Impact of Training and Development on Employee Performance at Public Enterprises

Introduction

For modern organizations to succeed, they largely rely on the skills, knowledge and abilities of its employees (Salah, 2016). According to Kopp (2014), a work force that receives adequate training and has undergone well-structured development programs are crucial to the maintenance of a company’s competitive edge in an economy. Kopp (2014) and Ghafoor, Ahmed, & Aslam, (2016) agree that for organizations to bridge the current and future performance, they are expected to invest consistently in training and development. According to Blen (2021), training is a process of imparting knowledge and skills to people that is needed to complete a certain activity. Sehilat (2020) defines employee development as a process that equips employees with the skills necessary to advance within an organization and be successful in roles that may not yet exist. Human resources form a critical component of modern businesses. According to Karim (2019), training is essential as it improves employees' capacities, outlook, knowledge, and skills, which then leads to an improvement in their level of performance. According to Saleem, Shahid, and Naseem (2011), training is a process that enhances an employee's knowledge, exposure, and talents as well as their current skill set. Further, as employers rely on the expertise and abilities of their staff to remain competitive and successful in the rapidly evolving technological world, significant and ongoing investment in training is necessary (Oluwaseun, 2018).

Public enterprises have had a series of challenges when it comes to providing basic services in many countries (Baporikar, 2019). Various studies and reports indicate that Public Enterprises performance is less than expected, lack service delivery, and sometimes are not even able to fulfill their mandate. Some of the factors that influence employee performance include shortage of skills, employees lacking motivation, poor leadership style from management, poor organizational culture and working environment, ineffective training and development methods and programs (Karia, Omari, Mwanaongoro, & Kimori, 2016). As part of the Namibian government’s economic program after independence, the government created Public Enterprises (formerly known as State Owned Enterprises) to improve the quality-of-service delivery and to strengthen the economy from the income that these entities were expected to generate thereby ensure enhanced growth and fulfill their mandates. The reliance on government to subsidise their operations is risky and unsustainable. One area of interest that provides possible reasons for poor performance is that of human resources within the organizations. The Institute of Public Policy Research study in 2023 on Public Enterprises performance also concluded that many Public Enterprises employees underperformed due to lack of appropriate training and development (IPPR, 2020), which is reflected in the low efficiency and productivity, increased business expenses, lack of career growth, vacancy in strategic positions, etc.

Hence based on the Human Capital Theory, adopting a mixed methods approach, the main objective of this study was to assess the impact of training and development on employee performance in Commercial Public Enterprises focused on Namibia.