The influence of human resource practices on project implementation; the case of ripples international projects, Meru county, Kenya.

Abstract

In a world increasingly characterized by globalization of product markets, the importance of human capital as a resource that can potentially provide competitive advantage has become more important. Because an organization’s people are integral to its success, researchers interested in managing human capital have increasingly focused on Human Resource practices as the levers through which firms might build the human capital that makes up resources and capabilities. This project focused on the Human Resource practices and their influence on the Ripples International projects implementation. Ripples International is an NGO started in 2002 and is focused on saving lives and serving children, promoting the welfare of children and the oppressed and empowering households to take responsibility of their future. The target population was all the 5 projects of Ripples International which are run by 70 employees who will be the respondents. The specific objectives were evaluated and they included how recruitment and selection, performance appraisal, teamwork, training and development and employee involvement influenced project implementation. This research was a descriptive survey that was quantitative in approach and the data was collected using questionnaires and interviews and was analyzed by use of descriptive statistics and non parametric inferential statistics using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences). The findings show that recruitment and selection, performance appraisal and teamwork undertaken at Ripples International influenced project performance. The study established that training and development carried out by the organization had no significant influence on the project implementation activities as a large population pay for their own training and they may not have traced the benefit to the organization. One recommendation of the study is that more needs to be done on employee involvement as it was found that more employee involvement was required to ensure ownership of the projects by the employees.