Investment In Human Capital And The Skills Needs Of Companies: A Case Study Of Pz Cussons Ghana Limited

Abstract

This chapter constitutes the general introduction to the study. It is

made up of the background to the study. The background contains general and

specific issues on investment in training and development, statement of the

problem, the objectives of the study, research questions, scope and

significance of the study and the organization of the study.

Investment in training and development has been a great concern to

management of most organizations. Some of the reasons assigned to these

concerns are that employee development has been seen as cost rather than an

investment in the United Kingdom (UK) although this is certainly changing in

some organizations. Comparatively, UK organizations give little concern to

training and development compared with other European countries Harris

(2002).

A view is widely held that it is difficult to provide evidence of causal

link between employee development and organizational performance. Serious

concern about training in the U.K. surfaced during the boom of the mid –

1980s when as a result of general expansion employers in all sectors were

having to compete more vigorously for staff, a competition which exposed the

underlying weakness of the skills base on the UK labour market. This problem

was given added impetus by warnings about sending demographic.