The effects of human resource development on employee organizational commitment in Commercial Bank in Mombasa County, Kenya

Abstract

According to walgenbach (2009), Human resource development involves a process of observation, planning, action and review to manage the cognitive capacities, capabilities and behaviors needed to enable and improve individual, team and organizational performance in work organizations. It has multiple dimensions, covering educational attainment, workforce skills, population health and the set of employment policies that provide businesses with workers with appropriate skills and the ability to adapt quickly to new challenges. The quality and adaptability of the labor force is a key driver in creating a favorable environment for both domestic and foreign enterprises to grow through new investment and to adapt quickly to changing circumstances. The objective of the research paper was to establish the effects of human resource development on employee organizational commitment in commercial bank in Kenya. This study adopted a cross section survey which involved observation of an entire population or a representative sample at one specific point in time. Since the study was a survey, the study used all commercial banks in the County. The study population comprised of 36 commercial banks within Mombasa County as per Central Bank of Kenya report of 2014.The study used primary data collected through the use of structured questionnaires. Completeness, reliability and consistency of the collected data was then checked through the analysis of reliability and internal consistency, corded and analyzed using descriptive statistics. The results from the study indicated that that the Human Resource Development practices conducted by the firms are more for intrinsic use within the banks rather than holistic development of the employee as a productive member of the society. This narrow approach as advanced for by the human capital theory is however over taken by time and new approaches need to be advanced or the present practices expanded to ensure that the human capital in the banks is developed not just as human capital within the business realms but as human beings who need to have other duties in the society. The study recommends that undertaken in a blend of industries to compare the findings between the studies in different industries such as to determine whether the findings are universal to all industries or specific to certain industries. An explorative study also needs to be conducted to determine all the factors that enhance employee organizational commitment since the study has found that Human Resource Development practices do not have a perfect correlation with employee organizational commitment to indicate that apart from Human Resource Development practices, there are still other factors that enhance employee organizational commitment.