Effect of Selected Human Capital Strategies on Organizational Perfomance: A Case of Public University Campuses in Nakuru County, Kenya

Abstract

Kenyan universities are operating in an environment of rapid change with supply driven education, reduced budgetary support from the government and rapid advances in technology. Organizations are increasingly looking at human capital as a unique asset that can provide sustainable competitive advantage and superior performance. The purpose of this research was to determine the effect of selected human capital strategies on organizational performance. The specific objectives were to: determine the effect of motivational strategies on organizational performance, establish the effect of knowledge management strategies on organizational performance, determine the effect of training strategies on organizational performance and establish the combined effect of motivation, knowledge management and training strategies on organizational performance. The target population consisted of managers, academic staff and non-academic staff in campuses of public universities in Nakuru County, Kenya. Stratified random sampling and simple random sampling techniques were used to determine the sample of each stratum of various sub population of total sample unit size of 194. A questionnaire was used to collect data. The instrument was pilot tested to ascertain the content, construct and face validity. Reliability coefficient 0.7 and above was accepted. The study employed both descriptive and inferential statistics to present and analyze the data. Pearson correlation was used to determine the relationship between the variables and multiple regression analysis was used to determine the effect of human capital strategies and organizational performance. The Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) a computer programme for windows aided the data analysis. The results showed that training strategies and knowledge management strategies showed a strong positive relationship respectively while motivational strategies had a moderate positive relationship on organizational performance. The study recommends that public universities campuses should adopt HCS to enhance their performance. The study suggest that further studies should be conducted with other variables of HCS like incentive system and manpower supply system and other factors contributing to organization performance. Further studies should also be done on each cadre of employees separately.