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© 2020 IJRAR August 2020, Volume 7, Issue 3 www.ijrar.org (E-ISSN 2348-1269, P- ISSN 2349-5138)

IJRAR19S1539 International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews (IJRAR) www.ijrar.org 383

Civil Servants’ Perceptions of Effectiveness of

Recruitment and Selection Policy in Their Related

Organization in Herat

Ahmad Shoaib Barekzai Faculty of Public Administration and Policy, Herat University, Herat – Afghanistan

ABSTRACT The main purpose of this research is to investigate the perception of civil servants regarding the effectiveness of recruitment

and selection policy in their related organization in Herat Afghanistan. This research is a quantitative descriptive research with a sample size of 318. The research setting was Herat Public Organizations. The proportionate stratified sampling method was used to determine the sample size and the systematic sampling method was used to select the samples. A closed type of questionnaires was used to ascertain the perception of participants. The findings of the research revealed that according to the perceptions of civil servants the recruitment and selection policy could be effective in their related organization in Herat Afghanistan. By taking the findings of this research into account, the paper recommends that in order to increase the effectiveness of the policy, the field of study should be considered as an important criterion in the policy.

Keywords: Service Delivery, Civil Service Commission, Public Policy, Merit.

Introduction Since the establishment of the Independent Administrative Reforms and Civil Service Commission (IARCSC) in 2002 by the

Provisional Islamic Government of Afghanistan, the government of Afghanistan planned and working for political reconstruction, creation of a modern administration system and administrative reforms (Constitution of Afghanistan, 2004; Evans et al., 2004). Because the 40 years of civil wars damaged all infrastructures including administrative system in Afghanistan (Dobbins et al., 2019). But despite all efforts of the government of Afghanistan including establishment of IARCSC, due to widespread corruption and weak capacity of human resources, still the administration system is very weak, service delivery is not sufficient and the recruitment and selection of civil servants is not based on merit (Transparency International, 2019; IWPR, 2017; Hashimi & Lauth, 2016; Maley, 2008). Also, many key managerial positions in the public organization are filled on basis of ethnic, relationships or political favoritism (Nijat, 2014), which led to more corruption and weak service delivery.

Recruitment is defined as the process of job advertising, job opening and encouragement of candidates to apply for a job (Shafritz, Russell, & Borick, 2016), and selection is the process of selecting the most qualified candidate from a pool of candidates applied for the job, based on its required qualifications (Omisore & Okofu, 2014). Thus, recruitment and selection establish the processes of attracting and obtaining of suitable candidates for organizations. In fact, recruitment and selection enable the organization to select the right person for a specific position. Usually, the recruitment and selection are long processes that contain advertising of vacant posts, receiving of applications, short listing and selecting of the most qualified candidates from the pool of applicants (Itika, 2011). These processes are vital in staffing because they determine the quality of the employees that the organization will have. A vacancy may be offered in following cases; 1. Creation of a new position, an increase in workload or an increase in general expansion of organizations. 2. Resignation/termination of an existing employee (Joshi, 2013). There could be some other cases as well, in which an organization has to offer a vacancy. For instance, when an employee leaves the organization due to retirement or death, or when the organization changes its technology. Organizations have two types of sources to fill their vacant positions; internal recruitment and external recruitment. Internal recruitment refers to filling a vacancy from existing employees of the organization. External recruitment refers to recruiting employees from outside of the organization to fill the vacant positions (Armstrong, 2006). In order to be successful in these processes, the organizations should have a proper program.

Generally the governments implement their programs in forms of public policies. Policies are the written principles that guide how a specific work should be done and are designed to influence actions and decisions (Okeke-Uzodike & Subban, 2015). The governments make policies for specific objectives such as merit. But the question is that how can an organization make and implement a recruitment and selection policy based on merit? Cardona (2002) and Shepherd (2003) claimed that in order to be able to implement the governmet policies and build a sufficient administrative system, the existence of an independent authority is necessary to take the responsibility of managing, monitoring and developing of the policies.

There are such independent authorities in developed countries to make and implement the government policies, including the recruitment and selection policy. For instance, the Pendleton Act of 1883 has established the merit based recruitment in civil service in the United States, and the civil services were to be supervised by an independent commission. Also, in the United Kingdom the actual reforms started in 1855 with the establishment of the United Kingdom’s civil service commission (Shepherd, 2003). In Afghanistan, the government stablished the IARCSC as an independent organization to make and implenemt the recruitment and selection policies in accordance with the article # 50 of Afghanistan’s Constitution (Mohammadi Tamaki, 2011) . The objectives of the IARCSC is to make the public administration of Afghanistan compatible with the requirements and needs of the citizens and changeable environment, through the following functions; making and implementing of policies in the field of human resource management, simplification of work process, and capacity building (IARCSC, 2015). For recruiting and selecting of civil servants the rules and regulations in Afghanistan have specified two categories of conditions; general and particular. General conditions are for all individuals who wish to work as a civil servant in Afghanistan, it doesn’t matter in what grade or position he/she is going to apply for, such as nationality, age and health condition. But particular conditions depend to the grade or position that he/she is going to apply for, every position has different conditions, such as degree, work experience and leadership skills (Mohammadi Tamaki, 2011). According to these conditions the field of study is not important, so it is a big barrier for recruiting and selecting of the most qualified candidate for a specific position. For better service delivery, the law and regulations obligate the civil

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servants; 1) to be present at their workplace at working hours, 2) to avoid any action which might disturb the official duties, 3) perform their duties effectively and efficiently in accordance with their job description and work plan, 4) put efforts to improve personal skills and professional knowledge, 5) to behave in good manner without any distinction in terms of ethnic, racial, gender, religious, political beliefs, marital status, physical condition, and appearance, 6) To pay particular attention to addressing the needs of children, the disabled, women and elderly, 7) to provide the necessary information to citizens, 8) To adopt necessary measures to solve people's problems on time, 9) to consider and implement the law, regulation and other legislative documents in workplace, 10) to obey the legal orders and instructions of their higher authorities, and 11) to inform and report the illegal actions to higher authorities (Danesh, 2013).

Previous studies on recruitment and selection in Afghanistan have focused only on the general transparency of the recruitment and selection of civil servants (e.g., Hashimi & Lauth, 2016; Nijat, 2014). Some other studies and reports have focused on current status of administrative system and environment in public organizations in Afghanistan (Afandi, 2015; BBC Persian, 2018; Hashimi & Lauth, 2016; Transparency International,2019). The researcher’s efforts show that no research has been conducted to investigate or assess the effectiveness of the recruitment and selection policy itself in Herat-Afghanistan.

From other side, according to the theories, the recruitment and selection policy is very important for the organizations in order to hire the most qualified candidates for the specific positions (e.g., Sule & Elizabeth, 2013; Mokaya, & others, 2013). Also, evidences show that “there is a positive and significant relationship between recruitment and selection and the performance of a firm” (Gamage, 2014, p. 42). So, it means that recruiting and selecting of the suitable and qualified applicants to fill the vacant positions will positively affect the future performance of the organization. Therefore, it is very important for the organizations to have a proper and effective recruitment and selection policy in order to recruit and select the candidates on merit basis.

Keeping this in mind, this research aims to find out whether the recruitment and selection policy is effective according to perceptions of civil servants in their related organizations in Herat Afghanistan or not. The outcomes of this research is beneficial for both individuals and government. The individuals will realize the importance of the recruitment and selection for organization and they will apply for vacant positions with more readiness. The government at least will know the opinion of the civil servants regarding the recruitment and selection policy which will help them in making of a better policy. Also, this research can be a baseline information for the future studies on this issue. Research Objective and Questions

The main objective of this research is to investigate the perception of civil servants on effectiveness of the recruitment and selection policy in their related organizations in Herat Afghanistan.

What is the perception of civil servants regarding the effectiveness of recruitment and selection policy in their related organizations in Herat Afghanistan? Research Methodology

This research was a quantitative descriptive research in nature. The main purpose of this research was to find out the perceptions of civil servants on effectiveness of recruitment and selection policy in their related organizations in Herat-Afghanistan. The research setting was 51 public organizations in Herat Afghanistan. In this research, the target population was 7012 civil servants from grades 5 to 2 of the public organizations structure, who were employed by the government of Afghanistan at the time of survey. The sample size was determined 318 by using the Cochran’s Sample Size Formula with 95 percent of confidence. The proportionate stratified sampling method was used to determine the sample size for each one of the public organizations and the systematic sampling method was used to select the sample. As per the requirements of the research subject, the researcher used both the secondary and primary data collection approaches. The secondary data was collected from the government publications, articles and books, to extract the narrative information. The primary data was collected through an anonymous survey. For this purpose, a questionnaire comprised of closed type questions was used as an instrument to ascertain the perceptions of the respondents (see Appendix 1). The questions were designed to investigate that do the civil servants have the required qualifications they need for their position, do they perform their duties on a correct way, and the way of their behavior. The questionnaire was developed in accordance with the Regulation of Civil Servants’ Behavior, which is one of the best and the most comprehensive regulations of Afghanistan (Danesh, 2013). The five-point scale (very much, much, average, less, very less) of Likert rating system was offered to respondents to express their view. The researcher physically visited the research field to distribute the questionnaires and collect them back, the response rate was 90.85 percent. The descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentage is used to analyze and interpret the date. Research Findings

The research has used the descriptive statistics and the Microsoft Excel as instruments to analyze and interpret the respondents’ answers regarding their perceptions on effectiveness of the recruitment and selection policy in their related organizations in Herat Afghanistan. 350 questionnaires were distributed but 318 valid questionnaires were collected back and assessed. The majority of the participants had bachelor’s degree (n = 217), 76 participants had high school diploma, 23 participants had master’s degree, and 2 participants had PhD. Also the majority of participants had 1 to 10 years of work experience (n = 215), 67 participants had 11 to 20 years of work experience, 24 participants had 21 to 30 years of work experience and 12 participants had 31 to 40 years of work experience.




Civil Servants Qualifications The main purpose of first question was to find out that the qualifications of civil servants meet their job requirements or

not.

Table 1. Civil servants qualifications n = 318

No Statements Very much (%)

Agree (%)

Average (%)

Less (%) Very

Less (%) Total

Percent

1

Taking into account all of your experience, to what extent do the qualifications of civil servants meet their job requirements?

11 20 26 22 22 100

Table 1 shows that 11 % of respondents chose very much, 20 % much and 25 % average for this question. It means that according to perceptions of 56 percent of respondents the qualifications of civil servants meet their job requirements in their related organization in Herat. But the rest 44 % of respondents less and very less, which is a high percentage. So, it means 44 percent of respondents believe that the qualifications civil servants do not meet their job requirements in a high level. Use of Time by Civil Servants

The second question was designed to find out the respondents’ perceptions regarding the use of time by the civil servant.

Figure 1. Use of time by civil servants n = 318 Figure 1 shows that 21 % of respondents chose very much, 26 % much and 38 % average for this question. So, it means

that according to the perceptions of 85 percent of respondents, civil servants do not waste their time by doing useless works in their related organization in Herat. The rest 15 % of respondents chose less and very less for the mentioned question. It means 15 percent of respondents believe that the civil servants waste their time in doing of useless works. Working According to Job Description

The main purpose of third question was to find out if the civil servants perform their duties according to their job description or not.

Series1

0

10

20

30

40

Very MuchMuch

AverageLess

Very Less

20.826.4

37.7

11.6

3.5

Use of time by civil servants

Very Much Much Average Less Very Less




Figure 2. Working according to job description n = 318

Figure 2 shows that 15 % of respondents chose very much, 31 % much and 41 % average for this question. So according to perceptions of 87 percent of respondents, the civil servants perform their job in accordance with their job description in their related organization in Herat. 10 % of respondents chose less and 3 % very less, which is a very low percentage. It means only 13 percent of respondents believe that the civil servants do not perform their jobs in accordance with their job description. Working According to Work Plan

This question was designed to explore whether the civil servants perform their duties in accordance with a work plan or not.

Figure 3. Working according to work plan n = 318

Figure 3 shows that 18 % of respondents chose very much, 32 % much and 35 % average for this question. It means that according to the perceptions of 85 percent of respondents, the civil servants perform their job in accordance with their work plan in their related organization in Herat. 11 % of respondents chose less and 4 % very less, which is a low percentage. It means that only 15 percent of respondents believe that the civil servants do not perform their jobs in accordance with a work plan. Self-Improvement of Civil Servants

The main purpose of question was to investigate the civil servants’ attempts in improving of their skills and knowledge.

15%

31%41%

10%3%

Civil servants do their duties according to their job description


18.2

32.134.9

11.3

3.50

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40


Civil servants do their duties according to their work plan




Figure 4. Self-improvement n = 318 Figure 4 shows that 26 % of respondents chose very much, 30 % much and 27 % average for this question. So according to

perceptions of 83 percent of respondents, the civil servants attempt to improve their skills and professional knowledge. 15 % of respondents chose less and 2 % very less. So 17 percent of respondents believe that the civil servants do not attempt to improve their skills and professional knowledge in public organizations in Herat. Civil Servants’ Behavior

One of the questions in the questionnaire was designed to explore whether the civil servants behave without any discrimination or not.

Table 2. Civil servants’ behavior n = 318


Agree (%)

Average (%)

Less (%) Very

Less (%) Total

Percent

1

According to your observation, to what extent do civil servants behave without any discrimination?

15.7 29.2 38.4 13.5 3.2 100

According to table 2, out of all respondents16 % of them chose very much, 29 % much and 38 % average for this question. It means that according to perceptions of 83 percent of respondents, the civil servants in Herat public organizations behave without any discrimination. But 14 % of respondents chose less and 3 % very less. It means that 17 percent of respondents believe that the civil servants have a discriminatory behavior in public organizations in Herat. Paying Attention to Vulnerable Individuals

The main purpose of question was to find out that the civil servants pay particular attention to vulnerable people or not.

Table 3. Attention to vulnerable individuals n = 318


Agree (%)

Average (%)

Less (%) Very

Less (%) Total

Percent

1

To what extent do the civil servants pay particular attention to fulfill the needs of children, disabled, women and elders?

11.3 35.8 36.2 12.6 4.1 100

Table 3 shows that 11 % of respondents chose very much, 36 % much and 36 % average for this question. So, according to perceptions of 83 percent of respondents, the civil servants pay particular attention to vulnerable people such as children, disabled, women and elders. But 13 % of respondents chose less and 4 % very less, which means that 17 percent of respondents believe that the civil servants do not pay any particular attention to vulnerable people. Providing of Necessary Information to Citizens

This question was designed to investigate the civil servants provide the necessary information to citizen without any delay or not.

0

10

20

30

Very

MuchMuch

AverageLess

Very

Less

26.429.9

27.4

14.8

1.6

Civil servants attempt to improve their own skills and professional

knowledge




Figure 5. Providing of necessary information n = 318 Figure 5 shows that 8 % of respondents chose very much, 20 % much and 37 % average for this question. So, according to

the perceptions of 65 percent of respondents, the civil servants in Herat public organizations provide the necessary information to citizens. But 25 % of respondents chose less and 10 % very less, which means that 35 percent of respondents believe that the civil servants do not provide the necessary information to citizens in a high level. Solving of the Citizens’ Problems

This question was to investigate that the civil servants adopt necessary measures to solve the citizens’ problem on time or not.

Figure 6. Problem solving n = 318 Figure 6 shows that 7 % of respondents chose very much, 24 % much and 41 % average for this question. It means that

according to the perceptions of 72 percent of respondents, the civil servants adopt the necessary measures to solve the citizens’ problems. But 21 % of respondents chose less and 7 % very less. So, 28 percent of respondents believe that the civil servants do not adopt necessary measures to solve the citizens’ problems on time. Implementing of the Law and Regulations

The last question of the questionnaire was designed to find out that the civil servants implement the law and regulations in their workplace or not.

8%

20%

37%

25%

10%

Civil servants provide the necessary information to citizens


7%

24%

41%

21%

7%

Civil servants adopt necessary measures to solve the people's

problems on time





Figure 7. Implementing of the law and regulations n = 318

Figure 7 shows that 14 % of respondents chose very much, 30 % much and 35 % average for this question. It means that according to the perceptions of 79 percent of respondents, the civil servants implement the law and regulations in their workplace. 17 % of respondents chose less and 4 % very less, which means that 21 percent of respondents believe that the civil servants do not implement law and regulations completely.

Discussion and Conclusion The main purpose of this research was to better understand the perceptions of civil servants on effectiveness of

recruitment and selection policy in their related organization in Herat Afghanistan. As the researcher’s efforts show that the previous studies on recruitment and selection in Afghanistan have focused only on the general transparency of the recruitment and selection and organizational environment in public organizations. No research has been conducted to investigate or assess the effectiveness of the recruitment and selection policy itself.

According to the human resource theories, the governments should make policies in order to reach to their goals (Okeke-Uzodike & Subban, 2015), and an independent authority should be existed to take the responsibility of making and implementing of those policies (Cardona, 2002; Shepherd, 2003). So, the existing of the recruitment and selection policy and the independent civil service commission in Afghanistan are largely similar to the expereinces of other countires and human resource management theories. Also, the law and regulations in Afghanistan have specified the scope of the civil service and have defined some qualifications that are required for filling of vacant positions. The individuals who wish to apply for a vacant position must fulfill the required qualifications of the position. Theoretically, there should be such definitions and principles in civil service system in order to have a sufficient system (see Cardona, 2002). Thus the defined qualifications and principles for different positions in Afghanistan’s civil service are scientific and fit to relevant theories.

In conclusion it can be said that regardless of what happens in practice, the recruitment and selection policy in Afghanistan is comprehensive and includes all of the necessary steps in recruitment and selection processes, which are largely similar to the theories of human resource management. In accordance with this policy, the candidate who wish to work in public organizations, should think only about his/her ability and capability to get his/her intended position. From other side, the results of survey show that according to perceptions of the civil servants the recruitment and selection policy could be effective in their related organization in Herat Afghanistan. As the civil servants have the necessary qualifications and perform their jobs satisfactorily. Which means that through the current recruitment and selection policy, the public organizations have recruited and selected qualified candidates for their vacant positions. Recommendations

As recommendation, there are two points that the researcher thinks could be much effective for recruiting and selecting of the most qualified candidates if implement; first, it is recommended to government to consider the field of study as an important criterion in order to recruit the most qualified candidates for the specific positions. Second, the government should pay more attention to monitoring of recruitment and selection procedures in order to ensure the transparency and obtain the satisfaction of both accepted and rejected candidates.

Very Much

Much

Average

Less

Very Less

0

10

20

30

40

1

14.2

29.6

35.5

1, 16.74.1

Civil servants implement the law and regulations in their

workplace




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