seminaries on the approaches used in the supervision of staff of Pentecostal Seminaries.

 



This material content is developed to serve as a GUIDE for students to conduct academic research


STAFF MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN PENTECOSTAL SEMINARIES IN SOUTH-EAST, NIGERIA

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