Relationship between Human Capital and Time Performance in Project Management - Research Proposal Example

Relationship between Human Capital and Time Performance in Project Management Name Tutor Course 30.04.2011 Is there a relationship between human capital and time performance in project management? Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 ABSTRACT 4 1.CHAPTER ONE 5 1.1 Introduction 5 1.2 Background of the study 5 1.3 Problem statement 6 1.4 Research hypothesis 6 1.5 Research objectives 6 1.6 Research questions 7 1.7 Scope of the study 7 2.CHAPTER TWO 8 2.1 ‘RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HUMAN CAPITAL AND TIME PERFORMANCE IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT’ 8 3.CHAPTER THREE 11 3.1 Research design 11 3.2 Sample framework 11 3.3 Sample size and technique 12 3.4 Sample procedure 12 3.5 Data collection 13 3.6 Sources of data 13 3.7 Data recording 13 3.8 Target group 14 3.9 Analytical method 14 3.10 Limitations of the study 14 3.11 Ethical considerations 15 3.11.1 Confidentiality: 15 3.11.2 Anonymity: 16 3.11.3 Consent: 16 3.11.4 Willingness: 16 4.References 17 ABSTRACT The research study will base its focus on the relationship between human capital and time performance in project management in “king Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center” (KFSH&RC) for maintenance project. The study will make use of the “causal path model” to determine the relationship that exists between the project management of human capital – PMHC and the project time performance (Brenda, 2003). Human capital basically refers to the human resources in the firm and is a subdivision of the economic theory that deals with the economic worth of human resources in the firm. The knowledge and experience of project managers are very crucial in determining the outcomes of the project and all of these aspects are evaluated using a “human capital framework”. The “causal path model analysis” validates the “central research hypothesis” that the performance will become better with increased human capital investment. The outcomes of the study will be pretty important since they will confirm that both education and the training of project’s managers is very critical and has an influence on the time performance (delivery) of maintenance projects. The research study will report and make a discussion on its findings from a much systematized review of the literature of the research study. This study will also have a focus specifically on the human capital that are commonly shared such as the common meanings on the interfaces of the individual and the team, and from this research we will be able to make a conclusion that the most constructive aspects of the “commonly shared human capital” are the tactic knowledge, the social support and the value systems (Herremans and Isaac, 2004). 1. CHAPTER ONE 1.1 Introduction Unlike many labor intensive firms KFSH&RC (King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre) maintenance projects usually provide high professional knowledge and relevant technologies, and the maintenance project’s managers are also professionals with outstanding knowledge. Therefore, the maintenance project is a knowledge- intensive undertaking for which the human capital is the most valuable asset (it is in fact the intellectual capacity of the personnel that is given the most emphasis). Knowledge is very crucial to maintenance projects and good management of human capital (intellectual capital) will definitely have an effect on the operations and the management of the business (Brown et al, 2007). Knowledge economy has really advanced and consequently almost all enterprises have shifted their focus from tangible assets like property, plant and machinery in favor of the intellectual capital. 1.2 Background of the study Previous research studies have demonstrated that the hospital’s performance was grounded on intangible resources such as goodwill and the capabilities. In spite of this, the previous research studies have merely explored few aspects of the relationship of human capital and time performance in project management, for instance, trust or commitment. The main aim of this study though, will be to get studies on the human capital concept in the various project’s management, after which it will create an integrating concept of the recent research studies on the same area of concern. According to Bontis (1996) the mostly valued asset in the hospital was the production equipment (in the 20th Century) rather than “knowledge workers” and their corresponding productivity (as in the 21st Century). Because knowledge has now become one of the most crucial constituent of the modern day production therefore the proper management of the internal dealings of a firm and in particular the human capital is the most important subject for the management of businesses. Just like any other knowledge intensive enterprises, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre maintenance project will also have substantial intangible assets being not mirrored in the financial position statements of the hospital. Despite the fact that it may prove difficult to make an analysis and management of KFSH&RC, activities of knowledge management like acquisition, storage, reutilization, innovation and sharing are very much associated to the competitiveness and the performance of enterprises. Therefore, it is very important to have a discussion on whether good management of human can help to improve time performance in project management in the operations and the performance of the enterprise. 1.3 Problem statement Currently, there is very little attention that is dedicated to the study of human capital in specialist hospitals and research centers (Hubert, 1996). Therefore, the investigation that will be done through the questionnaire in “King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center” will be conducted very extensively for the purposes of gaining an understanding of the acquirement and the status of the development of human capital in maintenance project in KFSH&RC. It will also explore the influence that human capital has on time performance in project management. Traditionally, the human resource metrics are incapable of measuring the extent to which human capital usually contribute to the economic performance of the hospital and neither do they answer if the investment in human capital is eroding or improving the performance of the hospital. 1.4 Research hypothesis There is a relationship between human capital and time performance in project management 1.5 Research objectives To demonstrate the relationship that exists between human capital and time performance in project management To show that human capital improvement leads to an enhanced performance and output in the hospital. To investigate the aspects of human capital that are relevant to the value addition of the hospital. 1.6 Research questions Is there a relationship between human capital and time performance in project management? Does human capital improvement lead to an enhanced performance and output in the firm? What aspects of human capital are relevant to the value addition of the firm? 1.7 Scope of the study The research study will cover KFSH&RC and in particular the maintenance project. However, it is a general problem that touches not only in the specialist hospital and research centers but also the whole industry and all the sectors of the economy. 2. CHAPTER TWO 2.1 ‘RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HUMAN CAPITAL AND TIME PERFORMANCE IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT’ “King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center” - maintenance project Being a knowledge intensive service firm, however; many enterprises and firms have now developed into a multi-disciplinary entities with many professionals and a host of group activities which are in line with the increased growth in complexity and the demands of maintenance project. The peculiar natures of these modern firms and enterprises will entail high contract risk. A contract between the firms and their clients observes the general principle of trading first and then production. The standard of the performance and acceptance check, however; may be greatly affected due to the existing differences in interpretation of the clauses (Buren, 1999). Long term operations of the firm are affected by exogenous variables like government policies and economic fluctuations. Majority of the maintenance project are knowledge intensive as the maintenance design usually depends upon the knowledge of the expertise. In dealing with the difficulties and the problems faced in the maintenance project, knowledge from various disciplines should be incorporated in order to meet the requirements of the client by achieving projects that are both diversified and can be used for various functions (Johnson, 1996). Maintenance project services usually need the support from various expertises in fields like mechanical engineer, civil engineer, computer engineers in addition to lawyers and accountants. The maintenance project staff must amass adequate knowledge and project technology so as to have an assurance of the quality of the project and its safety (Chen, 2001). In the meantime, all firms and enterprises must remain shoulder to shoulder with the development trends in maintenance projects so as to make value addition in their services using the new knowledge. In some years to come, these firms and enterprises will experience stiff competition as a result of inadequate personnel and the continuous changes in specialist and research service environment. An investigation that was done on the perspectives of the clients and specialist hospitals and research firms that was aimed at their differing requirements in relation to maintenance project performance revealed that achievement of objectives and targets, compliance to the requirement of the client, identification of the requirement of the client and objectives of the project and compliance to the legislative requirements were all viewed by the clients and the specialist hospitals and research firms as the main criterion for evaluating the performance of the project. Generally, the criteria used for the design stage was seen as being more crucial as opposed to the other stages. In addition to that, they also showed differing attitudes and opinions with regard to specific important factors in maintenance projects. “King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center” usually make an underestimation of the requirement of the requirement of the project for maintenance period, quality, cost and security. It is therefore important to maintain smooth coordination with the client so as to realize the maintenance requirement of the project. Nowadays, knowledge intensive firms put great emphasis on intellectual capital as the market value of these kinds of firms is more than those of the other physical assets. Intellectual capital ideally is the sum of all the know-how and the capacity of every staff that creates wealth and improves the performance of the firm in general. In the firm, human capital and the returns on the investments in human workers should be separated and be managed with the intensity and the precision equally if not more to that of financial capital. The knowledge, the know-how and the learning capacity of the firm cannot precisely be defined by money. The “intellectual capital” will stand for the different market value between the firm and its presented asset (Bontis, 1965). In this research study intellectual capital will be subdivided into relational capital, structural capital and human capital. “Human capital” is an important integral part of intellectual capital. It includes the skills, the expertise and the knowledge of staffs and the managers and also their ability to respond to situations in advance and being entrepreneurial (Cohen et al, 2007). So as to maximize on the benefits of human capital, the top strategic managers should be considerate of the staff by providing proper training and coaching to focus on the “effective utilization of collective wisdom”. However, the firm must not merely teach the staff how to enhance their professional knowledge and skill through the analytical thinking but should also emphasize why the undertaking is important. In spite of the truth that workers are the mostly valued asset of the firm, the firms themselves cannot be the “owner” of the “human capital” if they cannot appreciate the importance of the principle of “resource sharing”. This far, the firm can make the proper strengthening and utilization of the skill, the knowledge and the capacity to learn of the workers and make a viable investment in them to have increased personal value thus creating intellectual capital purely for the firm (McNeill and Chapman, 2005). Capability is a feature that, even if it is easily defined it cannot be tracked from the perspective of measurement. It is a feature that is concerned with a quality that an individual or the firm has. Accordingly the capability will address if it is the individual or the firm that has the necessary level and or combination of skills and knowledge for completing the tasks and duties which they are responsible for. The theory of human capital clarifies the economic worth of the human resources of the organization based on the performance. Its focus is on the value addition to the firm’s business in relation to the profit attributable to the human capital. In theory, the expectation is that the more the human capital stock in the firm the higher the likelihood of the firm being successful and the higher its competitive advantage against its competitors will be. The significance of human capital with regard to achieving boosted performance is increasingly gaining recognition (Watson, 1996). In spite of this, there is still unclear understanding on the significant role of human capital and the determination of performance. This is the subject of this research in this specialty. Using the principles of human capital in the evaluation of performance is still a new concept. The study thus considers it as an approach that has many merits principally because of the size of influence of human capital upon the performance which still remains unclear in the broad context 3. CHAPTER THREE 3.1 Research design Some of the data that will be obtained from this research study will be qualitative while others will be quantitative in nature (McNeill and Chapman, 2005). Some of the information that the researcher will strive to seek regards the quality of services offered by the hospital and the extent of maintenance work well done (qualitative). The researcher will also find out the time taken to maintain a single project in the hospital (quantitative) The research methods that will be employed will be both deductive and inductive. The researcher will make a general reasoning that if a staff does an excellent job in the maintenance project and recommends or guides another staff on how to improve the services to the KFSH&RC, then that staff must be well versed with the quality of services offered by the hospital. The researcher will also collect facts on the ground from the staff and the management of the hospital. Theoretical model: The intention of the research study will be to verify as to whether there exists a relationship between human capital and time performance in project management. Therefore the chief aim of the study is to establish whether human capital can make an improvement in the firm’s performance of which is a composition of both operating and financial performance indexes. From literature review human capital is the most important part of the intellectual capital in the construction of relational capital and the structural capital which will in turn, make a contribution in human capital development. This is what establishes the theoretical model. 3.2 Sample framework The measurement scale will be the human capital which will then be divided into several dimensions. All items of the dimensions will have a reference from past research dimensions (Roos and Krogh, 1997). After the questionnaire design, ten managers of specialist hospital and research centers with a working experience of over five years will be requested to have a look at the scale of measurement and then some particular items that are relevant to the “King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center” will be added to this scale, for instance, this hospital maintains an excellent relationship with the clients, and the hospital cultivates a good friendship with the local authority lawmakers. 3.3 Sample size and technique The research study will cover a sample of 750 people within “King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center”. Among this it will include 10 managers with a working experience of five years and above, 100 professionals from different fields, 150 supervisors, 250 staffs and 240 subordinate staffs. Several sampling techniques will be employed such as: Random sampling: the researcher will issue the questionnaires at random. This will ensure that every person in the maintenance project has an equal chance of being selected for the research study (Donald and Theresa, 2009). Convenience sampling: since there is frequent movement within the work place, the researcher will find it hard to schedule an interview with a specific person in the maintenance project. Therefore the researcher will issue a questionnaire or hold an interview with any employee he comes along within the hospital. This serves to reduce the need of running upside down to meet a certain staff so as to fill the questionnaire. Purposive sampling: there are some research study questions that have to be responded only by specific persons in the maintenance projects. The researcher will therefore have to book an appointment with these people so as to avoid missing them. This ensures that the responses given are accurate and reliable. 3.4 Sample procedure The various responses will be put on a range of a seven point likert type scale from 1-strongly agree to 7-strongly disagree will be used to measure a response from any respondent hospital manager. As an illustration with regard to the response this hospital maintains an excellent relationship with the clients, if strongly agree will be selected, a score of 1 will be obtained and if strongly disagree will be selected, a score of 7 will be obtained. In the proposed research study, 750 copies of questionnaire will be sent to the larger King Faisal specialist hospital and research center staff. 3.5 Data collection Various means of collecting data will be employed in this research study so as to ensure that all relevant information is captured and that nothing has been left out (Edvinsson, and Sullivan, 1996). Some of the data collection methods include; 3.5.1 Questionnaires: a questionnaire will be drafted and several copies will be made. The researcher will issue a questionnaire to every respondent and ask them to fill up the gap against each question and thereafter surrender the filled up questionnaire to the researcher. 3.5.2 Interviews: the researcher will have a set of questions to guide him during the interview with the respondents. As the respondent responds to the questions posed the researcher will be filling up the interview form. 3.6 Sources of data The research study will draw its data from two broad sources. Namely: the primary data and the secondary data (Stewart, 1999). The primary data will entail: Observation: the researcher will maintain a distance from the employees of the maintenance project and keep watching them as they go about their duties. From this observation he will be in a position to monitor their movements and also the work flow. He will then make reasonable data and conclusion based on his personal observations The secondary data will require the researcher to look for some written materials about the hospital such as financial statements and journals, periodicals, newsletters and also articles about the KFSH&RC 3.7 Data recording The recording of the data will be done through the use of the tape recorder. The researcher will record the respondents as they continue holding a conversation. This will help in reducing the frequent interruptions as the researcher tries to make short notes in relation to the responses given (Floyd, 2002). In some cases the data will have to be recorded through the use of short note making. The researcher will jot down the key points during the interview process. This note book will then be used to make a comprehensive data from the study. 3.8 Target group The research study will run across all the departments and disciplines in “King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center”. The target group therefore will be the various managers in the hospital, the staffs and the subordinate staffs in KFSH&RC. The CEO of the hospital will be interviewed to brief the researcher on the general view and the background of the KFSH&RC. 3.9 Analytical method Reliability and the validity of the scale will be confirmed through the reliability analysis. By use of “Pearson correlation analysis” various dimensions of human capital will be analyzed in relation to their correlation to the time performance (Sullivan, 2000). Then, the path analysis will be used to prove the theoretical model and make an identification of the “causal- effect relationship” of the dimensions of human capital and the performance of the hospital. The “correlation analysis” will be used to verify the “linear relationship” between the variables that constituted the assumption of the path analysis. Therefore, the “degree of correlation” will be confirmed first through the correlation analysis, then the causal effect relationship will be confirmed through the path analysis. 3.10 Limitations of the study The research study will be faced with a number of limitations thus hindering the smooth flow of the research process. Some of the limitations likely to be encountered during the study period will include; Inadequate funds: this research study will be too much involving and as such it will require substantial amount of cash so as to see it become a success. These funds may not be available and the firm has to rely on other means of finances (Grantham and Nichols, 1997). Lack of good cooperation from the respondents: some target respondents will not be willing to cooperate with researcher and the research assistants who will be issuing them with the questionnaires and filling the interview form. Distorted responses: some of the target respondents will give wrong responses either willingly with an intention of distorting the information that will be gathered or possibly due to their disinterest in the whole exercise. This will have the effect of collecting wrong data which in turn will lead to unreliable analysis and wrong conclusions and interpretations and recommendations (Hecker, 1996). The research personnel: the research study is highly numerical and analytical and as such it will require research assistants that are well versed with these skills. It is very expensive to hire or outsource these services. Some of the assistants do not have these skills and therefore the research will have to train them before they undertake the exercise. 3.11 Ethical considerations 3.11.1 Confidentiality: Some of the respondents will not feel free to share their experience in the work place for the fear that the information they give will not remain confidential between them and the researcher. However, the researcher will first ensure that the potential respondents are assured that the information which they will provide will remain confidential (Guthrie, 2001). 3.11.2 Anonymity: The researcher must first assure the potential respondents that their details will not be disclosed to any person whatsoever. And that in case need be they will only do so after having sought for clarification and consent from them. 3.11.3 Consent: The research clue will have to secure a form of consent from the management of “King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center” before they embarked on carrying their research study within the premises. They will also have to seek consent from the potential respondents before they went ahead to ask them any questions or asking them to fill the questionnaires. 3.11.4 Willingness: The researcher will have to make it clear to the respondents that they will be responding to their questions at their free will and that they can decide not to answer some of the questions asked or remain silent at all. They can also withdraw any responses they make at their free will and that their information cannot be shared with any other person in any circumstances without their consent (Watson, 1996). 4. References Bontis, N. 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(2002) Survey Research Methods: Applied Social Research. Boston: Sage. Grantham, C. E. and Nichols, L. D. (1997) “A framework for the management of human capital in the health care industry”. Journal of Health Care Finance, 23(3):1–19. Guthrie, J. (2001)“The management, measurement and the reporting of intellectual capital”. Journal of Intellectual Capital, 2(1):27–41. Hecker, P. A. (1996) “Human resources strategies for successful consulting engineering firms”. Journal of Management in Engineering, 12 (5):32–36. Herremans, I.M. and Isaac, R. G. (2004) “The intellectual capital realization process: an application of the resource-based view of the firm”. Journal of Managerial Issues, 16(2): 217–231. Hubert, S. O. (1996) “Tacit knowledge: the key to the strategic alignment of intellectual capital”. Strategy & Leadership, 24(2):10–14. Johnson, W. H. (1996)“An integrative taxonomy of intellectual capital: measuring the stock and flow of intellectual capital components in the firm”. 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