ABSTRACT

The study was set out to assess the influence of human capital accumulation
on labour mobility in the public service, the case of Bagamoyo District
Council. The general objective of this study was to get an insight of human
capital accumulation’s impact on labour mobility in the public service.
More specifically the study intended to; assess the level of employee’s skills
and education in different jobs; to analyze individual’s mobility among
different types of jobs/organizations; to assess the factors that cause such
mobility.

The study employed where samples of the respondents were drawn from the
employees from Bagamoyo District Council by using convenience sampling
technique.

The findings from the study show that employees enter into the public
service with different levels of education, mostly depending on not only the
field of work but also the level of responsibilities related to the job. The
results also show that there is individual mobility among different types of
jobs as well as between organizations within the public service. In general
the findings supports other studies that, there is a reason to suppose impact
of human capital accumulation on labour mobility. The increased skills
resulting from training do not enable employees to extract increased wages
from their current employers, to match their enhanced marginal productivity.

To maintain global competitiveness, the study recommends to the

government to not only invest in education so as to accumulate an adequate
stock of human capital, but also ensure that the competitive work force is
retained throughout.

7
 Contents
ABSTRACT.....................................................................................................................7
Contents...............................................................................................................................8
LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................9
LIST OF TABLES.........................................................................................................10
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .......................................................................................11
CHAPTER ONE................................................................................................................12
INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................12
1.1 Background to the Study .....................................................................................12
Statement of the Problem .........................................................................................14
CHAPTER TWO...............................................................................................................17
LITERATURE REVIEW..................................................................................................17
Origin of human capital concept ..................................................................................17
CHAPTER THREE...........................................................................................................22
METHODOLOGY............................................................................................................22
CHAPTER FOUR..............................................................................................................25
DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION .........................................25
Respondents’ skills and education levels on first appointment ....................................25
Respondents’ Sponsorship on training after first appointment ..............................27
Factors influencing mobility between different jobs and organization........................28
Respondents who thought of searching for other jobs ..............................................29
Respondents reason for searching for other jobs ......................................................29
Respondents opinion on whether post graduate training increase labour mobility . .30
Hypotheses testing results .............................................................................................31
CHAPTER FIVE...............................................................................................................34
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION ................................................................34
Areas for further study..................................................................................................36
REFERENCES..................................................................................................................37

8
LIST OF FIGURES

Fig 1 Respondents’ skills & education level on first appointment 20

Fig 2 Respondents’ with advanced training after first appointment 21
Fig 3 Respondents’ sponsorship for training after first appointment 22
Fig 4 Respondents’ who thought of searching for other jobs 23
Fig 5 Respondents’ reasons for the searching for other jobs 24
Fig 6 Respondents’ opinion on whether post graduate studies increase
Labour mobility 25

9
LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Data on present job title and education levels 26

Table 2: Expected frequencies of respondents 26
Table 3. Computation of Chi-square 26

10
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AU - African Union
BDC - Bagamoyo District Council
EAC - East African Community
ECOWAS - Economic Community of West Africa States
EU - European Union
HOD - Head of Department
HOS - Head of Section
HR - Human Resources
ICT - Information and Communication Technology
ILO - International Labour Organization
OECD - Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
OS - Other Staff
PO – PSM - President’s Office – Public Service Management
SADC - Southern Africa Development Community
TPSC - Tanzania Public Service College
UN - United Nations
UNECTA - United Nations Economic Commission for Africa
URT - United Republic of Tanzania
USA - United States of America

11
 CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

Most fundamental challenges facing many countries are the acceleration of

globalization process and the swift move towards a knowledge economy.
Global economic players are not bound by national borders; production
takes place in geographic areas where it is most cost – effective, and workers
also cross national borders, which has been much facilitated by the rapid
development and worldwide diffusion of Information and Communication
Technology (ICT).

This globalization is taking place in an era that countries are becoming

knowledge economies, meaning that for all economies of the world, their
global competitiveness more and more depends on the competitiveness
implies investing in education so as to accumulate an adequate stock of
human capital (OECD, 2005).

As described by (Luty & Goujon, 2001), at more global level, countries that
invest heavily in human capital do better on a wide range of social,
economic and development indicators. With globalization, labour markets
have become more flexible, and short, and part – time employment has
increased.

Although human capital accumulation is not much considered among the

factors that influence labour mobility, a feared association between training
as one component of human capital accumulation and increased labour
mobility – often somewhat termed as the “poaching problem” – is often
given by employers as a reason not to train their employees. This mere
expectation of some labour turnover can be sufficient to deter employers’
investment in training and thus potentially lead to sub optimal training.

If transferable training is paid for entirely by the trainee, and if the firm’s
wage policy is insufficiently flexible (for whatever reason) to reflect an

12
employee’s increased productivity arising from the training, the effect would
be an increased in mobility.

The Public Service in Tanzania is a huge organization, which comprises

Ministries, Independent departments, Agencies Regional administration and
Local Government Administration. As the operations arm of the
government, in line with traditional practice, the public service is supposed
to effectively implement government policies and particularly strives to
provide high quality services to the people of Tanzania. This is the main
reason as to why the government initiated Civil Service Reforms (now
Public Service Reforms) and Local Government Reforms Programme in
early 1990’s.

By the early 1990s a consensus emerged that the shift towards a free-market
economy (where the private sector was to serve as engine of growth) needed
to be better reflected in structure and size of the nation’s public service. This
consensus was expressed through designing and implementing the Civil
service Reform Programme (CSRP) from 1993 – 1998. CSRP focused on
cost containment and the restructuring of Government. During this period
some of the main changes included: A redefinition of Government roles and
functions. A Local Government decentralization programme began.
Executive Agencies were created and non-core services were contracted out
to the private sector.

All these aimed to right-size the Public Service to affordable levels, and as
necessary to perform the core roles and functions of government, to increase
Public servants’ skills and competence to levels required to manage and
perform the roles and functions of Government, and to ensure that only those
who are competent, through their skills and personal attributes to perform
well are recruited and retained in Public employment.

To provide high quality services to the people of Tanzania, Councils as the

operational arm of the government at the community level, need to have a
better fix between establishment levels, skills of staff and planned
projectors.

13
Statement of the Problem

High productivity and quality service delivery is the main agenda of any
organization. This can be achieved through proper utilization of
organization’s human resource. To achieve this objective, the main
challenge of human resource professionals is modernization of the way
public servants are recruited and managed. This challenge connotes that
rather than being seen as simply people, public servants are at the centre of
the success for each public institution.

To reverse the trend of low productivity, there is a need for addressing the
quantity of posts approved to a position (Establishment) based on
performance needs of organization. On the other hand there should be
succession planning; a process of ensuring that possible employees are
available to fill vacancies created by attrition (promotion, retirements,
deaths, dismissals or transfers). Succession planning is not simply about
replacing employees but about determining the kind of skills and when
required in the future.

Numerous studies demonstrate the importance of the initial level of

education that workers bring to the labour market, but once at the labour
market, these investments are sunk and additional effort is required to raise
the value of human capital or prevent its depreciation due to skills
obsolescence (De Grip, van Loo, & Mayhew, The Economics of Skills
Obsolescence: Theoretical innvations and emperical applications, 2002) On
the other hand, Workers may temporarily enter jobs for which they are
overeducated to obtain the experience and training needed to progress
upward during their careers. Thus over education may be part of worker’s
career paths and “while the less educated will stay in the occupation, the
more educated will be more likely to be promoted or leave the organization
for another higher – paying occupation” (Sicherman, 1991)

With the above observation then, this research is intended to assess the trend
of mobility as related to human capital accumulation in the public service in
Coast Region, specifically in BDC.

14
1.3. Research Objectives

1.3.1. Main Objective

The main objectives of the study is to get an insight of human capital
accumulation’s impact on labour mobility

1.3.2. Specific Objectives

• To assess the level of employees’ skills and education between

different jobs/professions
• To assess the factors that causes mobility between different jobs and
organizations.

1.3.3 Research Hypotheses

This study will be guided by the following hypothesis.

Hypothesis 1

• Labour Mobility between jobs in relation to employees’ education and

skills levels.

It is argued that mobility in the jobs by candidate relates to the quality of

academic programmes attended, the quality of the job environment itself, job
satisfaction, career advancement and experience, (Mtatifokolo, 2002)
With this hypothesis, the indicators for measurements are the level of
education and skills of employees measured in a number of years of
schooling, and experience measured in a number of years working. Thus,
the null and alternative hypotheses will be

H0: There is no relationship between labour mobility between jobs and

employee’s Education and skills levels.

H1: There is a relationship between labour mobility between jobs and

employees’ education and skills levels.

15
1.4. Significance of the Study

It is important to study the relationship between human capital

accumulations and labour mobility in the public service to get an insight to
the impact of human capital accumulation on labour mobility in different
occupations as well as to see the trend in the mobility to enable employers to
fashion the tools and instruments to manage labour mobility for growth and
sustainable development.

It is very important to study several aspects of human capital accumulation

ie. General and specific investment in human capital accumulation which are
formal training and on job training, Training intensity (incidence and
duration), training specificity (type of training, location, and objectives), and
funding (payment and timing).

This is of particular interest to Public Service Organizations because the rate

of hiring and training new employees is high, thus the public service
organizations should try to keep a constant workforce which will help
organizations reduce risks of deterioration in service offered to the
customers due to lack of qualified personnel.

The study is significant because it will contribute to the improvement of

training models that will reduce the chances of mobility through
recommendations that will be generated from the study. Theoretically, the
study will enrich the existing literature and pave the way for further
researches.

16
 CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

In this chapter, literature review on different concepts in relation to the study

will be covered, these includes Human Capital, Human Capital
Accumulation, labour mobility and Public Service.

2.2 Human Capital

Human capital refers to formal education attainment, with the implication

that education is investment whose returns are in the form of wage, salary, or
other compensation. These are normally measured and conceived of as
private returns to the individual but can also be social returns.

(Ericsson, 1991) in his article “Human Capital Investment and Labour

Mobility”, presented a model of Human Capital Accumulation, Job
Matching and Labour Mobility which describes the behaviour of individuals
and firms in a competitive labour market where, general learning creates
information about individuals’ skills that causes permanent job switches.

The concept of human capital recognize that not all labor is equal and that
the quality of employees can be improved by investing in them. It is
education, experience and abilities of an employees have an economic value
for employers and for the economy as a whole or in other words, the
knowledge, skills, competence and attributes that allow people to contribute
to their personal and social well – being, as well as that of their countries . It
is collection of capabilities of the individuals required to provide solutions to
customers.

Origin of human capital concept

(Lewis, 1954) is said to have began the field of Economic Development and
consequently the idea of human capital when he wrote in 1954 the “
17
Economic Development with Unlimited Supplies of Labour.” The term ‘
Human Capital’ was not used due to it’s negative undertones until it was
first discussed by Arthur Cecil Pigou,: “There is such a thing as investment
in human capital as well as investment in material capital”. So soon as this
is recognized, the distinction between economy in consumption and
economy in investment becomes blurred. For, up to a point, consumption is
investment in personal productive capacity.

The use of the term in the modern neoclassical economic literature dates
back to Mincer’s pioneering article “Investment in Human Capital and
Personal Income Distribution” in The Journal of Political Economy in 1958.
the best-know application of the idea of “human capital” in economic is that
of Mincer and Gary Becker of the “Chicago School” of economic. Becker’s
book entitled Human Capital, published in 1964, became a standard
reference for many years.

In this view, human capital is similar to “physical means of production”,

e.g., factories and machines: one can invest in human capital (via education,
training, medical treatment) and one’s outputs depend partly on the rate of
return on the human capital one owns. Thus, human capital is a means of
production, into which additional investment yields additional output.
Human capital is substitutable, but not transferable like land, labor, or fixed
capital.

In modern Human Capital Theory all human behavior is based on the

economic self-interest of individuals operating within freely competitive
markets. Other forms of behaviour are excluded or treated as distortions of
the model. A prominent explanation for that move is provided by a recent
reformulation of Human Capital Theory which as stressed the significance
of education and training as the key to participation in the new global
economy.

2.3 Human Capital Accumulation

Human Capital Accumulation is an amalgam of factors such as education,

training, experience, intelligence energy, work habits, trustworthiness,
initiatives and other that affect the value of the work’s marginal product.
Education (both, formal and informal, initial and lifelong learning) plays a
crucial role in developing and securing human Capital (Becker, 1964)
18
Data shows that Human Capital investment and management differ widely
across the world and at a global level it is found that countries that invest
(ed) heavily in human capital, do better on a wide range of social, economic,
and development indicators (Luty & Goujon, Multistate Population
Projections by education attainment , 2001).

Human beings are optimizers as they strive to acquire the skills and
experiences that sell them in the labour market. Literature argues that, the
principal cost to the individual is the time (or some other resource) required
to produce an additional value of each of the skills and experience required
by the labour market.

The returns of such investments are determined by the effects of the

investments on the marginal products of the skills so required. These
marginal products will be the primary determinants of individual’s
compensation (salary and other labour benefits), and they are directly related
to skills levels possessed prior to before and after training.

It would not be surprising if an individual accept a lower compensation level

at present in order to increase his/her expected earnings in future by
investing to acquire additional training of simply though growing with an
established institution.

2.4 Labour Mobility

This is the ability of workers to move between jobs, firms and industries or
sectors. High mobile workers are found in occupations that are in great
demand. Labour mobility is regarded to play a role of mechanism to adjust
the labour market towards equilibrium since mobility tends to reduce labour
supply in field and increase in another as workers move from one
contracting job, firm or industry to another.

Worker mobility is best gauged by the lack of impediments to such mobility.

Impediment to mobility are easily divided into two distinct classes with one
being personal and the other being systemic. Personal Impediments include
physical location, and physical and mental ability. The systemic
impediments include educational opportunities as well as various laws and
political contrivances and even barriers and hurdles arising from historical
events.
19
Factors that influence labor mobility include economic motives, risks, and
uncertainty and personal characteristics.

2.5 Labour Mobility in Tanzania

The history of mobility in Tanzania started a way back during the colonial
period and the movement of workers was from different areas in the country
to the sisal plantation areas. The absence of accurate data on employment,
labour markets and labour migration trends and prospects makes it difficult
to talk of mobility of workers after independence to the present. This has
also seen as a concern for African Countries as indicated by the East African
Community delegates on the ILO-EU/EAC summit held in Arusha on 2004,
when discussing the issues of building the knowledge base on labour
mobility.

The employment policy of 1999 is one of them, where by Para 5.23 provides
for free mobility of public service employees within the public service and
among the public service and private sectors, that every public service
employee is free to apply for any advertised post by his/her present
employer or any other public service employer or private sector employer.
Employers are not allowed to forbid any public employee to change work
especially if the new job is associated with career advancement of better
earnings. So it is expected that there will be much mobility within the public
service.

2.6 Public Service

Public service refers to a publicly owned organization established by an Act

of Parliament to provide Public Services and operate within a legal
framework. According to the Tanzania Employment Management Policy of
1999, the Public Service constitutes various organizations and employment
agencies, and each of these service has terms and conditions that reflects the
distinctive nature of their various functions.

2.7 Theoretical Framework

In a purely competitive market, there is no reason to suppose any particular

impact of general training as a proxy to human capital accumulation on
mobility of employees. The increased skills resulting from such training
20
enable employees to extract increased wages from their current employers,
to match their enhanced marginal productivity. The individual has the
incentive to pay for the training, and will do so if the rate of return, in the
form of the raised future wage net of the current training costs, is higher than
some threshold rate.

However, firm – specific training by definition cannot generate an increased

future wage via the threat of quitting for higher wages with other employers.
So individual will not pay for such training, unless they arrive at an implicit
contract with employers to share in the benefits, with wages for the training
entirely or, in the event of implicit contract, the costs and benefits are both
shares. If the wage is increased, the chances of an employee quitting after
training is reduced, and this in itself is an incentive for an employer to enter
such an implicit contract in order to safeguard its investment.

In a more realistic, imperfect competition model of the labour market, it

remains true that labour turnover will be lower when workers receive firm-
specific training than when the training is transferable.

21
 CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction

Research methodology has two interrelated parts, which are research design
and data collections methods. This part is expected to provide a detailed
account of how researcher went about achieving the study objectives.

3.2 Research Design

The study was set out to assess the influence of Human Capital
Accumulation on labour mobility in the Public Service of Tanzania, the case
of BDC. The study employed descriptive research designs, which attempted
to portray an accurate profile of the situation in which qualitative means of
collecting and analyzing data been used.

3.3 Scope of Study

This study was conducted in Coast Region at BDC. The selection of this
Council based on a matter of convenience as far as the resources were
concerned, since Bagamoyo is not far from Dar es salaam.

3.4 Study Population

For the purpose of this study, samples of the respondents were drawn from
the employees of BDC by using convenience sampling technique. This
method has been chosen due to its convenience as employees at the level of
HOD and HOS were most convenient for the study.

3.5 Sample Size

For the purpose of the study, the sample size was 50 employees from BDC
but only 47 employees responded which comprised of HODs and HOSs.

22
 3.6 Data collection procedures and instrument

Given the nature of study that aimed at getting an insight of human capital
accumulation’s impact on labour mobility, the researcher collected data from
two main sources:

• Secondary Data

Where a researchers obtained information from documentary review of

different reports, including files and all relevant materials from the
respective offices.

• Primary Data

Where a researchers collected data from respondents using

questionnaires.

 Questionnaires

Questionnaires have been used to gather data related to this study from
47 employees from BDC. The questions in this case were both closed
and open ended. In order to increase response on questionnaires, the
researchers made prior contacts to the entities in the sample frame. The
use of questionnaires has enabled the researchers to cover large samples
and obtain response which are free from interviewer biasness.

3.7 Data analysis Technique

The study involved both qualitative and quantitative data whereby the results
have been given numerical values and mathematical treatment to help in
evaluating the results. The analysis of data was in mathematical terms
involving the production of charts, tables or diagrams.

Test of independence of two variables was used to test the hypothesis. The
data obtained from the field was organized in a two –way table (contingency
table) such that;

H0: The two variables under consideration are not related

H1: The two variables under consideration are related.

23
In cross tabulation the researches established the independence and
relationship between dependent and independent variables.

24
 CHAPTER FOUR

DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Introduction

This chapter presents the data gathered by the researchers on the assessment
of the impact of human capital accumulation on labour mobility within the
Public Service. This chapter analyses and discusses the major results and
conclusion of information derived from primary information.

This study is directed to Public Service Employees. 50 Public Servant at the

level of Heads of Departments and Heads of Sections for Bagamoyo District
Council were selected to be sample of the study. 50 questionnaires were
distributed and 47 respondents filled and returned the questionnaires to the
researchers the response was 94%.

4.2 Levels of employees’ skills and education between different types of

jobs

The first objective sought to assess the level of employees’ skills and
education between different types of jobs/occupations.

Respondents’ skills and education levels on first appointment

In assessing the employees’ skills and education levels on first appointment

it was found that, out of 47 respondents, 7 (14.9%) had secondary education
on first appointment, 7 (14.9%) certificates, 9 (19.1%) diploma, 21 (44.7%)
advanced diploma/Degree and 3 (6.4%) had masters’ degree (figure 1).

The researchers went further to assess the level of education across different
working Department / Sections, it was found that Finance Department had
many employees with advanced diplomas / Degrees on first appointment as
compared to other departments, followed by Administration which had 4
employees with Advanced diploma /Degree.

25
Figure 1: Respondent’s skills and education levels on first
appointment in % (N = 47)

14.9 Secondary
14.9
6.4 certificate

Diploma

Advanced
Diploma/Degree

Masters
19.1
44.7

Source: Field Survey 2010

On the basis of the presented data that were gathered from the study, it can
be seen that employees enter into the public service with different levels of
education, mostly depending on not only the field of work but also the level
of responsibilities related to the job.

Education department however had many employees with lower levels of

education on first appointment, which can be explained by the nature of the
appointment procedures on the concerned field as many employees start as
Primary school teacher whose qualifications are secondary education and
teaching certificates. On the other hand, this can indicate that there are
various barriers to their progress.

4.2.1 Respondents with advanced training after first appointment

Among the 47 respondents, 32 replied yes when responding to the question

that needed information on if they attended training after first appointment.
The gathered data shows that, out of the 47 respondents, 8 (25%) attended
training which awarded them with diploma, 15 (47%) advanced diploma /
degree, 8 (25%) masters and 1 (3%) PhD (Figure 2).

26
Figure 2: Respondents with advanced training after first appointment
in % (N = 47)

25
Diploma
3
Advanced
Diploma/Degree

Masters

25 PhD
47

Source: Field Survey 2010

Basing on the presented data, it can be seen that, many employees in the
public service undergo training after first appointment. This shows that, the
public service recognize human resources development in terms of formal
training, which is one of the categories of human capital accumulation.

In addition, the fact that, training is being considered in human resources

development in the public service, it can also mean that other human
resources functions are also taken on board. This includes among other
thing, succession planning, as employees are trained in order to fill vacant
posts left by other employees through separation from the service for
whatever reason.

Respondents’ Sponsorship on training after first appointment

Among the 32 respondents who went for training after first appointment, 26
(53.2%) received government sponsorship, while 5 (10.6%) were private
sponsored and 2 (4.3%) received sponsorship from International
Organization while 15 (31.9%) have not yet gone for training after first
appointment (Figure 3).

27
Figure 3: Respondent’s sponsorship for training after first
appointment in% (N = 47)

Private

International
Organization

Government

Missing System

Source: Field Survey (2010)

From the information gathered, it can be seen that, since, HR planning

involves as assessment of future HR requirements basing on future tasks,
and the skills and competencies required to perform the tasks. This
assessment helps in identifying gaps in terms of the number, skills and
competencies of HR required. The presented data indicates that the
government strives to have qualified employees and thus having no problem
with succession in the service.

In addition, government sponsorship leads to reduction in turnover of

employees from the public service to private service as employees becomes
loyal to the government and feels that they have a debt to pay to the
government. Thus it can be seen that, the government uses training
sponsorship as a tool of encouraging and increasing work morale of its
employees.

Factors influencing mobility between different jobs and organization

The second objective sought to assess the factors influencing mobility

between jobs and organizations.

28
Respondents who thought of searching for other jobs

Among the 47 respondents, 14 (29.8) respondent with yes when asked if

they though of searching for other jobs after training advancement, 23
(48.9%) replied no, while 10 (21.3%) did not respond to the question (Figure
4)

Figure 4: Respondents who thought of searching for other jobs in %

(N = 47)

Yes
No
Missing System

Source: Field Survey 2010

From the data, it can be seen that majority did not think of searching for
other jobs. This implies that, many respondents are committed to their
employers, in this case since the organization is Public service organization;
it means that employees in the public service are committed to working with
the public service. However, there are few respondents who thought of
searching for other jobs and other organizations.

Respondents reason for searching for other jobs

Out of the 14 respondents who thought of searching for other job, 11

(78.6%) provide their reason as need for higher wages, while 2 (14.3%) said
need for title, and 1 (7.1%) said job-worker matching (Figure 5)

29
Figure 5: Respondents reasons for searching for other jobs in % (N=47)

Needfor higher
wages

Needfor title

Job-worker
matching

Source: Field Survey 2010

From the gathered information it can be seen that although few employees
thought of searching for other jobs, but the reason for searching for majority
among them conforms to the theory of labour mobility, that is the fact that
the increased skills resulting from training enable employees to extract
increased wages from their current employers, to match their enhanced
marginal productivity. Since the respondents only thought for searching, it
indicates that in a way their increased skills were matched with the return in
terms of wages. This conforms to the theory that if wages is increased the
chances of an employees quitting after training is reduced.

Respondents opinion on whether post graduate training increase labour mobility

Among the 47 respondents, 9 (19.1%) agreed strongly with the argument, 29

(61.7%) agree, 7 (14.9%) were neutral, 1 (2.1%) disagree and 1 (2.1%) did
not respond the question.

30
Figure 6: Respondents opinion on the argument that post graduate
training Increase labour mobility (N = 47)

Disagree

Strong agree
Agree
Neutral

Missing System

Source: Field Survey 2010

From the gathered information, it can be seen that majority of respondents

agreed that post graduate training increase labour mobility. This can mean
that, respondents recognize that training increase the amount of human
capital embodied in workers in terms of knowledge and skills, thus plus
experiences workers acquire on the job, improve workers’ capabilities and
thus, improve workers, competence in the labour market. With this, it is
possible for a worker to think of the competence embodied in relation to the
returns obtained in a particular job, and if the returns happen to be lower
than what the worker think of the competence, then will decide to search for
other job.

Hypotheses testing results

From section 1.3.3 there was one hypothesis to be tested, testing labour
mobility between jobs in relation to employees’ education and skills level.
This hypothesis was discussed in section 4.1 where finding showed that,
there is mobility between jobs in relation to employees’ education and skills
level.

The computation of chi-square was done to test for the relation between
mobility and employees’ level of education and skills, where the null
hypothesis (Ho) was “there is relation between labour mobility an
employees’ level of education and skills”, while the alternative hypothesis
(H1) was “there is no relation between labour mobility and employees’ level
of education and skills”. The results were follows:-
31
 Table 1: Data on present job title and education levels

JOB TITLE EDUCATION LEVEL TOTAL

Diploma Advanced dipl. Masters PhD
Degree
HOD 0 22 3 1 26
HOS 14 7 0 0 21
TOTAL 14 29 3 1 47

Source: Field Survey 2010

Table 2: Expected frequencies of respondents (N = 47)

JOB TITLE EDUCATION LEVEL TOTAL

Diploma Advanced dipl. Masters PhD
Degree
HOD 7.74 16.04 1.66 0.55 26
HOS 6.26 12.96 1.34 0.45 21
TOTAL 14 29 3 1 47
Source: Field Survey 2010

TABLE 3: Computation of Chi- square (N=47)

fo fe (fo-fe)
fe
0 7.74 7.74
22 16.04 2.21
3 1.66 1.08
1 0.55 0.37
14 6.26 9.57
6 12.96 3.74
0 1.34 1.34
0 0.45 0.45
TOTAL 26.5
Source: Researchers’ computation 2010 chi-square = Σ ((fo-fe)
fe

Degree of freedom = (c-1) (r-1) = (3-1) (2-1) = 2

32
At 5% level of freedom χ23, 0.05 = 7.81473.

The results show that, the calculated value is greater than the critical value.
The statistical decision is to reject the null hypothesis at 5% level of
significant. This means that the two variables, that is mobility between jobs
and the level of education and skills are related.

From the result it can be seen that, the alternative hypothesis that there is a
relation between labour mobility between jobs and employees’ education
and skills level was accepted.

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 CHAPTER FIVE

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

5.1 Introduction
This chapter intends to present the summary of the whole study, the
conclusion, policy implication, recommendation, challenges, limitation of
the study and suggestions for further study are given below.

5.2. Conclusion

The general objective of this study was to get an insight of human capital
accumulation’s impact on labour mobility in the public service, the case of
BDC. More specifically the study intended to: assess the level of employees’
skills and education in different jobs; to analyze individuals’ mobility among
different types of jobs /organizations; to assess the factors that cause such
mobility.

The results from the study show that employees enter into the public service
with different levels of education, mostly depending on not only the field of
work but also the level of responsibilities related to the job. This means that
the level of education and skills as well as experiences determines the level
of responsibilities to be placed on a particular employee. Thus some
employees start as HOD, others as HOS and others as OS.

The results also show that there is individual mobility among different types
of jobs as well as between organizations within the public service. But the
observed mobility was mostly influenced by the government as the main
employer of all the public servants in Tanzania. In this, the government
transfers employees from one public office to another as it is common in any
economy to have reallocation of workers as a continuous process for better
HR allocation, but also in addressing skills imbalances in public service
organizations. Also the government, through its public service officers,
promotes employees to higher levels basing on the qualifications, skills and
experience of employees as compared to the requirements of particular job
or vacant post.

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Furthermore, the study revealed that, many pubic servants undergo training
after first appointment with the majority being sponsored by the government
through its public service offices. This implies that the government is
struggling to not only increase the number of capable workforce in relevant
field that are demanded by the public service organization, but also
sustaining an adequate stock of human capital to meet the challenges of
globalization era.

Despite the fact that, few public servants thought of searching for other jobs
after advanced training, there is a chance for public servants to move from
the public offices to private offices as the respondents have pointed out that
their reason for searching was need for higher wages. This means that, once
a public servant get information of work places where the return is higher
than what is being paid in the public office, may think of quitting from the
public office.

In general the findings supports other studies that, there is reason to suppose
impact of human capital accumulation on labour mobility. The increased
skills resulting from training do not enable employees to extract increased
wages from their current employers, to match their enhanced marginal
productivity.

5.2 Recommendations

Taking into account that, all organizations need to sustain global

competitiveness which more and more depends on the competitiveness of
their knowledge stock and innovation potential, and on the basic (hard and
soft ) skills of their workforce. This means not only investing in education
so as to accumulate an adequate stock of human capital, but also ensuring
that the competitive work force is retained throughout.

In this view, the government and its public institutions should focus on the
following:

• Recognize all public servants as the active agents who accumulate

human capital, build social, economic and political organizations, and
carry forward national development. The government should sustain
HR development in term of not only training but also recognizing,
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 encouraging and appropriately reward employees according to their
competencies. In this HR succession planning should be used to
ensure that employees in the public service are prepared and nurtured
to succeed to the higher posts. Thus ensuring that movement from
lower grades to higher grades is done basing on the Act and
Regulations. Here I refer to the Public Act No. 8 of 2002 as amended
by Act No. 18 of 2007.

• Review the public service pay package now and then to accommodate
economic changes and also to ensure that public servants are paid in
accordance with their skills, competencies, and responsibilities.

• Ensuring that all public service organizations combine training policy

with other policies aiming at retaining employees. Such policies
include among others, empowerment, mentoring and appraisal
programmes, many of which are aimed at engendering a more
committed as well as more capable workforce.

Areas for further study

The study was limited to assessing the influence of human capital

accumulation on labour mobility in the public service. Further research is
needed to look on human capital accumulation in terms of formal training
between different types of job/occupation , to see whether there is equal
opportunity for all employees to undergo advanced training.

36
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