Human resource development: opportunities and challenges to organizational performance; case study: World Vision Kibaale programs

Abstract

The study was carried out in order to assess the opportunities and challenges of Human Resource Development towards organizational performance with specific reference to World Vision Kibaale programs. The specific objectives of the study were; to find out the HR needs of employees of World Vision Uganda, Kibaale programs; to find out the HRD opportunities provided to employees of World Vision Uganda, Kibaale programs; to find out the challenges encountered in human resource development and to establish the ways in which HRD could be improved for better performance of employees of World Vision Uganda, Kibaale programs. The study was conducted using descriptive case study research designs. The study had 25 respondents from the targeted population of 30 and all of them were World Vision employees. The study employed only qualitative research methods to analyze the data. At the end of the study, it was established that employees in World Vision, Kibaale programs have a lot of human resource needs that needs to be gapped and these ranged from financial management skills, communication skills and succession planning. Secondly, there are enough HRD opportunities available for employees in World Vision Uganda under Kibaale programs and these includes; proposal writing, computer application skills, planning and organizing. However, World Vision encountered a number of challenges when undertaking HRD among its employees and these included; change management, culture and attitude which is too rigid to change among employees, technology and skills to handle new HR challenges; employee’s values and attitudes, life styles and habits and lack of adequate knowledge of new practices as well as working environment and increased staff turnover. It was also concluded that there is a need to adopt new strategies to improve HRD for better performance of employees in World Vision Uganda, Kibaale program. In light of the latter, it was recommended that there is a need for World Vision to entirely implement career training programs especially for new employees and entirely be oriented towards their co-workers and job responsibilities; it also needs to invest more in job rotation of employees from one department or work to the other.