Analyzing the Human Resource's Role and Effective Management of Ports for Optimal Transport Logistics Performance of Maritime Transport Firms in Nigeria

Abstract

Port as a socio-technical system (Interreg, 2018; Marios, 1998) needs the ingenuity and core competencies of the human capital to attain optimal performance. The study examined the human resource's role and effective management of ports for optimal transport logistics performance of maritime transport firms in Nigeria. It has two main objectives ; to determine the critical role of employers and employees in growing the maritime industry, and to ascertain the impact of effective management of ports on transport logistics performance. The theoretical framework for the study is the human resource based theory. The study employed multiple regressions statistical tools to analyze the primary data generated through questionnaires distributed to 20 registered private maritime companies. Findings revealed that ports accommodate a web of
operations that are carried out by personnel of the various maritime organizations. These companies are manned by the employers and employees who in turn utilize machinery to facilitate the volume of work done on a daily basis. Therefore, there can be no meaningful accomplishment by these entities without the collective will and utilization of the expertise and ingenuity of the human resource. Hence, it is recommended that maritime organizations should place its human resource as top most priority in the productive and profitable scale of preference. Management or managers should develop policies or programmes that will empower and motivate the human asset for effective and efficient, and sustained transport logistics performance.