The area of employment is changing dramatically, technology and globalization are

impacting practices and experiences, and societies are becoming more global and
multicultural. With the rise of globalization and the rapid changes in the business
environment, employability is becoming one of the main goals for any organization. The
organizational effectiveness lies in human resources quality and human resources
development practices have the potential to improve employee competences. This study aims
to examine the impact of human resource development practices on the employees’
performance and organizational effectiveness at a sample of public universities in Iraq. A
descriptive-analytical method based on one regression model was employed for data
analysing. The result indicates that HRD practices are significantly related to employee
performance in the enhancement of organizational effectiveness. Also, the results show that
there is a statistically significant relationship between employee performance and
organizational effectiveness. Furthermore, this study recommends that the decision makers of
universities should strive to develop HRD strategies which will enable them to improve
employee competency and enhance the capability of the employees to achieve desired goals
and objectives of the organization. The greatest asset of any organization is its human
resources that ensure that achievement of the company’s goal and objective. It is unfortunate
that most company’s organization have neglected the development and management of their
chief asset which is human resource. Human Resource Management is the function within an
organization that focused on recruitment of, management of, and providing direction for the
people who work in the organization. It is also a strategic and comprehensive approach of
managing people and the work place culture and environment. Effective Human resource
management enables employees to contribute effectively and productivity to the overall
company direction and the accomplishment of the organization’s goals and objectives.
 INTRODUCTION OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT:

The effective performance of an organisation depends not just on the available

resources, but its quality and competence as required by the organisation from time to time.
The difference between two nations largely depends on the level of quality of human
resources. Similarly, the difference in the level of performance of two organisations also
depends on the utilisation value of human resources. Moreover, the efficiency of production
process and various areas of management depend to a greater extent on the level of human
resources development.

HRD assumes significance in view of the fast changing organisational environments

and need of the organisation to adopt new techniques in order to respond to the
environmental changes. Human Resource Development (HRD) is that part of Human
Resource Management which specifically deals with the training and development of
employees. It helps the employees in developing their knowledge, skills and abilities to
achieve self-fulfillment and aid in the accomplishment of organizational goals. HRD can be
defined as organized learning activities arranged within an organization in order to improve
performance and/or personal growth for the purpose of improving the job, the individual,
and/or the organization.

HRD includes the areas of employee training, career development, performance

management, coaching, mentoring, key employee identification, talent development and
organization development. Developing a highly productive and superior workforce is the aim
of HRD activities. The role of human beings in an organization’s success is deeply
recognized. Many formal and informal methods are used for developing the employees. HRD
strives for the improvement of not just the individual workers, but for the growth of the group
and organization as a whole.

MEANING OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT:

HRD is the process of helping people to acquire competencies. In an organizational

context HRD “is a process which helps employees of an organization in a continuous and
planned way to-
 Acquire or sharpen capabilities required to perform various functions associated with
their present or expected future roles.
  Develop their general capabilities as individuals and discover and exploit their inner
potential for their own and/or expected future roles.
 Develop an organizational culture in which supervisor-subordinate relationships, team
work, and collaboration among sub-units are strong and contribute to the professional
well-being, motivation, and pride of employees.
 HRD process is facilitated by mechanisms like performance appraisal, training,
organizational development (OD), feedback and counseling, career development,
potential development, job rotation and rewards.
 Employees are continuously helped to acquire new competencies through a process of
performance planning, feedback, training, periodic review of performance, assessment
of the development needs, and creation of development.

DEFINITION OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT:

HRD is defined as activities and process undertaken by an organisation to formulate

the intellectual, moral, psychological, cultural, social and economic development of the
individuals in an organisation, in order to help them to achieve the highest human potential as
a resource for the community. It means to bring about a total all-round development of the
working human, so that they can contribute their best to the organisation, community, society
and the nation.

HRD does not cover only a set of mechanisms or techniques but it is a process by
which employees acquire or sharpen capabilities to perform the various functions, develop
their general capabilities as individuals and exploit their own inner potentials, develop team
work and collaboration. HRD concept is much wider and embraces almost all areas of an
organisation.

In the context of banking, HRD means not only the acquisition of knowledge and
skills but also acquiring capabilities to anticipate and manage both internal and external
environment and obtaining, self- confidence and motivation for public service. Further, HRD
is not a piecemeal or a one-time exercise, it is a continuous process requiring to keep pace
with the changes and developments, taking place.

CONCEPT OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT:

HRD is mainly concerned with developing the skills, knowledge and competencies of
people and it is people-oriented concept. When we call it a people-oriented concept, the
question arises, whether people will be developed in the larger or national context or in the
smaller organisational context? Is it different at the macro and micro level? HRD can be
applied both for the national level and organisational level.

The concept of HRD is not yet well conceived by various authors though they have
defined the term from their approach as it is of recent origin and still is in the conceptualising
stage. It is an understanding of the term i.e., new or rather was new. HRD is not Training and
Development.

The concept of HRD was formally introduced by Leonard Nadler in 1969 in a

conference organised by the American Society for Training and Development. Leonard
Nadler defines HRD as “those learning experiences which are organised for a specific time
and designed to bring about the possibility of behavioural change.” Among the Indian
authors, T. Ventateswara Rao worked extensively on HRD. He defines HRD in the
organisational context as a process by which the employees of an organisation are helped in a
continuous, planned way to-

 Acquire or sharpen capabilities required to perform various functions associated with

their present or expected future roles;
 Develop their general capabilities as individuals and discover and exploit their own
inner potentials for their own and/or organisational development purposes;
 Develop an organisational culture in which superior-subordinate relationship, team
work and collaboration among sub-units are strong and contribute to the professional
well- being, motivation and pride of employees.

According to Pulapa Subba Rao, HRD from the organisational point of view is a
process in which the employees of an organisation are helped/motivated to acquire and
develop technical, managerial and behavioural knowledge, skills and abilities and mould the
values, beliefs and attitudes necessary to perform present and future roles by realising the
highest human potential with a view to contribute positively to the organisational, group,
individual and social goals. Technical skills and knowledge are provided through training,
managerial skills and knowledge are provided through management development and
behavioural skills and knowledge are provided through organisation development. A
comparative analysis of these definitions shows that the third definition seems to be
comprehensive and elaborate as it deals with the developmental aspects of all the components
of human resources. Further, it deals with all types of skills, the present and future
organisational needs and aspects of contribution not only to organisational but also other
goals.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF HUMAN RESOURCE

DEVELOPMENT:
The major aims of HRD may be stated as:
 Improve performance of individual on present job
 Improve competence of individual to perform future jobs
 Improve group dynamism and effectiveness
 Improve individual’s attitude
 Integrate goal of individual with the goal of the organization
 Optimize the available human resource in an organization
 Encourage creativity
 Provide opportunities and facilities to individual for full expression of their talent
potential ix. Improve interpersonal relationship and work culture
 Bring industrial harmony
 Increase productivity.

The objectives of HRD are:

 To prepare the employee to meet the present and changing future job requirements.
 To prevent employee obsolescence.
 To develop creative abilities and talents.
 To prepare employees for higher level jobs.
 To impart new entrants with basic HRD skills and knowledge.
 To develop the potentialities of people for the next level job.
 To aid total quality management.
 To promote individual and collective morale, a sense of responsibility, co-operative
attitudes and good relationships.
 To broaden the minds of senior managers by providing them with opportunities for an
interchange of experiences within and outside.
 To ensure smooth and efficient working of the organisation.
 To provide comprehensive framework for HRD.
 To enhance organisational capabilities.
 To create a climate that enables every employee to discover, develop and use his/her
capabilities to a fuller extent in order to further both individual and organisational
goals.

NATURE OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT:

 Learning: The essence of HRD is learning. The very purpose of HRD is to make the
employees acquire knowledge, learn newer concepts and develop their skills. The
core of HRD is to enhance the quality of workforce by creating an environment which
fosters constant learning.
 Career Development: HRD helps in the career development of individuals by
matching employee characteristics with job requirements. Growth of the organization
is achieved through growth and development of individual employee.
 Specific Duration: Any particular HRD programme would have a specific duration. It
could be for a short, medium or long duration.
 Improves Performance: The performance of employees is improved as a result of
HRD. The training programmes enhance the capabilities of employees and improve
their productivity.
 Organizational Development: HRD aims at not just the development of the human
resources, but at the progress of the organization as a whole. Positive changes in work
culture, processes and organizational structure are made.
 Long-Term Benefits: HRD is a very future oriented concept. The results of HRD can
be experienced only after some time following its implementation. But it benefits the
employee and the organization for a long time in the future.
 Continuous Process: HRD is a continuous process. Different HRD programmes are to
be implemented in the organization according to changes in the work environment.
Human behaviour needs to be monitored regularly to enable them to adjust
themselves according to environment dynamics.
 Employee Welfare: The organization attempts to provide all the facilities which are
vital for the physical and mental well-being of the employees to facilitate HRD.
Measures like canteen facilities, crèche, medical insurance, etc. are provided as part of
employee welfare.
 Development of Team Spirit: HRD creates a healthy work environment which helps
to build team spirit and coordination among various groups and the department. Team
spirit is necessary for fostering loyalty and belongingness among employees.

NEED OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT:

 To Achieve Goals: People need competencies to perform tasks. Higher degree and
quality of performance of tasks requires higher level of skills. Continuous
development of competencies in people is essential for an organization to achieve its
goals. Competent and motivated employees are essential for organizational survival,
growth and excellence.
 To Maintain a Level of Growth: Over a period of time, an organization may achieve a
saturation point in terms of its growth. Even to maintain such a saturation level of
growth employee competencies need to be sharpened or developed as organizations
operate in environments that keep changing requiring the employees to acquire new
competencies.
 Improve Effectiveness: Any organization interested in improving its services and its
effectiveness in cost reduction, reduction in delays, increased customer satisfaction,
improved quality and promptness of services, market image needs to develop the
competencies of its employees to perform the tasks needed to bring about such
improvements.

FEATURES OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT:

 HRD is a systematic and planned approach for the development of individuals in
order to achieve organisational, group and individual goals.
 HRD is a continuous process for the development of technical, managerial,
behavioural and conceptual skills and knowledge.
 HRD develops the skills and knowledge not only at the individual level, but also at
dyadic level, group level and organisational level.
 HRD is multi-disciplinary. It draws inputs from Engineering, Technology,
Psychology, Anthropology, Management Commerce, Economics, Medicine, etc.
 HRD is embodied with techniques and processes. HRD techniques include
performance appraisal, training, management development, career planning and
 development, organisation development, counselling, social and religious
programmes, employee involvement /workers’ participation, quality circles, etc.
 HRD is essential not only for manufacturing and service industry but also for
information technology industry.

FACTORS AFFECTING HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT:

 New Organisational Culture: Development of a new organisational culture is one of

the important factors that influences human resources development. The globalisation
of business has triggered a revolutionary change which has necessitated a strong
demand for strong operational managers requiring greater reinforcement in the human
resource system. The development of human resource has become a great necessity to
cope with the vast technical and technological and cultural changes in the
organisational structure.
 New Organisational Forms: New organisational forms have necessitated the
development of human resources. H.R.D. and H.R.P. (Human resources development
and human resources planning) strategy must be rightly and properly adapted together
to business strategies in such way that the whole organisation can take the shape of a
viable global organisation. According to V. P. Michael, “New concepts regarding
what is work and how to redistribute tasks, redefine roles, authority relationships and
sources of power must be based on the new models emerging globally. Recruiting,
selecting, developing, rotating and managing human resources must aid such a global
organisation with a new form and perspective”. HRD considers the factor of
organisational form as one of the vital aspects in developing human resources.
 Congenial Environment: Another factor that affects HRD is the congenial
environment. HRD should create congenial and healthy work environment so as to
motivate the employees to work for the growth of the organisation as well as for their
own benefit. HRD should create good and favourable working conditions so that the
employees can put in best of their efforts, co-operate with the management whole-
heartedly, and work with keen interest in the organisation.
 Development of Personality: Development of personality of individual employees is
quite essential if HRD is to succeed. Therefore the HRD has to locate potentiality of
the employees and take necessary steps for the full development of their personality
 and potentiality so that the employees identify their interest with that of their
organisation. This can be done by integrating HRD with appropriate job design and
succession plan.
 Employee Counseling: Every employee in the organisation should be given proper
counseling services about his activities in the organisation. Counseling services
should be related to how he should grow and what right practices he should adopt to
improve himself and his organisation. The counseling need not be confined to work-
related issues.
 Manpower Development: New technical and technological changes are taking place
today in the business world, which is therefore, becoming more and more dynamic
and more and more complex, and which is demanding, on an increasing scale, highly
competent human force to handle the situation. The responsibility of developing such
competent human force to handle efficiently and successfully such changing and
challenging situation lies on HRD. Therefore, HRD has to design manpower training
and development programmes to provide adequate exposure to executives,
technocrats and ordinary work-force of the organisation.
 Recruitment and Selection: HRD is responsible to undertake the work of recruitment
and selection of employees in the organisation. It should therefore make careful and
wise selection of employees, train them according to the needs of their jobs, and see
that right man is placed in the right job.
 Performance Appraisal: It is also the responsibility of the HRD to take up the
periodical appraisal of the work performance of the employees. For the purpose of
maintaining the quality of work and achieving the pre-determined targets, the
employees are required to be monitored continuously.

COMPONENTS OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT:

 Individual Development: It refers to the development of new skills, knowledge and

improved behaviour that contribute to his productivity. As a result of this training, his
job performance is improved. Individual development mainly takes place through
informal activities like coaching or mentoring by an experienced senior. Some
companies, may, however provide formal programmes for such training.
 Career Development: It is an approach to match employee goals with the
requirements of the organization. The interests, values, abilities and competencies of
the individuals are identified to analyse how their skills can be developed for future
jobs. At an individual level, career development includes career planning and career
awareness. Mentoring, providing career counselling, career development workshops,
human resource planning are the steps the organization takes for career development.
 Organizational Development: Organizational development means an organization
wide effort to enhance organizational effectiveness. It includes making improvements
to the organizational structure, culture, processes, etc. through activities like
performance evaluation, change management, succession planning, process analysis
and team building. The first step in organizational development is to discover its
internal problems and weaknesses, and then work towards solving them. The
organization should try to become a more functional unit by fostering a close
relationship among its various units.

FUNCTIONS OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT:

 Performance Appraisal: Employees’ performance appraisal or merit-rating is an

important function of the HRD. This is necessary for the HRD to assess the relative
efficiency of various workers as reflected in their performance of their jobs. While job
evaluation is concerned with the rating of the job to be performed, performance
appraisal or merit-rating is concerned with the rating of the workers on their jobs.
HRD has to perform this function to analyse and classify the differences amongst the
workers vis-a-vis job standards.
 Employee Training: The next function of the HRD is to provide proper training to its
employees or workers. Training is the act of increasing the knowledge and skills of an
employee for doing a particular job. Training is considered to be the corner-stone of
sound personnel administration. The employees could be systematically and
scientifically trained, if they are to do their jobs effectively and efficiently.
 Executive Development: Another important functions of the HRD is to provide for
executive development in the organization. Executive development is the programme
by which executive capacities to achieve desired objectives are increased. Programme
must be related to development of various inter-related matters, factors and needs.
 Executive capacities involve different individual abilities of present and prospective
managers at different levels of management. The desired objectives include objectives
of the concern, its executives and the persons to be managed.
 Career Planning and Development: The next function of HRD is career planning and
development. Career planning is a systematic process by which an individual selects
his career goals and the path to these goals. From the organisation’s point of view,
career planning means helping the employees to plan their career in terms of their
capacities within the context of the organisation’s requirements. Career planning and
development involve formulation of an organizational system of career improvement
and growth opportunities for employees from the time of their appointment in the
organization to their retirement time.
 Successful Planning and Development: The HRD is also required to perform the
function of planning and development of the business of the organization in
successful manner. For this purpose, it has to plan every aspect of its organization and
develop the same successfully.
 Organisational Change and Development: Another main function of the HRD is the
organizational change and development. It involves organizational diagnosis, team
building, task force and other structural and process interventions such as role
development, job enrichment, job re-designing etc.
 Involvement is Social and Religious Organisation: The HRD manager should arrange
for social and religious programmes and enable the employees to learn from each
other. Such programmes enable the employees to interact closely with each other,
open up their cognitions, share the strengths etc.
 Involvement in Quality Circles: Quality Circle is a self-governing group of workers
with or without the supervisors who voluntarily meet regularly in order to identify,
analyse and solve problems of their work field. This process of solving problems
voluntarily enables the workers to learn decision-making and problem-solving skills
from each other.
 Involvement in Workers’ Participation in Management: The participation of workers
in management enables the representatives of both the management and the workers
to share and exchange their ideas and view-points in the process of joint decision-
making in the organization. The joint decision-making process creates a plat-form for
mutual learning and development. Therefore the HRD managers should encourage the
workers to participate in the management of the organisation.
 BENEFITS OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT:

 HRD assists employee to diagnose his own strengths and weaknesses.

 It develops creativity in employees.
 It helps employees to develop himself in a given organizational climate to improve
not only his performance but that of the organizations.
 It develops trust and openness amongst employees thus enriches interpersonal
relationships.
 It creates environment for realistic feedback and guidance from superiors.
 It provides long term and short term development opportunities.
 It smoothen the career development plans.
 It helps organizations to use available human resources for future challenging
responsibilities after developing them.
 It enables an overall development of personality of employees and the organizations.

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT COMPETENCY

MAPPING:
 Workforce Skills Analysis: Workforce skill Analysis helps to describe skills required
to carry out a function. However, this is a dynamic approach, as it also considers
nature of work changes in an organisation.
 Job Analysis: Job Analysis focuses tasks, responsibilities knowledge and skill re-
quirement, which are required for successful job performance.
 Supply and Demand Analysis: Supply Analysis is done considering workforce
demographic (interview of occupation, grades, structure, race, origin, gender, age and
service experience) workforce competencies.
 Gap Analysis: After such identification of differences, organisation needs to plan to
address those addressing such gaps is done through solution analysis, taking into
account both on going and planned changes in the workforce.
 Solution Analysis: Solution analysis also weighs different options to get the work
done, either considering institutional or contractual employment. New recruitment,
restructuring training and retraining deployment and rightsizing, all are done, in the
light of new competency model in this phase.
 HRD TECHNIQUES AND METHODS:
 Performance Appraisal
 Potential Appraisal
 Career Planning
 Career Development
 Employee Training
 Executive Development
 Organisational Change
 Organisational Development
 Social and Cultural Programmes
 Workers’ Participation in Management
 Quality Circles
 Employee Counseling
 Team Work
 Role Analysis
 Communication Policies and Practices
 Monetary Rewards
 Non-monetary Rewards
 Employee Benefits and
 Grievance Mechanism.
More and more organizations are investing in human resource as a means to increase
their competitiveness (Jones, 2002). Human resources development plays a vital role
in achieve sustainable competitive advantage and enhance organizational
effectiveness. Human resource development is a systematic process aimed at
improving competences of the individual and group through training and
development, career development, and organizational development practices to
achieve superior performance (Garavan, 2007; Nadler, 2012). According to Simonds
and Pederson (2006), HRD is a set of structured and unstructured learning and
performance-based activities which improve individual and organizational
competencies to address the changes in the business environment.
Alagaraja (2013) argues that the linkage between HRD and HRM contributes to
organizational learning and improving HR orientation, in turn, enhance organizational
performance. Katou (2009) states that primary theory of HRD influences
organizational performance through enhancing employee commitment as well as
knowledge, skills and, abilities. Asfaw, Argaw, and Bayissa (2015) describe that the
basic purpose of HRD is by improving and developing the employee competencies so
that able organizations to maximize the quality of their human resource. The
organizations have to implement different human resource development strategies to
develop their workforce competence that makes the organization work effectively
(Potnuru & Sahoo, 2016). Lyons (2016) argues that SHRD positively influences
organizational performance. Tseng and McLean (2008) argue that SHRD has a key
responsibility to provide strategies, training and development, organizational
development and career development opportunities to enhance organizations and their
employees to achieve their business goals.
Amin, Ismail, Rasid, and Selemani (2014) emphasize that if the universities want to
achieve superior performance, they should emphasis more on HRD practices such as
training and development, employee participation and organizational development.
There is still a gap in the empirical researches on HRD area according to Garavan and
Morley (2000); there is no clear model to examine how HRD practices can improve
organizational effeteness by means of employee performance. There are limited
empirical studies investigating the association between HRD practices and
organizational performance (Bartlett, 2001; Torraco, 1999). Particularly, in Iraq there
are no researches or studies have specifically dealt with examining how employee
performance is developed by HRD strategies, and its relationship with the
enhancement of the OE. This gap led us to propose the research questions: (1) Are
HRD constructs (training and development, organizational development, and career
development) positively related to employee performance in the enhancement of
organizational effectiveness? (2) Does employee performance positively related to
organizational effectiveness? Thus, the study aims to examine the impact of human
resource development (HRD) on organizational effectiveness (OE) utilizing employee
performance.
Human resource development (HRD) is a relatively novel field of functional practice
and academic study. In last two decades, human resource development was the fastest
growing area of management development, due to the great interest of organizations
inthe face of intense competition and changes in the business environment (Kareem,
2017). HRD has progressed from the narrow concept of training into a more complex
approach to learning and developing knowledge at the individual and organizational
level (Mittal, 2013). The term HRD was introduced by Leonard Nadler (2012), he
described it as a set of related processes which are aimed at behavioral change. HRD
can be defined as the systematic process of developing and improving employee
competencies through organization development and personnel training and
development to improve organizational performance (Swanson, 2001). McLagan and
Suhadolnik (1989) define HRD as the integration of related practices such as training
and development, career development, and organizational development to improve
the individual and group knowledge, skills and abilities in order to enhance
organizational outcomes. Rao (1985) defines HRD as an ongoing process of
improving skills, abilities, and knowledge of employees to proactively enable them to
acquire the required competencies to meet the present and future job requirements
within the organization.
Organizations have used HRD as an important strategic objective to stimulate positive
behavior in individuals and impact their knowledge, skills, and attitudes in order to
enable the organizations to increase their productivity and performance (Clardy,
2008). HRD supports organizational superior perform, enhances organizational
competitiveness in today’s rapidly changing environment. Furthermore, an effective
HRD practices emphasis the lean organization, capability and flexibility of the
workforce, at the right time (Mittal, 2013).
The previous studies have demonstrated HRD practices are positivity related to high
performing business organizations. But, there is a lack in empirical studies on HRD in
higher education. Due to the shifts and rapidly changing in the environment and
global challenges the higher education organizations need to implement HRD
strategies to improve their employee competences in order to address the environment
turbulences. However, some scholars (Allui & Sahni, 2016; Al-Twal, Rowlands, &
Cook, 2018; Dauda & Singh 2017; Rudzka, 2018) have investigated this issue, and
they conclude that HRM and HRD practices have a significant impact on the
performance of higher education organizations. Nguyen (2018) argues that HRD
practices in higher education play a key role in improving the quality of academic
staff, facilitating innovation, and enhancing organizational outcomes. But, this study
argues that HRD practices have a potential impact on employee performance and
organizational effectiveness in the Iraqi universities context.
Since HRD is developing long-term, work-related learning patterns, knowledge and
outcomes at the individual, group, and organizational levels, to accomplish this task,
HRD requires a strong investment in the functions of training and development
(Marsick & Watkins, 1990). Swanson and Holton (2001) define TD as a systematic
process of developing employees’ job knowledge, abilities, and skills for improving
performance. Jacobs and Washington (2003) state training and development refer to
an integrated set of planned programs are designed by the organization provided over
some time, to help assure that all individuals have the necessary competencies
toperform their fullest potential in support of the organization’s goals. Zumrah, Boyle,
and Fein (2003) argue that employees who participated in training and development
programs apply the new skills, knowledge, and abilities in their work that leads to a
better attitude and competencies in performing their job. Ford, Baldwin, and Prasad
(2017) state that the investment in training and development and transferring the
outcomes to the job practices lead to significant changes in employee performance.
Cummings and Worley (2005) define organizational development as a system wide
process and transfer of behavior to the aimed development programs to enhance the
strategies, structures, and processes that demonstrate better organizational
effectiveness. Swanson and Holton (2001) state that OD is essentially a method for
defining and solving problems within the organization to enhance organizational
effectiveness. Lynham (2002) states that OD involves implementing a process of
planned, systematic change to develop human resource, improving individual, group,
process, and organization performance. Berger and Berger (2011) argue that
organizational development is a systematic process of executing change and
development programs and effective performance management system provides for
the assessment of employee performance and helping them to create sets of
competencies. Byars and Rue (1991) state that organizational development strives to
improve the performance of individuals, groups, and the overall organization.
Gray and Herr (1998) state that career development in a particular organization is
shaped by organizational goals, employee needs, profit margins, or resources
available to be committed to career services. Torrington and Hall (2007) state that
career development is a continuous process of work-life enables organizations to
develop and place employees in positions compatible with their employee career
interests, needs, and goals. This promotes employee satisfaction and optimal use of
employee potential. Niles and Bowlsbey (2002) argue that career development helps
in building a healthy relationship between the organization and its employees,
enhancing their knowledge, skills, and abilities and demonstrate better capabilities
and competencies in performing their job. McGraw (2014) states that the effective
implementation of employee career development processes significantly enriching
employee’s competency and improve their performance. Kakui and Gachunga (2016)
argue that career development affects employee performance through counseling and
supports employees and helps them todevelop their approach and solving problems.
Organizational effectiveness (OE) is one of the most controversial and difficult issues
since the emergence of organizational theory (Rojas, 2000). In the literature, there is
still a significant lack of agreement on the definition of this concept. There are wide
varieties of approaches that researchers attempted to define OE as Federman (2006)
states, that the concept of OE concerns to issues such as the organization’s ability to
access and optimal utilization of resources and consequently achieve its aims.
Yuchtman and Seashore (1967) argue that organizational effectiveness is the firm’s
ability to take advantage of environmental opportunities and acquiring and allocating
scarce resources. Organizational effectiveness has not a single model to fit all
organizations. According to Balduck and Buelens (2008), the issue of effectiveness in
organizations revolves around four main approaches for measurement of OE the
system resource approach, the goal approach, the strategic constituency approach, and
the competing values approach. Campbell (1977) and Cameron (1981) state that the
system resource approach focuses on inputs, acquisition of resources and internal
processes. The goal approach focuses on the accomplishment of outcomes such as
profit, innovation, and quality. The strategic constituency approach focuses on the
expectations of powerful stakeholders and their interests which crossover the
organization. The competing values approach focuses on internal and external focus,
flexibility and, ends vs means concern.
Employees are the core assets of an organization and the accomplishment, growth,
and success of the organization depends on its employee performance. According to
Gomes and Cardoso (2003) employee performance consists of indicators such as
quality of work, the quantity of work, job knowledge, cooperative, dependability,
initiative, and competency. Kehoe and Wright (2013) suggest that implementation of
appropriate HRD practices to improve employees performance are likely to express
increased affective commitment toward organizational effectiveness. McKinsey
(2006) states that to develop the knowledge, skills, and abilities of the employees, to
improve their performance that requires effective training and development programs
that may also positively impact on organizational effectiveness. Katou (2009) states
that employee’s performance with relevant knowledge, skills, and abilities is a critical
requirement for the efficient and effective operation of various organizational
functions. Nilsson and Ellstrom (2012) argue that human resources development
strategies enrich employees’ performance that contributes, in aggregate to
organizational effectiveness. Human resource development creates new competencies,
capabilities, and attitude that influence an employee’s performance to achieve
organizational goals (Collins & Clark, 2003).
The concept of human resource development was introduced in 1969 by Leonard
Nadler through their participation in the Miami conference of the American society of
training and development. Nadler (1969) states that there had been many scholars and
researchers entering the HRD field and they deserved to have a definition of the
subject. Lee (2001) and Wang and Swanson (2008) argue that the definition of human
resource development has long been challenged to define as it considers as a part filed
of the human resources discipline. Ruona (2002) argues that human resource
development definitions have been given attention in the literature for more than four
decades. There are wide varieties of approaches that researchers attempted to define
HRD. Although a universally accepted definition of HRD is non-existent. Human
resource development is a relatively new area of professional practice and academic
study.
Rao (1985) defines HRD as a process that organizations must continuously use to
assess the skills, abilities, and knowledge of human capital in order to proactively
enable employees to have the required skills to meet the present and future job
requirements within the organization. Wang et al. (2017) define HRD as any process
or activity that, either initially or over the long term, has the potential to develop adult
work-based knowledge, expertise, productivity, and satisfaction, whether for personal
or group/team gain, or for the benefit of an organization, community, nation, or,
ultimately, the whole of humanity.
As noted that the defining HRD is characterized in difficulty and complexity that
reflects the evolving nature of the field. Also, the definition of Human Resource
Development is argumentative, it has traditionally been defined in the context of the
individual, the work team, or the organization”. The different definitions of HRD let
to fully understand the term and also to recognize the fact that different sources
describe this term in different ways. For the purpose of this study, the following
definition of HRD will be used: HRD is a systematic process of educating and
acquiring new skills, knowledge, and abilities of individual, group and organizations
through the application of talent development, training and development, career
development, and organizational development initiatives.
The effectiveness is a powerful and critical concept of organizations as a result of
rapid development and extreme competition for the survival and continuity. Many
researchers and scholars (Abu El Khair, 2016; Cameron, 1980; Gold, Malhotra, &
Segars, 2001) have strived to find a theory adopted by the organizations to be
effective, but the subject of effectiveness is complex and this led to a lot of
differences in the definition of the concept and identify the measurements of the
organizational effectiveness that may be due to the difficulty of identifying the
phenomena surrounding the effectiveness of the organizations. Barnard (1938) is the
first researcher who has attempted to provide a definition of organizational
effectiveness where he defined the organizational effectiveness is any activity
associated with the success of achieving the objective for which this activity was
established.
Cameron (1986) argues that in the literature, there is still significant lack of agreement
on the definition of this concept.There are wide varieties of approaches that
researchers attempted to define organizational effectiveness as (Georgopoulos &
Tannenbaum, 1957) define organizational effectiveness as the extent to which an
organization as a social system, given specific resources and means, accomplishes its
objectives without incapacitating its means and resources and without placing undue
strain upon its members. Daft (1992) states that OE is the ability of the organization to
invest its environment in acquiring or obtaining scarce and valuable resources for its
functioning. Roy and Dugal (2005) argue that OE is the net satisfaction of all
constituents in the process of gathering and transferring inputs into outputs in an
efficient manner. Tabeel (2013) defines OE as the ability of the organization to
achieve its objectives under the specified resources available through achieving job
satisfaction and ensuring the survival and development of the institution.
Balduck and Buelens (2008), as well as Shoo (2016) argue that organizational
effectiveness can’t be measured by a single approach only, as it is a multi-approach
concept. In the literature, there are four key approaches for measurement of
organizational effectiveness: goal approach; system resource approach; strategic
constituency approach; and competing values approach.
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