Effect of Investment in Human Capital Development on
Organisational Performance: Empirical Examination of the
Perception of Small Business Owners in Nigeria
Numerous extant studies linking human capital and organizational performance abound,
but few focused on the small scale business context. Thus a study towards determining the
nature of relationship between the two construct among small scale enterprise owners is
thoughtful. Drawn from literature, four variable measures – skills, education, knowledge,
and training – were used to predict and explain the human capital effectiveness construct.
Thus, four hypotheses (one for each variable measure) were formulated linking each
variable measure to the human capital effectiveness construct. The construct,
organizational performance, was divided into two sub-constructs, financial organizational
performance and non-financial organizational performance to formulate two additional
hypotheses linking each to human capital effectiveness. Twenty-five small scale business
owners were purposively selected in Awka metropolis of Nigeria. A structured five-point
likert type questionnaire was designed and distributed and a 100% return rate was recorded.
ANOVA, t-test, multiple regression analysis, simple regression analysis, and pearson’s
correlation coefficient were all employed to conduct relevant analyses. While keeping
constant other factors that can impact on organizational performance, the study singled out
human capital and it was shown that a high intercorelation exist among the four variable
measure predictors of human capital effectiveness. A key finding of this study is that,
training and skill are stronger predictors of human capital effectiveness over and above
knowledge and education. This study, in no small measure, provides penetrating insight for small scale business owners in the area of human resources management. Managerial
implications, limitations and opportunity for further research are discussed