A RESEARCH PROPOSAL

IMPACT OF STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT ON ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE

BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Organizations are seeking to create much competition between them, taking more market, more customers, more sales, etc. Rapid changes stemming from globalization, advancement of information systems and other factors have caused higher competition. Many organizations are driven by the market to set their goals in their performance. Some of the goals are: cost reduction, achieving sales levels, increasing the number of customers, increasing the market percentage, improving productivity and quality, innovative products. The realization of these goals will be achieved through the strategic human resources management in organizations. Workforce, as the key to success, will enable the achievement of organizational performance (Abdullah, 2010).

Human resources are regarded as one of the most important sources of today's organizations. Strategic human resources management is more important than other competitive sources because these people use other assets in organization, create competitiveness and realize objectives. Thus firstly, organizations must understand the expectations of their workforce in order to achieve the desired performance. The realization of the expectations of employees will enable the desired behavior of employees in the organization (Ogundele, 2007).

Ogundele, (2007) assert that some of the desired outcomes of the organization in managing their workforce are: competence, cooperation of employees with managers, cooperation of employees between them, showing the capabilities of employees; motivation, commitment and satisfaction; attitude and presence; employee behaviors.

The overall goal of performance management is to create a culture as high performance in which individuals and teams to take responsibility for the continuous improvement of business processes and their skills and contribute in achieving the targets set by managers. In particular, management performance can be expressed as the approximation of individual objectives of employees with organizational objectives provided that employees support the culture of the organization (Walker and Webster, 2004).

It provides for expectations to be defined and agreed in terms of role responsibilities and accountabilities (expected to do), skills (expected to have) and behaviors (expected to be)(Armstrong, 2006).

The purpose of strategic human resource management is to improve business performance through people management. The organizations need to manage their human resources effectively and efficiently to achieve the desired goals and objectives. The achievement of the goals and objectives translate also in better performance (Armstrong, 2006).

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

One of the problems confronting organizations, be it public, private, small, big etc is performance. The performance of organizations has been the focus of intensive research effort in recent times. How well an organization implements its policies and programs and accomplishes its strategic intent in terms of its mission and vision is a paramount concern (Brewster et al. 2000).

Strategic Human Resources Management is geared ensuring that the culture, styles and structure of the organization and the quality, commitment and motivation of its employees, contribute fully to the achievements of business objectives, hence determining the extent to which these aims are achieved is also of paramount importance. Organizations are becoming increasingly aware that a critical source of competitive advantage often comes from best public relations strategy, state-of-art technology and having an appropriate system of attracting and managing the organizations human resources. From the foregoing, and looking at today’s trend, it is evident that the pace of change in our business environment presents fresh challenges daily to every organization.

Therefore, if any organization must remain in business, compete effectively, it must deal with the problem of strategic human resources management - a panacea must be found for organizations, if it must adequately meet its challenges.

Human Resources Management (HRM) has been developed into Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) by researchers seeking to emphasize the importance of the concept to the effective functioning of organizations. To this end, many authors have maintained that SHRM is straightforwardly linked to organizational performance and there is a preponderous of opinion that high-performing work organizations pay special attention to adopting particular HRM policies and linking these to the strategies of their organizations. However, regardless of the rising popularity of SHRM, there have been very few systematic evaluations of the claims that it is linked to performance and doubts remain as to its theoretical foundations (Guest, 2011).

Research studies are necessitated to find a solution to a perceived problem. Thus, the desire to set out a research on this proposed topic was stimulated and it is on this background that this proposed study is to be carried out to investigate the Impact of Strategic Human Resources Management on Organizational Performance.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Research questions are guidelines and they serve as objective for the researcher in the course of the proposed study. The research questions for this proposed study are as follow:

1. Is there a significant relationship between Strategic Human Resources Management and Organizational Performance?

2. Do you think organizations use the strategy of human resource management for the achievement of their performance objectives?

3. What is the importance of these strategies in the organization and in their performance?

4. Is Strategic human resource management practiced by Organizations in Nigeria?

OBJECTIVES OF THE PROPOSED STUDY

The general objective of this proposed study is to investigate the Impact of Strategic Human Resource Management on organizational performance. The specific objectives are to:

1. examine the significant relationship between Strategic Human Resources Management and Organizational Performance

2. observe if organizations use the strategy of human resource management for the achievement of their performance objectives

3. evaluate the importance of these strategies in the organization and in their performance

4. know if strategic human resource management practiced by Organizations in Nigeria?

STATEMENT OF HYPOTHESES

In other to be able to achieve the objective of this proposed research study, the following hypotheses would be tested. There are two types of hypotheses, the Null hypothesis that takes the negative form and the Alternative hypothesis that takes the positive form.

Where:

H₀ = Null hypothesis

H₁ = Alternative hypothesis

Both hypothesis are complementary.

Null Hypothesis:

H₀: There is no significant relationship between Strategic Human Resources Management and Organizational Performance

Alternative Hypothesis:

H₁: There is a significant relationship between Strategic Human Resources Management and Organizational Performance

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This proposed study will be of immense benefit to management in both public and private sector of the Nigerian economy in managing the affairs and resources of organizations. It will assist managers or administrators in understanding how best to improve upon their existing conditions of service of the employees and also with the view to improve organizational performance efficiency, effectiveness and productivity.

Finally, the proposed study will benefit the researcher as it is a pre-requisite for the award of Bachelor of Science (B.Sc) Degree and it will equally serve as a reference material to prospective researchers who intend to carry out a further studies or research on a similar topic.

SCOPE OF STUDY

The proposed research study is limited to the impacts of Strategic Human Resources Management on Organizational Performance. However, to cover the entire private and public sectors in Nigeria will be cumbersome. Thus, the researcher proposed Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, which the she could conveniently cover as a case study. Owing to unforeseen resource constraints, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, would be studied. The nature of the study precludes the staff of GTB Plc that are not expected to be involved in management decision making process to examine the impact of Strategic Human Resources Management on Organizational Performance and the period to be covered will be 2012 to 2015.

LITERATURE REVIEW

The nature of Strategic Human Resource Management:

Boyd, (2012) defines strategic human resources management as “the means of aligning the management of human resources strategy so that the latter supports the accomplishment of the former and, indeed, help to define it. Strategic Human Resources Management is also about horizontal integration, which aims to ensure that the different elements of the HR strategy fit together and are mutually supportive.

Walker and Webster (2004) define Strategic Human Resources Managment “as the extent to which Human Resources Management is considered during the formulation and implementation of corporate/ business strategies”. Strategic Human Resources Managment has also been defined as “the pattern of planned human resource deployments and activities intended to enable an organization to achieve its goals” (Boxall & Purcell, 2003). Implicit in this definition, is that the ultimate goal of strategic human resources management is to contribute to organizational performance (ie the achievement of the organisational’s goals, however that performance is defined.

Human Resources deployment as captured in the above definition reflect the central assumptions behind the(positive) conceptualization of what HRM is and does; namely, that it responds accurately and effectively to the organizations environment and complements other organizational systems and contingencies. Abdulkadir, (2009) defines strategic human resources management as a concept that views human resource as assets for investment, and the management of human resources as strategic rather than reactive, prescriptive and administrative. Strategic human resources management involves designing and implementing a set of proactive HR policies/practices that ensures that an organization’s human capital contributes to the achievements of its corporate objectives (Janssens & Steyaert, 2009). Strategic human resources management is essentially an integrated process that aims to achieve “strategic fit”.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This proposed study will use a descriptive survey design. The purpose of using descriptive surveys was to collect detailed and factual information that describes an existing phenomenon. Data would be collected based on the concepts defined in the research models and hypotheses. The proposed study is a descriptive survey because it will adopt the use of questionnaires aimed at finding the impact of strategic human resources management on organizational performance.

The proposed study will be carried out predominately on “Impact of Strategic Human Resources Management on Organizational Performance ( A Case Study of Guaranty Trust Bank Plc) and it is on this area that the data will relate. The instrument for data collection will be interview and questionnaire as well as contributions from various writers.

POPULATION

The population of the proposed study would be staff of Guaranty Trust Bank Plc. The population is 100 and was restricted to only the staff of GTB Plc. They form the units of analysis for this study and their nature is determined by the survey objective. The population of 100 was verified by the Human Resources Department who gave accurate figure of the staff from the payroll.

SAMPLE SIZE / SAMPLING TECHNIQUES

The number of staff involved in the sample is a little bit bulky and as a result samples would be selected out of the population for generalization. It is good to limit the study of the objects selected from a wide group with a view to extending the findings to the entire group making generalization about the population from which the sample was drawn. For a heterogeneous population, the statistical formula of determining sample size was used to determine the sample size with 5% being used as the limit of tolerable error. The population is 100 staff and the researcher used Taro Tammane formula as follows:

n= N_____

1+N(e)²

Where n = sample size

N = Population of the study

e = level of significance/error estimate at 5%

1 = Constant

n= 100____

1+100 (0.05)²

n= 100____

1+100 (0.0025)

n= 100____

1+0.25

n= 100____= 80

1.25

The sample size of the study as determined from the population is 80, therefore the sample size is 80.

METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION

The main methods of data collection that will be considered will be primary and secondary data. The researcher will take cognizance of the descriptive nature of the proposed research study and will apply it for the completion.

METHODS OF DATA ANALYSIS

The descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages and graphs will be used for the analysis of the proposed research questions to run the analyses. The hypotheses would be tested at 0.05 level of significance. The percentage that would be positive to the findings will lie from 50% and above, while from 49% and below will be considered negative responses which will not be favavourable. Hypotheses will be tested with the use of a statistical tool called the Chi square x²;

Where chi-square X² = ∑(O – E)²

O = Observed frequency

E = Expected frequency

∑ = Summation

The decision rule is:

Reject H₀ if X² Cal > X² tab

Accept H₀ if X² Cal < X² tab

INSTRUMENT FOR THE DATA COLLECTION

Questionnaire will be used for primary data collections which will be administered to respondents in the proposed study areas and a letter requesting for the respondents’ cooperation and introduction of the study will be attached to the questionnaire. Questions asked will be derived from the objectives and research questions of the proposed study.

SUMMARY OF THE RESEARCH PROPOSAL

This research proposal gave concise guidelines on how the researcher intends to carry out her approved proposed research project topic “Impacts of Strategic Human Resources Management on Organizational Performance”. Chapter one of the proposed study would be an Introduction, chapter two, Review of Literature and Theoretical Framework, chapter three, Research Design and Methodology, chapter four, Data Presentation and Analysis and chapter five would be Summary of Findings, Conclusion and Recommendations.

REFERENCES

Abdulkadir, D. S. (2009). Effects of Strategic Human Resource management practices on perceived financial performance: some Evidence from the Nigerian financial sector. International journal of Management Science ,Vol, 1, No 2, pp 29-35.

Abdullah, M. A. (2010). Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) : some pertinent issues’, in M. A Abdullah and M. I. Bin Bakar (eds). Small and medium Enterprises in Asian Pacific countries-Volume 1: Roles and Issues, Nova Science publishers Inc., Huntington, Newyork. Pp3-14

Armstrong, M. (2006). A Handbook of Human Resource Management actice. 10^th edition. Cambridge University Press.

Ogundele, O. J. K. (2007). Introduction to entrepreneurship Development, Corporate Government and small Business Management (Lagos: Molofin Nominees).

Walker, E. and Webster, B. (2004). “Gender Issues in Home- Based Business”, Women in Management Review, 19 (8), 404-412.

Guest, D.E. (2011). Human resource management and performance: still searching for some answers. Human Resource Management Journal, 21 (1), 3-13

Janssens, M., & Steyaert, C. (2009). HRM and Performance: A plea for Relexivity in HRM Studies. Journal of management Studies, 46 (1), 143-155

A RESEARCH PROPOSAL

IMPACT OF STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT ON ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE ( A CASE STUDY OF GUARANTY TRUST BANK PLC).

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