TRAINING AND EMPLOYEE PRODUCTIVITY IN QUOTED FOODS AND BEVERAGES MANUFACTURING COMPANIES IN SOUTH-SOUTH, NIGERIA

Omukpai, C.

Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Administration and Management, Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

chika.omukpai@ust.edu.ng

Asawo, S. P.

Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Administration and Management, Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

and

Biriowu, C. S.

Department of Employment Relations and Human Resource Management, Faculty of Administration and Management, Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between training and employee productivity in quoted foods and beverages manufacturing companies in south-south Nigeria. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey research design, while its theoretical framework was built on the Knowledge Based Theory. The population of the study was one thousand nine hundred and sixteen (1,916) employees, with a sample size of (330) three hundred and thirty employees from the 14 quoted foods and beverages manufacturing companies in south-south Nigeria which was sourced from the human resource department in each company using Taro Yamen’s formula to determine the sample size. Data were elicited through questionnaire administration. The Cronbach Alpha Reliability was used in accessing the reliability of the instrument adopted in the study and all the values were above the bench mark of 0.7. Also, the Spearman Rank Order Coefficient technique was used to access the relationship between study variables and to test the stated hypothesis with the use of statistical package for social science (SPSS Vision 26.0) software. Empirical findings showed that there is a strong positive and significant relationship between training and the measures of employee productivity (timeliness, quantity output and quality service) of the quoted foods and beverages manufacturing companies in south-south Nigeria. The study therefore, recommended that human resources managers in the organizations in the foods and beverages manufacturing industry should utilize on-the-job and off-the-job training programs to improve employee productivity in the organizations.

Key Words: Training, employee productivity, timeliness, quantity output and quality service.