Institutions and resources for effective employee training in the public sector in Tanzania

Abstract

Over the years, the mainstream literature in human resource management shows that employee training especially in the public service does not reflect the actual skills gaps of the employees. Tanzania, like other developing countries experience similar problem despite the initiative taken by government through public sector reforms. The objective of this paper was to explore how policies and procedures together with the availability of resources, staff engagement and the exemplary management affect the effectiveness of training at the Public Service Commission in Tanzania. In doing this, the qualitative enquiry was adopted, and the Public Service Commission in Tanzania was selected as a case study. The actual research involved the review of important documents including the training policy, procedures, guidelines and budget and plan. The completion of review was followed by 66 in-depth interviews with 45 respondents picked from different departments of the public service commission purposively. The review of documents was analyzed through content analysis and the interviews was coded and categories into themes through thematic approach for analysis. The findings indicate that various government documents including Public Service Act, regulations and standing orders provide the procedures for employee training in the public service. Nevertheless, the interviewed respondents were less aware of the issues pertaining to budgetary allocation for employee training. Apart from that, although many employees who attended the training were satisfied at the individual level, the training they received was not relevant to the commission in particular and public service in general. This was mainly attributed by the existing values and norms which bear on the belief that employee training is a source of fund and it is meant for the personal gain rather that the organizational benefits.