CHAPTER ONE
1.1 INTRODUCTION
In most organizations particularly
business organizations, most of what goes on consists largely of
transactions. A transaction is a recorded event having to do with
routine business activities. This includes everything concerning the
product or service in which the organization is engaged: production,
distribution, sales, order and stock-taking. It also includes the
materials purchased, employees hired, taxes paid and so on. Today in
most organizations, the bulk of such transactions are recorded in a
computer-based information system.
Computer-based information systems are
systems that tend to have clearly defined inputs and outputs that enable
and provide necessary facilities for accurately and efficiently
managing an organizational process. It could be sales, order or record
keeping of staff. Information system is a collection of people,
procedures, software, hardware and data. Connectivity allows computers
to connect and share information, thereby greatly expanding the
capability and usefulness of an information system. Computer-based
information systems are meant to reduce the stress in managing
businesses or organizational procedures.
Management Information System (MIS) is
one of the major types of computer-based information systems. It uses
the database of an organization in producing well structured forms of
reports.
1.2 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The development of personnel management
dates back to the period of World War I around the year 1915 and more
recently to the human relations movement of 1935 – 1950.
In one of the studies of Elton mayor, he
discovered that psychological factors as well as social factors
influence individuals at work rather than physical factors.
Specific reasons for the development of personnel management include: -
(i) As a result of increasing influence of trade unions,
traditionally personnel administration took on the role of
pacifying the trade unions, so that management could be free
to run the companies without interference from employees.
(ii) The formulation of minimum wages
low costs and individual legislations increased the need for a team
of personnel specialties.
(iii) As the union became more sophisticated and powerful the
need for highly skilled individual relations should increase.
(iv) The increasing size of business, government and other
institutions brought new dimension into the profession of
personnel management. .
Traditionally, it was practiced in homes
where the father is the head of the family. It was he who planned what
the family should do, the type of farming, size and where to sell the
harvested products. His wives and children helped in the process, no
external recruitment was involved, so the more wives and children a man
had, the more likely it was that the family be well-of. The recent
practices of personnel management in Nigeria is tied up with history and
development of the public services, private companies and civil
services.
1.3 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEMS.
The management of human resources has
remained the most complex aspect of many organizations. In fact, this
had been the reason why most management scientists in the research
identified personnel management as the backbone of any organization.
Following the problem in Nigeria
National Petroleum Corporation, there were cases were files get missing,
cabinet gets jammed delaying the presentation of certain information
about the staff, destruction of files and records in the case of fire
outbreaks, time required to record as well as presenting an Information
and also the cost of purchasing files, paper and furniture and fixtures.
Lack of effectiveness in their methods of record keeping, further compounds the problem.
1.4 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The objectives of this project work include;
- Timely and quality output to managers for decision making
- Providing specific type of output according to specified input
- It also aims at providing a well secure database management system
Most importantly, this project work aims at eliminating the problems
encountered in the manual system of personnel management
operations by the use of this computerized Personnel Management
System software.
1.5 JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY
This work could be useful for personnel
managers or officers in an organization as well as those involved in
research work on personnel management. However, this research work would
let us know that the success of an organization largely depends on the
assessment and appraisal of individuals and company employee’s
potential, performance and how well the organization can strive to equip
all its workers.
Hence, this research work will be of
immense assistance to the organizational environment because personnel
will be able to find the best solution to the various personnel problems
as the computerized personnel management information system software
will play a very big role in removing the stress in record keeping.
There are many other advantages, and some of them are listed below.
- It saves a lot of time in processing personnel information.
- Database access is fast, reliable and secure in term of
authorized access using data encryption and decryption.
- Transactions are secured (login page).
- It helps in reducing the costs of labour, fixtures and stationary
(Paper, files, pens, marker and so on.
1.6 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This research work will concentrate on
staff employment form which includes the name, sex, location in fact
information about the staff, performance assessment, retirement and
handling of some queries like; updating staff record, deleting staff
record and searching for staff information via Rank, Department or ID as
the case may be. It is a case study of Nigeria Petroleum Corporation
Lagos.
1.7 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
Due to time constraint, finance and
confidentiality of information, program developed covers all aspect of
employment, assessment and retirement. What ever is left out is as a
result of the stated limitations.
1.8 ASSUMPTION OF THE STUDY
During the process of data collection,
information relating to personal management was obtained from Nigeria
National Petroleum Corporation Lagos. The information was collected from
the admin staff during the course of my industrial attachment. Hence,
it is assumed that all the data collected are correct and contains no
false information.
1.9 DEFINITION OF TERMS/ VARIABLES
Personnel: It is a department in an organization that deals with
employees records, hiring or retirement.
Management: It is the co-ordination of all the resources of an
organization through the process of planning,
organization, directing and controlling.
Public sector: The industries and services that are owned and
run by the government.
Private sector: The industries and services that are owned and
run by private companies.
System: A method or set of procedures even personnel working
together as a whole to achieve a goal.
Data: Numbers, Text or image which is in the form suitable for
storage in or processing by a computer, or an incomplete
information.
Information: A meaning full material derived from computer
data by organizing it and Interpreting it in a
specified way.
Input: Data entered into a computer for storage or processing.
Output: Information produced from a computer after processing.
Information System: A set of interrelated components that
collect (or retrieve), process, store and
distribute information to support decision
making and control in an organization.