The purpose of the study is to examine the effect of management development on organization commitment to work in Imo State University, Owerri. The methodology that was used for the study was survey. Primary data was collected from a sample of forty (40) management teams. Self- administered questionnaire was used in the collection of data; data collected were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics (such as frequency distribution, mean, standard deviation and Regression). Findings of the study revealed that Management development has no positive effect on organization commitment to work, also the study revealed that management teams of IMSU have average commitment to work and they considered management development to be very effective. Based on the above findings, the study recommends that for IMSU, Owerri to excel as the first choice University in Africa, management must empower all departments to engage in development of staff to build potential and strengthen staff competencies.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       Background to the Study

            Management development is a key contributor to an institution”s competitive advantage, helps develop managerial talent, and allows managements to take responsibility for their careers. Management development is a necessary component of an institution”s efforts to compete in the new economy, and to meet the challenges in work design. Management development is a key to ensuring that managements have the competencies necessary to serve the institution in achieving the aims and objectives. Management development is also important to ensure that institutions have the managerial talent needed to successfully execute a growth strategy.

Essentially, Management development could enhance employee commitment to the organization and boost its overall performance. Becker (1993) and Brum (2008) theorized that training and development are antecedents of employee commitment. Li, Cannon and Wong (2014) found that career development has significant influence on employee commitment.

Biljana (2004) stated that the commitment of employees is an important issue because it may be used to predict employee”s performance, absenteeism and other behaviours. Management development refers to a systematically planned, comprehensive set of professional learning opportunities carried out over time to achieve specific district-wide, campus, and department improvement objectives, and also, refers to the processes, programs and activities through which every organization develops, enhances and improves the skills, competencies and overall performance of its employees and workers.

Newstrom and Davies (2002) define employee”s organizational commitment as the degree to which an employee identifies with an institution and wants to continue actively participating in it. Like a strong magnetic force attracting one metallic object to another, it is a measure of the employees” willingness to remain with a firm or an institution in the future. It often reflects the employees” belief in the mission and goals of an institution, willingness to expend effort in their accomplishment, and intentions to continue working there. Commitment is usually stronger among longer-term employees, those who have experienced personal success in the organization, and those working with a committed employee group.

Imo State University, Owerri (IMSU), is a public university owned by Niger State Government with the mandate to produce high quality and globally competitive human capital at internationally recognized and competitive levels of University Education that will lead the process of socio-economic and political engineering of Niger State and Nigeria. The realization of IMSU”s mandate is, no doubt, dependent on competent (i.e. well trained and developed manpower) as well as committed staff. Thus, this study is aimed at verifying the effect of management development on organizational commitment in IMSU.

1.2       Statement of the Problem

            Universities all over the world are considered as the main agent of socio-economic, political, and technological change and development through the activities of knowledge production and reproduction (i.e research), knowledge storage (i.e library), knowledge delivery (i.e teaching) and knowledge application (i.e community service). The Universities are uniquely staffed with academic staff and non-academic staff; the academic staff handle teaching, research and community services on the one hand, while the non-academic staff handle administrative matters ranging from revenue and salary, maintenance of building and facilities, inventory procurement and management, employee recruitment and management, sanitation, and health services among others. Due to these peculiarities, universities” management team are usually drawn from the academic and non-academic staff. The Vice-Chancellors, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, the Chief Librarian, The Deans and the Head of Departments represent the academics in the management, while the Registrars, Bursars, Academic Secretary and Directors represent the administrative arm of the institution in the management.

            Members of management team in university systems may be either promoted or appointed into managerial roles because they exhibited strong performance as academicians and administrators at technical levels. The shift from technical roles to strategic roles presents new challenges that require new knowledge to tackle through management development programmes. However, most public organizations provide no formal management development programme for its new managers and no “refresher” training for existing managers or high-potential employees (Grensing-Pophal, 2002). Arguably, the situation in the Nigerian Public universities is not different from the one described by Grensing-Pophal (2002), more so that the Nigerian public universities are grossly underfunded whereas management development programmes are capitally intensive.

            Funds for management development in the Nigerian universities can be sourced internally and externally. The basic and permanent source of funding management development ought to be internally based (i.e within the university) while external sources are supposed to be secondary and temporary alternatives that the university can leverage on. The researcher has rather observed that Nigerian Universities have relied heavily on Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETF) for staff training and development and commit very little or no internal resources to staff training and development. Thus, this study seeks to examine, among others, the importance IMSU attach to management development in terms of funding and programmes. This is expedient because management development could enhance managers” performance in terms of influencing employees to greater productivity for the attainment of the much desired organizational goals.

            Importantly, available empirical literature shows that previous researchers paid much research attention on the relationship between training and employee productivity/performance, training and employee commitment, and other related topics where training was used as the independent variable while the issue of management development and its attendant effect on organizational commitment has been widely neglected. This has left a wide gap in empirical literature. Thus, the need for this study.

1.3       Aim and Objectives of the Study

The aim of this study is to analyse the effect of management development on organizational commitment in IMSU. However, this study seeks to achieve the following objectives:

i.          To determine the extent to which management staff of Imo State University, Owerri are exposed to periodic development through internally and externally funded programmes;

ii.         To evaluate the level of organization commitment by the Management team of Imo State University, Owerri.

iii.        To examine the effect of management development on organisation commitment in Imo State University, Owerri.

1.4       Research Questions

            The following research questions shall guide this study:

i.          To what extent is the management team of IMSU exposed to periodic development using internally and externally sourced fund?

ii.         What is the level of organization commitment by the management staff of IMSU, Owerri?

iii.        How does management development influence organizational commitment in IMSU, Owerri?

1.5       Hypothesis

For the purpose of examining the effect of management development on organisation commitment in Imo State University, Owerri, the following hypothesis was formulated for testing.

Ho:       Management development has no positive effect on organisation commitment

Ha:       Management development has positive effect on organisation commitment

1.6       Significance of the Study

The findings of this study may be of great significance to both management and managements of Imo State University, Owerri. This study may be of immense benefit to other related institutes. Government organizations such as agencies and departments will benefit from this study. It will also help management to be more effective in developing their management.

The challenges identified in the adoption of management development in Imo State University, Owerri, can also be corrected.  Examinations and professional bodies may also benefit from this study by continuously research on the concept of management development and organization commitment. The findings from this study may be a basis for future researches.

1.7       Scope of the Study

           The scope of this study is to examine effect of management development on organizational commitment in Imo State University, Owerri. Training which is at times used interchangeably with management development is not within the scope of the study. The study cut across the management staff of Imo State University, Owerri which comprised the academic and non-academic staff, namely the Vice-Chancellors, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, the Chief Librarian, the Deans and the Head of Departments, the Registrar, Bursar, Academic Secretary and Directors represent the administrative arm of the institution in the management. The survey was conducted in 2014.

1.8       Limitation of the Study

            The limitation of this study is the narrow time available for this study and also there were no comprehensive materials for this study because the previous researchers do not go deep into the concept of management development and organization commitment, inadequate internet facilities is also another constraint to this study.

1.9       Operational Definition of Terms

i.          Management Development:   Management development refers to a systematically planned, comprehensive set of professional learning opportunities carried out over time to achieve specific district-wide, campus, and department improvement objectives.

ii.         Organization Commitment: Organization Commitment is the emotional commitment the employee has to the organization and its goals.

iii.        Training: Training involves the application of formal processes to effect knowledge and help people to acquire skills to perform their job satisfactorily.

iv.        Education:       Is a learning activities that long last for a very long period of time, usually several years, many decades or a life time, with the essence of acquiring a general knowledge that will benefit the society.

v.         Institution:       Institution is a large paramount organisation that is established for the purpose of developing people and contributing to the growth and development of a state.

vi.        Organization: Organisation is concerned with unionism of two or more people who share common belief and purpose.

vii.       Affective commitment: Affective commitment relates to how much employees want to stay at their organisation.

viii.      Continuance Commitment: Continuance commitment relates to how much employees feel the need to stay at their organisation.

ix.         Normative Commitment: Normative commitment relates to how much employees feel they should stay at their organisation.

1.10     Scheme of Chapters

            The study has been organised into five chapters. Chapter one introduce the study and focused on background to the study, statement of the problem, aim and objectives of the study, research questions, significant of the study, scope of the study, limitations of the study, operational definition of terms and scheme of chapters.

            Chapter two is on literature review. It explains the concept of management development, rationale for management development, types of management development programmes, steps in management development, the concept of organization commitment, types of organization commitment, factors contributing to organization commitment, the effect of management development on organization commitment, and historical development of IMSU.

            Chapter three hubs on methodology. It explains the research design, population of the study, sample size and sampling techniques, instrument for data collection, measurement of variables and methods of data analysis.

            Chapter four focused on data presentation and analysis. The chapter contains data presentation, analysis and interpretation, and test of hypothesis.

            The final Chapter gives the Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations of the entire study.