HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT AND ORGANIZATIONAL SURVIVAL OF SELECTED PUBLIC AGENCIES IN RIVERS STATE

Abstract

The study focused on Human Resource Development and Organizational Survival of selected Public agencies in Rivers State. The main objective of the study was to determine the major factors contributing to the inability of the public agencies in Rivers State to meet the challenges of the market competitiveness in the economy, given the measures of human resource management as considered independent variable, which consists of compensation, development, and performance appraisal. While dependent variables are; Innovativeness, Adaptability and Resilience. The study adopted qualitative and quantitative approach and used both primary and secondary data. The primary data were collected from management, Senior Managers and Middle managers of the state agencies. Four research questions, and ten hypotheses guided the study. The population of the study was 9 agencies and the sample size of 108 respondents was used for the study. The Instrument used for data collection was a structured questionnaire titled; “Human Resource development and Organizational Survival Questionnaire” (HRDOSQ). The reliability of the research instrument was obtained using Cronbach alpha at a 0.70 threshold. The instrument was validated my supervisor. The data retrieved was analyzed using frequencies and mean distributions at the demographic and univariate level, Spearman’s rank order correlation coefficient for the test of bivariate hypotheses, and the partial correlation for the multivariate level. Findings revealed that there are constraints to effective human resource management of Public agencies in Rivers State. It also revealed that effective human resource management enhances organizational survival of public agencies. Thus, the researcher recommended that Management of public agencies should recognize and allow HRD to carry out their functions, application of strategic human resource management policies, removed conflict responsibilities amongst the agencies in order to empower the employees for the organizational survival.