THE IMPACT OF HUMAN CAPITAL MANAGEMENT ON OPERATIONAL
PERFORMANCE AT THE GAMBIA NATIONAL WATER AND
ELECTRICITY COMPANY (NAWEC)
By
Rachel Grace Nicol-Keita
(BA Economics and International Development Studies)
©2013 Department of Managerial Science
A Thesis submitted to the Department
of Managerial Science, Kwame Nkrumah
University of Science and Technology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
degree of
MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (HRM OPTION)
School of Business, KNUST
College of Art
and Social Sciences
June, 2013
iii
ABSTRACT
Despite the success of Human Capital Management (HCM)
in research, it is not
reflected in many Human Resource divisions of companies. Employees are the human
capitals who contribute to the success and development of a company to a great extent.
Thus, these days, companies do not see them only as factors of production from the
classical
perspective, but have started to value them as stakeholders and partners with
whom long-term goals are achieved together. This study, therefore,
sought to explore
and understand the relationship between a selected bundle of Human Resource practices
in the National Water and Electricity Company (NAWEC) that make up Human Capital
and its usefulness on the operational performance of the Company. The type of research
design for this study is exploratory and it relied on secondary information such as
reviewing available literature and primary data. The researcher applied qualitative
approach and used semi-structured interview which was personally conducted “face-to-
face”. Elicited responses from both the questionnaires and the interviews point to the
fact that HR practices
such as employment security, selective hiring, self-managed
teams, high compensation contingent on performance, training and information sharing
when correctly managed would generate the desired results in terms of operational
performance.
After conducting research, acquiring empirical findings, and making
analysis of data, the researcher suggests that there is a link between HCM and job
performance. The study is of a great importance because being aware of the influence
of
certain HR practices, managers can better realize how these practices contribute to
the performance of their employees, and find ways to improve them in order to increase
workers’ job performance and productivity.