IMPACT OF HUMAN RESOURCES PLANNING AND ACCOUNTING ORGANISATION DEVELOPMENT (A CASE STUDY OF MOBILE OIL NIGERIA PLC)

ABSTRACT

The oil industry is one of the most rapidly developing sector of the economy in Nigeria. This research study was carried out in order to ascertain the impact of human resources planning and accounting in organization development. To this end, a typical oil exploration industry, the Mobile Oil Nigeria PIc was chosen.

To acquire the necessary material for the study, the researcher relied heavily on expert’s suggestion on the subject. Many textbooks journals and bulletins written by prolific writers in the field of management were reviewed.

The researcher, however, formulated working hypothesis to be used in the study in order not to deviate from the main topic. The hypotheses centered on the impact of human resources planning and accounting programs on the moral, confidence, speed, turnover quantity and quality of output of the organization. Questionnaire and personal interview were used as the main instrument of gathering data. The main data collected were analysed in the table using percentage to allow for easy understanding of .the study. The hypothesis formulated were tested using the relevant questions at alpha level 0.05, chi-square was used.

Based on the result of the analyzed data, the following findings were inferred.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.0 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Management can be defined as the art of getting things done through people. For any organization to operate efficiently, it must have money, material, machine and man (Human resources) to run the' organization. Management can also be referred to as a process of using both human and non-human resources to achieve organization objectives. Among these inputs, human resources is the most important in any organization. Man creates the organization, guide and direct its course, vitalize and revitalize it. Man make decisions concerning all the organization resources, for instance, man operates the 'machines, raise the money and come up with ideas about the service or products to offer those who might need them, which in turn gives the organization its purpose (Profit).

Therefore, for any organization to attain the set down objectives and goals, there should be qualified personnel to manage the affairs. In order to provide for this manpower (human resources), the personnel department must plan the recruitment, selection, training and development activities in advance. Human resources planning and accounting serve the purpose of assisting the personnel department in improving the present and future performance. In response to this, human resources planning and accounting projects the size and composition of organization future work force. The organization then trains employee to fill the forecast vacancies.

The basic purpose of planning in an organization is to select the course of action best suited to meet objectives and goals set. Therefore, the process by which an organization ensure that it has the right number of people and right kind things for which they are economically most useful is known as human resources planning (HRP).

This can be done in two ways; internal and external sourcing. From the definition above, one. can easily conclude that effectiveness 'of an organization depend upon the skills and caliber of employees who are dedicated to a common purpose and also that, human resources planning and accounting does not involve anticipating needs and implementing plans.

Although, human resources planning and accounting seek to help organizations to source in the environment in which they operate, the benefit of it may extend throughout the organization and develop the organization for future responsibilities in the society.

Human resources accounting (HRA) means accounting for people as an organizational resource. This involves ascertaining the cost incurred by the organization to recruit, select, hire, train and develop its work force. It also involves measuring the economic value of people to the organization.

Human resources planning and accounting is important to any organization because of the numerous advantages to be benefited by organization that makes provisions for human resources. Match personnel activities and future organization objectives efficiently and so on. However, that is the reason why in Nigeria today, effort are being made by the government in order to ensure that human resources planning is not the business of educational institutions alone but also the responsibilities of other institutions capable of performing human resources functions. To facilitate this effort, ministry of labour, employment, productivity and industrial training fund were established by the federal Government to ensure that there is adequate trained manpower to run industry and commerce in the great nation.

However, human resources planners cannot formulate its plans without considering the plans functional areas, and the activities of other departments bear directly on the numbers and categories of employees needed, their wages salaries and their training requirements. Its goals must be coordinated with the planning of other department.

Research has shown that lack of human resources planning and accounting in an organization often leads to shortage of personnel or labour turnover. In fact, high turnover results from clash between what the human resources planners expect and what their jobs actually offer them. If human resources planners perceive the organization to be ineffective, unwanted or unneeded and have similar negative feelings, they seek to deal with them by sourcing.

Research has also shown that, the efficiency of any organization depends directly on how well its human resources planned recruit. It moves the organization to an effective ladder, employ employees who understand their jobs and have higher morale, also employees will be able to see a closer relationship between their effort and performance.

Human resources planning and accounting is not without its own problems. Many variables beyond an organizations control can change and lead to fluctuation in the supply of labour. Most organizations encounter various problem in their attempt to project for present and future work force. In this project, however, an indept study will be made to discover the various problems faced by "Mobil Oil Nigeria PIc" a subsidiary' of EXXON Mobil Corporation, in planning its human resources and provide· necessary solution to the problems.

As a result of the above facts, it becomes necessary to conduct a research into the impact of human resources planning and accounting as it relates to the survival of an organization in a typical oil industry.

1.1      HISTORY OF THE COMPANY

Mobil Oil Nigeria plc. Is a subsidiary of EXXON Mobil Corporation. It operates from its head office at Lekki Express way, Lagos. Mobil Oil Nigeria (MON) was incorporated in 1985, but its history was actually dated back to 1907 when Socony Vacuum Oil Company (SVOC) began unbroken service to the community through sales of “Sunflower Kerosene”.

In October 1978, Mobil Nigeria became a public quoted company with 40% of its share being sold to the Nigerian public and 6.0% retained by Mobil Oil Corporate in Fairfax Virginia of 'the United State of America (USA). Today, Mobil Oil Nigeria pIc markets a wide range of petroleum product with over 200 downstream outlets spread all over the country. It supplies fuel and lubricants to state Government and other large industries.

Mobile Oil Nigeria PIc has manufacturing facilities at its Apapa terminal, which encompass a modern aerosol in insecticide plan, Lube Oil Blending Plant (LOBP) and Petroleum Jelly (PJ) Plant. Apart from this, it is also into real estate and chemicals sales.

To ensure that all selling activities of the company are efficiently and effectively administered, branch offices have been established in Apapa, Kano and Port Harcourt. The company has achieved an outstanding success and development. From its commencement in 1955, it has grown into a major group with a turnover of 15 million dollar in the 1997/1998 Fiscal Year.

Mobil Oil Nigeria plc. invests funds in environmental and safety projects. It also sponsors events like Nigeria Mobil track and field championship. The company, in order to enhance the competence of its employees in the performance of their duties and also prepare them to advancement and future responsibilities, organizes· and provides training for them. It is also the company's policy to train student in accordance with the Student Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES). Over the years, the company has been able to map out a good programme layout for students on industrial training, both in industrial designs and other science-based courses.

1.2   STATEMENT OF PROBLEMS

Many organization try as much as possible to operate human resources planning (man power planning) department and accounting for their worth in order to get the maximum performance from employees. This makes the organization to ensure that human resources planning department enjoys at minimum cooperation from the management. The management constantly improves the welfare and ascertaining the cost incurred by organization to recruit, select, hire, train and develop its work force.

Despite all these effort by management to retain this department and at the same time improve their performance and ascertain their cost they still perform below exception.

1.3      RESEARCH QUESTIONS

i.         The problems stated below are identified to necessitate this project:

ii.       How job vacancies are to be filled and selected.

iii.     How to forecast for future human resources needs.

iv.      How human resources accounting are to be evaluated and assessed.

v.       How accounting procedures treat expenditure on building up human assets as expenditure of revenue nature.

vi.      How human resources accounting benefit the organization.

1.4   STATEMENT OF HYPOTHESES

Hypotheses are tentative statement about the universe. Which may, not' be true. For this study the following are the hypotheses this project will be based on:

(i)     That effective human resources planning contributes significantly to Organizational effectiveness.

(ii)    That human resources planning Increase the rate of employee turnover in an organization.

(iii)   That proper human resources accounting allows management to value development of personnel that leads to organization efficiency.