Nigerian Management Manpower Development In The Context Of Globalization: An Evaluation

In this paper, management manpower development is viewed as a vehicle for national development that enables the Nigerian nation to meet up with the rest of the world in the context of globalization. The paper defines management, management manpower education and globalisation. It views information the beacon of globalisation. It therefore, posits that the effective use of information and communication in globalization cannot be downplayed. The paper reports an assessment of a new management training elements and notes that the organisations that patronize management training institutions do not normally conduct training needs assessment; they were strong in the areas of provision of libraries, course materials, number of trainers among others. The recommendations include: proper and adequate funding of the institutions and making them more relevant by equipping them and exposing them to universal practices. Introduction It is certainly stating the obvious to say that one of the major problems confronting the Nigerian nation is lack of effective management. It is not less stating the fact, if we say we lack effective management of the Nigerian economy because we fail to develop our management manpower. Quite a number of people are put in responsible management positions with little or no formal or even management education, even at the rudimentary level Umoru-Onuka (2001a) placed emphasise on the need to give adequate management education to those who are either put in management positions or who aspire to become managers. Invariably, therefore, the need for well-educated management personnel, in an era of globalisation hardly needs being emphasized, unless the economy wants to remain perpetually underdeveloped. It is to be noted that globalisation is more or less defined by modern information and communication technology. It is also noteworthy that management, according to Umoru-Onuka (2001b), is largely a communicative profession and is to very large extent information based. Globalization is actually enhanced by information communication technology (ICT). Globalization With the advent of the 21st century or thereabout the concept of globalisation became the ‘talk of the town’. What then is globalisation? The concept of globalisation results from the fact that information and communication technology International Journal of African & African American Studies Vol. V, No. 1, Jan 2006 has reduced the world to a global village in the sense that one who lives in a remote village, but possesses the wherewithal of information and communication technology of our day, can get to know what is going on elsewhere in the world almost immediately it occurs. Kiely (1998) in Onuka (2003) defines globalization as “a world in which societies, cultures, polities and economies have, in some sense, come closer together”. He further states that the concept can be seen as the “intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such way that local happenings are shaped by event occurring many miles away and vice versa”. The implication of this view is that more and more parts of the world are brought together in a global system and are so affected by happenings elsewhere. It is such that all components of life are each brought into the compartment of one single system. Furthermore, implied in the definition of globalization is that no nation or individual can exist apart from the others. Each must strive to keep abreast current development worldwide. Vale and Mphaisha (1998) state that globalization has resulted in a situation of “mutatis mutandis” (everything varies) not that of “centeris paribus’’ (all things being equal). You cannot therefore, hold any variable constant in the context of globalisation or else you become obsolete. Marfleet (1998) contends that the concept of globalisation is “a process that brings new social and cultural locations together’’, stating that globalisation involves crystallisation of suppositions about what the world is and would be, and should be. Therefore , if all area of life is affected by globalisation and management,-one profession/discipline that permeates all facets of life;-then it must be responsible to dynamics of its ‘publics’ because it is a collage resulting from coupling of various disciplines into one among which are engineering , sociology, anthropology, mathematics and statistics. Globalisation can simply be regarded as ‘’universalism’’ of the world system. McMurty (2002) as reported by Onuka (2003) posits that the current trend on the concept connotes economic enslavement of some by others, because it manifest in it activities of transnational corporation and in the advocacy for privatization. He, however, feels that the reality of globalisation should reflect in global corporation across border and to stand for integrity and protection of the world ecosystem for human and labour rights, for security against genocide in various oil fields and environmentally destructive corporation practices. The elements of globalisation, according to McMurty, include, transborder capital, labour management, news, images and data flow. These are facilitated by communication technology. He also points to the fact that transnational corporations are the main engine of globalisation. Their activities no doubt involve both management which in itself is a communicative profession (Umoru-Onuka, 2001b) and communication. Other means of globalisation include intergovernmental organization, transnational media and organizations, nongovernmental organisations and alternative government organisations. He states that some of the view globalization as fourdimensional viz: economic, world opinion formation, democratization and political, stating that economic; political; common ecological constraints (environment) and communication are equally elements of globalization. Globalization could also be approached from the logistics perspective. Hart (1998) in Onuka (2003) identifies five concepts of globalization as follows: 12 International Journal of African & African American Studies Vol. V, No. 1, Jan 2006 1. Existence of globalinfrastructure; 2. Global harmonization or convergence of some important characteristics features; 3. Borderlessness; 4. Global diffusion of some initial localised phenomenon; and 5. Geographical dispersion of core competencies in some highly desirable activities. It is the view of these researches, that in whatever way, globalisation is viewed, it calls for some changes in management techniques if managers are to cope with the trends in the concept of globalisation. The role of communication in management development is also very important and hence the need to know what is on ground and what could be done to improve it. Anya (1998) posits that globalization breeds uniformity (which is expanded by ICT) which to him is unfortunate because it may destroy the basis of human differentiation and development. Osaghae (1998), however, views globalisation as a key to democratisation not only on the continent of Africa but the world over. Marfleet (1998) states that the concept of globalisation has tremendous influence on religious, economic theory, and flow of finance, goods, and information, so much so that people are said to produce ‘’ borderless’’ world. According to him, religious resurgence is, in the theory of globalization, an expression of unified world. However, Ukah (2005) believes that not all of globalisation arose from the West, where largely science and technology, politics and economy aspects of globalisation come from. He argues that some form of globalisation including certain religious denominations, come from Africa. Kiely (1998) in Onuka (2003) defines globalisation as a world in which societies, cultures, polities and laws, in some sense, come together. It is the intensification of the worldwide social relation, which link distant societies such as the happenings in one locality are influenced by the happenings in some other distant society(ies.). In a nutshell, globalisation can be regarded as a situation, where by the world is made or reduced to a village, in the sense that what goes on in one part of the world is simultaneously or easily known in all other part of the world. It is also a situation, where the happenings could simultaneously impact either positively or negatively on all other part of the universe. Thus, the occurrence in one place may affect the decisionmaking process and occurrence in another part of the world. This is made possible by the use of modern information technology and through the use of modern communication gadgets like the internet, GSM (global system of mobile communication). Consequently, every economy must strive to keep abreast of current developments in the world. Failure to keep up with the rest of the world could spell doom for such an economy. Management Management is the term that is used to describe the business of initiating, planning, organising, implementing, directing or controlling, monitoring and improving a system, an organisation or an institution for the overall interest of all its stakeholders. Thus, management occurs in a small human organisation such as the family (unit) and in large organization such as national and international 13 International Journal of African & African American Studies Vol. V, No. 1, Jan 2006 organizations. It is noteworthy that management is an everyday and everybody phenomenon, and cannot be avoided at all. Adigun (1980) sees management as the process of integrating the effort of a purposeful group or organization, whose members have at least one common goal. Badenhorst, et al (eds)(1999) state that management is an indispensable element in an enterprise or organization. They then define as a process followed by managers to accomplish an organization’s goals and objectives. It is thus a process of activities that are carried out to enable an organization accomplish i