Title:

The impact of human resource management practices on employee’s performance.

A Research Proposal

by

N. Mkalipi

Student No: 21812773

To be submitted in part fulfilment of the requirements for the

BBA/BPP Honours degree

at

SOUTHERN BUSINESS SCHOOL

Supervisor: Ms B.S Mphailane

Date: 16 November 2017

TABLE OF CONTENT PAGE NO

1.INTRODUCTION 3
2.1.BACKGROUND OF THE PROBLEM 4
2.2.MAIN PROBLEM STATEMENT 4
3.RESEARCH QUESTIONS 4-5
4.RESEARCH OBJECTIVES 5
4.1.Primary objective 5
4.2.Secondary objectives 5
5.HYPOTHESIS (quantitative research) 5
6.LITERATURE REVIEW 5-9
7.RESEARCH DESIGN/METHODOLOGY 10
7.1 Empirical study 10
 Research design 10
(Empirical/descriptive/interpretive/critical)
 Research Approach 10
(Quantitative/Qualitative)
 Unit of analysis 10
 Identification of variables 10
 Target Group/Population 10
 Sample and sample type 10
 Data collection methods (how data will be 10
collected)
 Data analysis 10

 Measures to ensure reliability and validity 10

 Ethical guidelines 10

8.CHAPTER DIVISION

9.LIST OF REFERENCES 11
10. ANNEXURES
1. INTRODUCTION

The research and the background will includes the problem statement, research
objectives and questions , and also the importance of the topic which is the impact of
human resource management practices on employees (training and development,
motivations , rewarding and the relationship between HR practices and employees
performance).

The impact of human resource management (HRM) practices on employee’s

performance it’s been stated that there is progress on organizational performance.
The way an organization manages people can influence its performance in such a
particular HRM practice employee’s performance, training and development,
motivating and rewarding employees and also the implementation of HR policies on
the performance of organization (Pfeffer 1994).

Organizations can improve in various ways to enhance HRM practices toimprove

employee skills as well as motivate them to work harder in achieving the vision,
mission, objectives and goals targets of the organization. And taking into
consideration why employee’s not meeting their set targets by providing advance
training and development (Bartel, 1994; Knoke & Kalleberg, 1994). The main
problem is that why there is HRM discrepancy between policies and implementation.
Human resource management (HRM) practice could influence the behavior of
individual or team of employees and the impact of HRM practices on employee’s
commitment and performance will depend on employee’s perception and evaluation
of these in practices. HRM practice policy must state exactly what must be done so
that objective and goals of the organization and employees can perform their duties
or task.

It is important to know the relationship between HRM practice and employee’s

performance and the difference between them. To identify and examine the
relationship between HR practices and employees performance and identify human
resource practices to build employees performance. Identifying the means to
motivate and reward employees at workplace to perform at work.

2.1. BACKGROUND OF THE PROBLEM

The problem of the research topic is that the impact of human resource management
practice on employees it is an important tools in every workplace. And without
employees no objective or goal can be achieved. So it is important to ensure that
employees are trained and developed at all the level in order to perform their set
objective or goals to be achieved successfully. There must be ways in dealing with
poor performance. What are the impacts of HRM practices on employee’s
performance, what performance system or techniques can be used to ensure that
employee’s performance all the time is on high standards. If employees performance
is poor what can be done to ensure that employees can perform.

2.2. MAIN PROBLEM STATEMENT

According to Macky and Johnson (2000) stated that Performance management is

important for an organization, as it helps organization ensuring employees are
working hard to contribute to achieving the organization's mission and objectives.
Performance management sets expectations for employee performance and
motivates employees to work hard in ways that is expected by the organization. In
addition, performance management system provides a completed and professional
management process for organizations to assess the performance results of
organizations and HRM practice. An employee performance could be projected,
evaluated and encouraged and also expressed the importance of performance
management system is on continuously improving organizational performance, and
this can achieved by improved individual employee performance. Therefore,
improving employee performance by using performance management system is
away to improve organizational performance. So, in this research will identity
relationship between employee’s performance and HRM practices and why there is
discrepancy between HRM policies and implementation of policies. What influences
or causes employee’s performance not performing their respectively duties or set
objectives and goals.
3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS

3.1. What is employee’s performance and what is HRM practice?

3.2. Why employees’ not performing or achieving set objective and goals and not
motivating /rewarding employees at workplace?

3.3. What is the relationship between HRM practice and employee’s performance?

4. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

4.1. Primary objective

4.1.1. Identifies and examines the relationship between HR practices and employees
performance and identify human resource practices to build employees performance.

4.1.2 Identifying the means to motivate and reward employees at workplace to

perform at work.

4.2. Secondary objectives

4.2.1Explanation of what is employee’s performance and HRM practice.

5. HYPOTHESIS (quantitative research)

Quantitative research will be conducted via questionnaires and interviews

6. LITERATURE REVIEW

According to Fletcher (2001),stated that HR performance management definition is

“an approach to create a share vision of the purpose and aims of the organization,
helping each individual employee understand and recognize their part in contributing
to them, and in so doing manage and enhance the performance of both the
individual and the organization”. In the same way, performance management is a
management process for ensuring employee’s focusing on their work efforts in ways
that contribute to achieving the organization's goals and objectives. It has the main
functions which is setting expectations for employee performance, to maintain a
good relationship between supervisor and employee to keep performance monitoring
at all the time and ensuring the actual performance its performance according to
expectations.

Armstrong(2006) outlined that performance management is a process of collecting

better results from the whole organization by understanding and managing the
framework of performance of planned goals, standards and competence
requirements.“Performance management is a process of designing and executing
motivational strategies, interventions and drivers with on objective to transform the
raw potential of human resource into performance”. All employees acquired potential
within themselves in a few or more functional areas. (Kandula, 2006:5) again
performance is vital job functions of employee that are expected to do; how the
employee's job contributes to the goals of the organization; how employee and
supervisor will work together to sustain, improve, or build on relationship about
employee performance; how performance management will be measured, and
identifying barriers to performance and removing them.

The general performance management and HR related performance management

are the goal setting, planning, evaluation, feedback and rewarding activities. In
addition, the HR related performance management focus on the management of
employee and managers, then motivating employees and managers. Moreover,
general performance management was defined more widely than HR related
performance management. The performance management must be in line with the
organizational policies (Kandula, 2006). Performance management involves
managing employee efforts, based on measured performance outcomes. Therefore,
determining what constitutes good performance and how the different aspects of
high performance can be measured is critical to the design of an effective
performance management process. The performance management effectiveness
increases when there is ongoing feedback, behavior base measures specific goals
and trained raters are employed (Lawler, 2003).

6.1 Performance management system

In different literature is outlined that, there are various models of performance
management. Each model has its importance as a system for managing
organizational performance, managing employee performance, and for integrating
the management of organizational and employee performance. Performance
management involves several levels of analysis, and is clearly related to the topics
studied in strategic HRM as well as performance appraisal. Different terms refer to
performance management initiatives in organizations; for example, performance
based budgeting, pay for performance, planning, programming and budgeting, and
management by objectives (Heinrich, 2002).

A performance management system, according to Rudman (2003), is increasingly

seen as a means of integrating HRM activities with the business objectives of the
organization, where management and HR activities are working together to influence
individual and collective behavior to support the organization's strategy. In addition,
he also stated that the performance management system must fit with the
organization's culture. Performance management system is a kind of completed and
integrated phase for performance management. The importance of performance
management systems is on continuously improving organizational performance, and
this is achieved through improved individual employee performance (Macky &
Johnson, 2000). Also Lawler (2003), outlined that the objectives includes motivating
performance, helping individuals develop their skills, building a performance culture,
determining who should be promoted, eliminating individuals who are poor
performers, and helping implement business strategies. The main principle of the
performance management system is to ensure:
 The work performed by employees achieves the work of the organization
goals and objectives;
 Employees must have a clear understanding of the quality and quantity of
work expected from them;
 Employees receive current information about how effectively they are
performing relative to expectations;
 Awards and salary increases based on employee performance;
 Opportunities for employee development are identified; and
 Employee performance that does not meet expectations to be addressed and
be taking them to trainings to ensure that they performance well.

6.2. HRM Practice

HRM practice is a process of attracting, motivating, and retaining employees to

ensure the survival of the organization. HRM practices is designed and implemented
in a way that employee’s performance plays a significant role in achieving the goals
of the organization. The proper use of HRM practices positively influence the level of
employer and employee commitment (Purcell, 2003). HRM practices such as,
training and development, performance appraisal encourage the employees to work
better in order to achieve the organizational performance. The practices selected for
this research is based on impact of human resource management practice on
employees performance. The practices used in this research are listed and defined
as follows:

6.2.1 Training on employee’s performance

According to (Armstrong, 2006) demonstrated that training is a systematic approach

that enables employees to attain knowledge and skills in order to achieve their tasks
effectively with the ensuing improvement in the behaviour training and development
give positive towards organizational growth. Training refers to the methods used to
develop skills in the employees required to perform the job (Dessler, 2008). Most
organisations considered training and development as an important factor of the
human resource action or function. Training can be used as a tool to increase
employee’s performance by developing knowledge and skills. Training can be
described as an endeavour to develop additional competencies needed today or in
future in order to increase the level of employee’s performance (Jackson and
Schuler, 2000). Training can be used as a tool to increase efficiency and
effectiveness of employees in order to increase organizational performance (Cook
and Hunsaker, 2001). A general training program is conducted by employees to
improve the employee’s performance in order to achieve strategic position over
competitors (Brown, 2005). Training programs play a major role in achieving
organizational goals. A required change can be attained in employee’s performance
by providing them with a proper training.

6.1.2 Performance appraisal on employee’s performance

Performance appraisal is an efficient evaluation of an employee’s performance in

their assigned tasks. The purpose of performance appraisal is to increase motivation
and employees self-esteem. Sels et al. (2003) stated that performance evaluation
increase the employee’s productivity that in turn increases organizational
performance. Performance appraisal enhances professional growth by pointing out
the area of performance improvement. Transparent performance evaluation
motivates employees to work more in order to achieve the organizational objectives
(Singh, 2004). Wan et al. (2002) reported the advantage of performance appraisal
increase employee’s motivation and commitment that has a significant effect on
organizational performance. The key to organization’s success relates to the
willingness of employees to play extra mile (Ahmad and Schroeder, 2003). Satisfied
employees lead towards reduced turnover and absenteeism.

6.1.3 Compensation on employee’s performance

Compensation is a process of providing monetary value to employees for the work

they performed. Compensation can be used to hire skilled employees, reward the
performance, encourage company loyalty by reduce turnover. Compensation can
include basic Pay, overtime, bonuses, etc. Employee retention turnover has become
a more prominent aspect of organizational life. The implementation of retention
compensation strategies has seen significant growth over the last several years. A
study conducted by Frye (2004) show positive relationship between compensation
and organization performance. Frye (2004) described that compensation strategies
play an important role in recruiting and retaining skilled employees. Most of the firms
used Performance base compensation to reward employees (Collins and Clark,
2003). Performance base compensation positively influences employee’s
performance (Brown et al., 2003).

They are difference models used in identifying the relationship between HRM
practices on employees. It shows that the impact of human resource management
practice on employee’s performance it’s vital and it ensures that organisation
objective and goals are achieved. They have even used the research framework
diagram that shows the HR practice and employees performance.

7. RESEARCH DESIGN/METHODOLOGY

7.1. Empirical study

 Research design (Empirical/descriptive/interpretive/critical)

This study will use descriptive research design

  Research Approach (Quantitative/Qualitative)
Quantitative approach research will be conducted via interviews and
questionnaires

 Unit of analysis

 Identification of variables

 Target Group/Population
Employees working at the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform
 Sample and sample type
Quantitative approach will be used based on the gender, job categories or levels
and different directorates within the department.

 Data collection methods (how data will be collected)

Data will be collected through interviews and questionnaires

 Data analysis

Descriptive statistics will be used by showing the percentages of responses.

 Measures to ensure reliability and validity

 Ethical guidelines

8. CHAPTER DIVISION
 9. LIST OF REFERENCES

9.1 Ahmad, S., Schroeder, R.G. (2003). The impact of human resource
management practices on operational performance: recognizing country and
industry differences. Journal of operations Management, 21(1), 19-43.

9.2 Armstrong, M., (2006). A Handbook of Human Resource Management

Practice (10th edition), London & Philadelphia, Kogan Page Ltd

9.3 Bartel A. P. (1994), Productivity savings from the implementation of employee

training programs, Industrial Relations,Vol. 4, No. 4, pp 411-425.
9.4 Brown, M.P., Sturman, M.C., Simmering, M.J. (2003). Compensation policy
and organizational performance: The efficiency, operational, and financial
implications of pay levels and pay structure. Academy of Management
Journal, 46(6), 752-762.

9.5 Collins, C. J., Clark, K.D. (2003). Strategic human resource practices, top
management team social networks, and firm performance: The role of human
resource practices in creating organizational competitive advantage. Academy
of management Journal, 46(6), 740-751.

9.6 Cook, C.W., Hunsaker, P.L. (2001). Management and organizational behavior.
McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

9.7 Dessler, G. (2008). Human Resource Management (11th edition), New Delhi,
Prentice Hall, of India Private Ltd.

9.8 Frye, M.B. (2004). Equity‐based compensation for employees: firm

performance and determinants. Journal of Financial Research, 27(1), 31-54.

9.9 Knoke, D. & Kalleberg, A. L. (1994). Job Training in U. S. Organizations,

American Sociological Review, 59: 537-546.http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2095930

9.10. Pfeffer, J. (1994). Competitive advantage through people: Unleashing the

power of the work force, Boston, Harvard Business School Press
9.11 Purcell, J., Kinnie, N. (2007). HRM and business performance.

9.12 Sels, L., De Winne S., Maes, J., Faems, D., Delmotte, J., Forrier, A. (2003).
How HRM affects corporate financial performance: Evidence from Belgian
SMEs. Working Paper Steunpunt OOI: 2003

9.13 Singh, K. (2004). Impact of HR practices on perceived firm performance in

India. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources 42(3), 301-317.
9.14 Wan, D., Kok, V., Hong, C.H. (2002). Strategic Human Resource
Management and Organizational Performance in Singapore, Compensation
and Benefits Review Saranac, 39(4), 836-866.

10. ANNEXURES

Annex A: Clean copy of questionnaire/interview schedule

Annex B: Letter from SBS (application to do research)

Annex C: Approval letter from employer/company

Annex D: TurnitIn report

Annex E: Certificate/letter from editor