International Bulletin of Business Administration ISSN: 1451-243X Issue 12 (2011) EuroJournals, Inc. 2011 http://www.eurojournals.com/IBBA.

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An Assessment of Human Resource Development Climate in Rwanda Private Sector Organisations

Benjamin Akinyemi HRM Department, School of Finance and Banking, Kigali, Rwanda E-mail: akinyemi.ben@gmail.com Tel: +250783468279 Abstract This study assesses the nature of developmental environment in two leading Rwanda based telecommunication and insurance companies. It also attempts to understand the differences between the Telecommunication industry and the Insurance industry with respect to their prevailing Developmental Climate along the three dimensions of HRDC. Primary data is collected from 87 respondents in both ations through a structured, self administered 38-item Human Resource Development Climate (HRDC) questionnaire developed by Rao and Abraham (1986). The questionnaire measured the General Climate, HRD Mechanisms and OCTAPAC (Openness, Confrontation, Trust, Autonomy, Proaction, Authenticity and Collaboration) Culture within the two private organisations. According to the findings, the prevailing HRDC within both organisations is congenial. However, results show that the developmental climate in the telecommunications company is more favourable than that of the insurance company.

Keywords: Organisational Climate, HRDC, HRD Mechanism, OCTAPAC Culture, General Climate

1. Introduction
Drucker (1993) rightly pointed out that the capability of adding value through knowledge development, improvement, and innovation are more important in comparison to traditional economic factors such as monetary capital, physical labor and raw materials (Drucker, 1993). Organisations, therefore, need to step up the development of human capabilities through the enhancement of knowledge, skills and abilities of their workforce. As organisations are now competing for advantage in a volatile business environment it becomes more pertinent to deliberately, consistently, strategically and innovatively develop, optimize and utilize their major value adding resource, i.e. human resource. Organisational success depends largely on the quality of their human resource. The effectiveness of any organisation in reinventing itself through strategic development of human resources depends on the prevailing organisational developmental climate. Organisations must ensure that an optimal level of Human Resource Development Climate (HRDC) exists to enable their employees to discover hidden potentials, improve on their current skills and acquire new, relevant skills and utilize them in the interest of their organisations. The business landscape in Rwanda is changing rapidly. Due to recent reforms, Rwanda has become one of the fastest places in the world to start a business (World Bank, 2011). The entrance of new players in most sectors has intensified competition. In order to succeed in the emerging competitive environment it is imperative for businesses to equip their workforce by providing developmental opportunities as well as a favorable HRDC. 56

Contemporary organisations are currently going through the turbulent storm of change and uncertainty occasioned by fast paced technology, intense competition, globalisation, changing government regulations, changing demographics and customer expectations and demands, etc. In order to keep up with the prevailing state of flux, ations must be proactive, adaptive, creative, innovative and responsive. Organisational capability depends on human resource capability which is a factor of human resource development. A firms competitive advantage can be achieved by recruiting, and maintaining a well-trained labor force and managers whose knowledge, skills and abilities serve as a source of innovation (Zahra and Nielsen, 2002). It is, therefore, absolutely necessary to ensure that the right environment exists within which employees can develop their full potential. Conducive human resource development climate plays a major role in enhancing the knowledge, skills, abilities and other attributes needed by employees to respond to current job demands and prepare for future challenges. Technological innovation and new product development require an enabling enironment. Contemporary organisations must be innovative in order to gain and maintain the competitive edge. Employee creativity, innovation, high performance, high commitment, extra-role behaviour, etc. thrive in favorable work environment. Hence, creating and maintaining a supportive climate where every employee could realize and utilize their full potential is indispensable. The Non-bank financial institutions (insurance companies, insurance brokerage firms and one pension fund) and telecommunications sectors in Rwanda are now facing competitive pressures with the countrys membership of the East African Community and a business-friendly environment (Schware, 2009). A level playing field being provided by the government has attracted more players/providers in the various sectors. Firms also feel the impact of other drivers of change, such as, regional integration, globalisation, new technology, etc. Therefore concerted effort is being made to ensure that companies stay afloat of the troubled waters of volatile operating environment. For instance, new entrants, who are key regional players are now in the banking, telecommunications and insurance sectors having set up operations in Rwanda. This is putting a lot of competitive pressure on existing operators and the challenges call for rapid, proactive responses for continuity and sustainability. The current study is necessary to assess the HRDC within selected organisations a nonfinancial (insurance) and a telecommunications firm based in Rwanda. The main purpose of the study is to examine the level of HRDC within the two industry leaders. Specifically, the study is intended to look at the prevailing general climate, implementation of human resource development mechanisms and OCTAPAC (Openness, Confrontation, Trust, Autonomy, Proaction, Authenticity and Collaboration) Culture within the two selected companies. The telecommunication firm in this study enjoys the first-comer advantage and has the largest market share in the sector while the insurance company is the award winning insurance company as the best insurance company of the year in 2010. The Government of Rwanda (GoR) has articulated its expectation for the nation in Vision 2020. The long term goal of this vision is the creation of a productive middle class and fostering enterpreneurship. As envisaged in the vision, transformation from an agrarian subsistence economy into a sophisticated knowledge-based society requires that each institution or organisation also sets and achieves the goal of becoming knowledge-based enterprises. This is only possible when the organisations provide support for members to develop and utilize their skills, knowledge and abilities. This study is an attempt to understand the extent to which selected organisations are contributing to the national super-ordinate goal of transformation to the knowledge society. Researchers on the assessment of human resource development climate have focused on Indian organisations (Rao and Abraham, 1986; Venkateswaran, 1997; Srimannarayana, 2001; Mishra & Bhardwaj, 2002; Rodrigues, 2004; Pillai, 2008; Saraswathi, 2010); Dubai organisation (Srimannarayana, 2007) and Nigerian banks (Akinyemi, 2009). No study has been carried out assessing HRDC in any of Rwandan public or private organisations. In view of the changing business landscape in Rwanda due to liberalisation of economy and provision of a level playing field for

57

businesses to operate and compete, it is essential to begin to examine the internal environment of Rwandan based firms.

2. Background
2.1. Organisational Climate and Culture Denison (1990, p.24) defines climate as a set of conditions that exist and have an impact on individual's behaviour differentiating it from culture which he view as the deep structure of organisations, which is rooted in the values, belies and assumptions held by organisational members (Denison, 1996). As defined by French et al. (1985) climate is the relatively persistent set of perceptions held by organisation members concerning the characteristics and quality of organisational culture. The authors distinguished between the actual situation (culture) and the perception of it (climate). In his working definition of climate Schneider (1975) stated that Climate perceptions are psychologically meaningful molar descriptions that people can agree characterize a systems practices and procedures. By its practices and procedures a system may create many climates. People perceive climates because the molar perceptions function as frames of reference for the attainment of some congruity between behavior and the systems practices and procedures. However, if the climate is one which rewards and supports individual differences, people in the same system will not behave similarly. Further, because satisfaction is a personal evaluation of a systems practices and procedures, people in the system tend to agree less on their satisfaction than on their description of the systems climate. There are two ontological interpretations of the organisational climate concept: realistic and objectivistic; and subjectivistic and phenomenological (Ekvall, 1987). The objectivistic view sees climate as an attribute of the organisation while, according to the subjectivistic approach organisational climate is the organisational members' common perception of the organisational situation. Other authors (James, James, & Ashe, 1990) describe climate as a product of personal values and remain a property of individuals irrespective of the empirical level of anaylsis. Hellriegel and Slocum (1974) define organisational climate as a set of attributes which can be perceived about a particular organisation and/or its sub-systems, and that may be induced in the way that organisation and/or its sub-systems deal with their members and environment. The significance of organisational climate cannot be over-emphasized. It is a major determinant factor of organisational success in view of its impact on its internal environment. Organisational climate is the set of characteristics that describe an organisation and that (a) distinguish the organisation from other organisations, (b) are relatively enduring over time, and (c) influence the behaviour of the people in the organisation (Forehand and Gilmer, 1964, page 362). It has also been defined as a shared perception of what the organisation is like in terms of practices, policies, and procedures what is important and what is rewarded (Bowen and Ostroff 2004, p. 204). Making a distinction between organisational climate and culture, Agarwal and Maloy (1999, p.2) noted that Climate refers to the members shared perception of how the organisation operates whereas culture refers to the administrations and the members assumption about how the organisation does and ought to operate. According to them, climate is a manifestation of organisational culture, whereas culture subsumes climate. Organisational climate is comprised of organisational support, coworker support, participation and involvement, communication, and health and safety climate (Wilson et al., 2004). Components of organsational climate such as compensation, opportunity for advancement, supervisory style, organisational goals, and concern for employees are found to be related to transfer of training (Wexley and Latham, 1991). Shoaf, Genaidy, Karwowski, Huang (2004) also refer to an organisations culture as encompassing its shared values and beliefs, which guide the behaviors of its members and determine the establishment of work practices and policies. Schein (1985) define culture as a pattern of basic assumptions-invented, discovered or developed by a given group as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration-that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to 58

those problems. Pareek (1995) sees culture as a cumulative preference of some states of life over others (values), the predispositions concerning responses towards several significant issues and phenomena (attitudes), organized ways of filling time in relation to certain affairs (rituals), and ways of promoting desired behaviours and preventing undesirable ones (sanctions). A weak organisational culture cannot promote learning and development in organisations. As rightly predicted by Schein (1985) the culture of the future would be the one that heavily promoted active learning and training. 2.2. Human Resource Development HRD has been defined in variety of ways to stress its strategic role in Organisational Development. It is a process for developing and unleashing human expertise through organisation development and personnel training and development for the purpose of improving performance (Swanson and Holton III, 2001). According to McLean and McLean (2001): HRD is any process or activity to develop adults work-based knowledge, expertise, productivity, and satisfaction, whether for personal or group/team gain, or for the benefit of an organisation, community, nation, or ultimately, the whole of humanity. McLean and McLean (2001, p.10) offered an expanded definition to underscore its evolutionary nature. They described it as any process or activity that, either initially or over the long term, has the potential to develop ... work-based knowledge, expertise, productivity and satisfaction, whether for personal or group/team gain, or for the benefit of an organisation, community, nation, or, ultimately, the whole of humanity. In his own definition, Rao (1986) states that: Human resource development in the organisational context is the process by which employees of an organisation are helped in a continuous planned way to: i) acquire or sharpen capabilities required to perform varius functions associated with their present and future expected roles; (ii) develop their general capabilities as individuals and discover their own inner potential for own and/or organisation development purposes; (iii) develop and organisational culture in which superior-subordinate relationships, teamwork and collaboration among sub-units are strong and contribute to the professional well-being, motivation and pride of employees. Peter Drucker (1993, p.198), underscored the need for Human Resource Development when he maintained that employing organisations of all kinds businesses, government agencies, nonprofits must become institutions of learning and teaching as well. Schools, increasingly, must work in partnership with employers and employing organisations. This was echoed by Eurich (1990): It seems resonable to infer that a knowledge-based organisation must also be a learning based organisation in which learning is not confined to company classrooms (p. 171). It is clear that Human Resource Development aims at providing opportunities to individuals for full expression of their potential and focusses on the creation of values and culture conducive to individual growth in the organisational context. Its success in an organisation depends, to a large extent, on the existence of a favourable HRD climate (Venkateswaran, 1997). Thus, the significance of HRDC in any organisation cannot be over-emphasized. 2.3. Human Resource Development Climate Human Resource Development Climate (HRDC) is a component of the wider organisational climate. It refers to perceptions about the prevailing conditions within the organisation that affect the life of employees (work and personal life) and the activities within the organisation (Smith, 1988) or their perception about an organisations developmental environment. Rao and Abraham (1986) list a set of characteristics expected of such developmental climate as: a) A tendency at all levels starting from top management to the lowest level to treat the people as the most important resource; b) A perception that developing the competencies in the employees is the job of every manager/supervisor; c) A perception that developing the competencies in the employees is the job of every manager/supervisor; 59

d) Faith in the capability of employees to change and acquire new competencies at any stage of life; e) A tendency to be open in communications and discussions rather than being secretive (fairly free expression of feelings); f) Encouraging risk-taking and experimentation g) Making efforts to help employees recognize their strengths and weaknesses through feedback; h) A general climate of trust ; i) A tendency on the part of employees to be generally helpful to each other and Collaborate with each other; j) Team spirit ; k) Tendency to discourage stereotypes and favoritism; l) Supportive personnel policies; m) Supportive HRD practices including performance appraisal, training, reward management, potential development, job-rotation, career planning, etc. Rao (1986) emphasized the significance of climate. He provided a broader perspective of HRD, proposing that HRD means building competencies, commitment, and culture. All three are needed to make an organisation function well. The culture provides the sustaining force for organisations. The prevalent developmental climate within organisations differ (Srimannarayana, 2007). Even units within organisations may not have similar climate state (Venkateswaran, 1997). The current volatile nature of business environment and the need for organisations to aid employees in reaching their full potentials enhance their adaptation, pro-action, performance, creativity and innovation compels every organisation to improve its developmental climate and make it highly congenial. It is only through a skilled and motivated human resource that organisations can expect to excel in this age of discontinuity, fierce competition, fast-paced technology, changing demographics and constantly changing customer expectations and demands. Creating and maintaining a supportive climate that inspires employees to unleash their potentials, discover, develop and productively utilize skills, knowledge and abilities are indispensable.

3. Previous Research
Series of studies have been undertaken to understand the impact and state of organisational HRDC. Abraham (1989) surveyed the HRD practices of 68 Indian organsations. He measured various elements of the HRD profile of these organisations including performance management practices, training, career planning, promotions, rewards, etc., and the HRD climate (openness, collaboration, trust, authencicity, proaction, autonomy, confrontation). He also constructed an index of growth of the company profitability as a measure of organisational performance. He found that while HRD profile did not correlate with the company performance, the HRDC did. The study indicates that HRDC is a powerful intervening variable in translating HRD practices into profit. Employees who perceive that the Human Resource department is concerned about them showed increased performance and positive work attitudes (Eisenberger, Fasolo and Davis-LaMastro, 1990). In a study of 52 organisations, Rao (1986) found that the average extent of climate was about 54% in these organisations which is rather low. Rao (1989) conducted another study of 41 organisations. Findings from this study showed that the general climate in the organisations was average due to a general indifference on the part of employees towards their own development. Srimannarayana (2007) assessed the prevailing HRDC in Dubai oranisations based on the responses of executives. He concludes that the climate is at an average level. The study also revealed that HRDC in banking business is higher that the other businesses. HRDC is higher in the insurance and shipping business than in tourism, food and trading organisations when compared to banking, insurance and shipping organisations. 60

Saxena and Tiwari (2009) did an empirical study of HRDC in selected public sector banks. Their study showed that the HRDC in the public sector bank is average. They also found no difference in the peerception of the employees on the basis of gender, qualification, designation but the perception of the employees differs on the basis of change. A survey of HRDC in Nigerian commercial banks (Akinyemi and Iornem, 2009) revealed a congenial HRDC. In another study of HRDC with a focus on Commercial Banks (Rainayee, 2002) found that the overall level of OCTAPAC values in the banks was perceived to be moderate. Analysing the major factors that are conducive to the development of HRDC in a large public sector heavy engineering organisation Venkateswaran (1997) surveyed 132 executives. The overall score for the organisation was 3.70 on a 5-point scale, thereby signalling that the climate was, to a large extent, favourable for HRD. Saraswathi (2010) assessed the extent of Developmental climate prevailing in manufacturing and software organisations in India. He found that the three variables: General Climate, HRD Mechanisms and OCTAPAC culture are better in software organisations compared to manufacturing. The findings also indicate significant difference in the developmental climate prevailing in software and manufacturing organisations. Based on responses from 71 junior and middle level executives from various departments of a public sector undertaking Solkhe and Chaudhary (2010) finds the existence of good HRD. According to the findings, the managers in general showed a favourable attitude towards HRD Policies and practices of the organisation. They were satisfied with the developmental policies of the top management. Solkhe and Chaudhary (2011) conducted another empirical investigation examining the three components of HRDC. The result from their study shows a reasonable level of development orientation, trust and freedom of expression, healthy interpersonal relationship and openness. However, employees are not satisfied with promotions decisions within the company.

4. Research Questions
The study aims to answer the following questions according to the perceptions of employees in the selected telecommunications and insurance companies: Q1: What is the level of top management support for HRD in the two organisations? Q2: To what extent are the HRD sub-systems implemented in the two organisations? Q3: How are the two organisations faring in terms of OCTAPAC Culture? Q4: Are there differences in HRDC Components between the two organisations?

5. Research Method
In answering our research questions primary data was collected from respondents. The HRDC questionnaire developed by Rao and Abraham (1986) was administered to respondents who are fulltime permanent staff of a telecommunication and an insurance company. The 38-item questionnaire captures the three components of HRDC: top managements commitment to HRD (general climate); existence of OCTAPAC culture; and the functioning of the various HRD sub-systems. The OCTAPAC culture indicates the existence of seven factors, namely, Openness, Confrontation, Trust, Autonomy, Pro-activity, Authenticity, and Collaboration in an organisation. HRD mechanism indicates the extent to which the various sub-systems of the HRD mechanism such as training, performance appraisal, potential appraisal, organisation development, feedback and performance coaching, career planning, rewards, employee welfare, quality of work life and human resource information systems are implemented seriously (Rao, 1999). The general HRD climate consists of 14 items, HRD mechanism has 15 items and OCTAPAC culture, 9 items from the 38-item HRDC questionnaire. To measure the elements of HRDC respondents were requested to indicate their perceptions on a 5 point scale ranging from 5 (always almost true) to 1 (not at all true) to measure the elements of HRDC which is grouped into 3 broad categories as earlier indicated, i.e. general climate, HRD mechanisms and OCTAPAC 61

culture. A total of 49 and 38 respondents from the telecommunication and insurance companies respectively completed the questionnaires which were all found suitable for analysis. Data is analyzed based on the responses received from full-time employees working in the selected companies. 5.1. Scope of Research In this research, two private sector companies representing the telecommunications and insurance industries in Rwanda were investigated. The telecommunications company is the leading company with the largest market share while the insurance company is adjudged to be the best insurance company of the year. Both firms are based in Kigali, Rwanda with branches in other major cities of the country. 5.2. Sample The sample used in this study comprises of full-time, permanent managerial and non-managerial staff in two Rwanda-based companies representing telecommunication and insurance sectors.

6. Results of Data Analysis

6.1. General Human Resource Development Climate In assessing top managements commitment to HRD general climate, 14 corresponding items were identified in the questionnaire and the respondents perception in selected organisations was accordingly scored. Table 1 shows the mean, percentage, and standard deviation as well as the total average scores in respect of the general climate prevailing in the organisations. According to the table, the overall mean scores for the 14 items is 3.76 (73.64%) and 3.40 (67.07%) for the telecommunication and Insurance organisations respectively. Results of data analysis show clearly that the HRD general climate prevailing in both organisations is actually congenial, although, it is better in the telecommunication than it is in the insurance company. The implication of this is that the top management of these two firms are generally committed to promoting the development of employees by providing a conducive environment for them to learn.
Table 1:
Items 1. The top management of this organisation goes out of its way to make sure that employees enjoy their work. 2. The top management believes that human resources are an extremely important resource and that they have to be treated more humanely. 3. Development of the subordinates is seen as an important part of their job by the managers/officers here 4. The personnel policies in this organisation facilitate employee development. 5. The top management is willing to invest a considerable part of their time and other resources to ensure the development of employees. 6. Senior officers/executives in this organisation take active Interest in their juniors and help them learn their job.

General Climate Top Management Support for HRD

Telecommunication % SD 64.08 0.69 Insurance % SD 61.58 0.86

Mean 3.93

N 49

Mean 3.44

N 38

3.94

78.78

0.92

49

3.71

74.21

0.80

38

3.75 3.85

73.47 75.51

0.86 0.92

49 49

3.29 3.43

65.79 66.84

1.01 1.12

38 38

3.57

71.43

1.00

49

3.47

69.47

0.76

38

3.67

73.47

0.92

49

3.39

67.89

1.05

38

62

7. People lacking competence in doing their jobs are helped to acquire competence rather than being left unattended.

3.65

73.06

0.99

49

3.53

70.53

0.92

38

Table 1:

General Climate Top Management Support for HRD - continued

8. Managers in this organisation believe that employee behaviour can be changed and people can be developed at any stage of their life. 9. People in this organisation are helpful to each other. 10. Employees in this organisation are very informal and do not hesitate to discuss their personal problems with their supervisors. 11. The psychological climate in this organisation is very conducive to any employee interested in developing himself by acquiring new knowledge and skills. 12. Seniors guide their juniors and prepare them for future responsibilities/ roles they are likely to take up. 13. The top management of this organisation makes efforts to identify and utilise the potential of the employees. 18. People in this organisation do not have any fixed mental impressions about each other. Average

3.88

77.55

0.83

49

3.66

73.16

0.88

38

4.06 3.35

79.59 66.94

0.81 1.01

49 49

3.41 3.24

66.32 64.74

0.86 0.94

38 38

3.81

74.69

1.02

49

3.55

71.05

1.08

38

3.57

71.43

0.98

49

3.11

62.11

1.01

38

3.96

79.18

0.79

49

3.42

68.42

0.86

38

3.67 3.76

71.84 73.64

0.86 0.90

49 49

2.92 3.40

56.84 67.07

1.04 0.94

38 38

Top management support is highly required to create a conducive climate for employee development. In the telecommunications firm it is worthy of note that the top management actively support human resource development. This is evident in its belief that human resource is the most valuable asset (item 2), support for investment in human capital (item 5), and identification and utilisation of employees potentials (item 13). Senior managers commitment to employee development is also noteworthy. Items 3,6,7,8 and 12 have mean score of between 3.57 and 3.88 showing that managers in the telecommunication company take subordinates development with the seriousness it deserves. In this company also it has been observed that the psychological climate is on the positive side. For instance, items 9, 10, 11 and 13 have high mean scores. Specifically, items 9, 11 and 13 with mean scores of 4.06 (79.59%), 3.81 (74.69%) and 3.96 (79.18%) respectively revealed strong interpersonal relationship and cohesion which is healthy for individual development. 6.2. HRD Mechanism: Implementation of HRD Sub-Systems This section examines the implementation of HRD sub-systems such as training, performance appraisal and feedback, potential appraisal, career planning, rewards and employee welfare based on 15 items. Accordiing to the table 2, mean and percentage scores for the implementation of HRD sub-systems are 3.80 (75.16%) and 3.35 (66.46%) for telecommunication and insurance companies respectively.
Table 2:
Items 14. Promotion decisions are based on merit rather than on favouritism.

HRD MECHANISM Implementation of HRD Sub-Systems

Telecommunication % SD 69.80 1.18 Insurance % SD 66.32 1.00

Mean 3.56

N 49

Mean 3.50

N 38

63

15. There are mechanisms in this organisation to reward any good work done or any contribution made by employees. 16. When an employee does good work his supervisor take special care to appreciate it.

4.15 3.82

81.22 76.33

0.87 1.01

49 49

3.57 2.89

69.47 56.32

1.07 1.15

38 38

Table 2:

HRD MECHANISM Implementation of HRD Sub-Systems - continued

17. Performance appraisal reports in our organisation are based on objective assessment and adequate information and not on favouritism. 19. Employees are encouraged to experiment with new methods and try out creative ideas. Items 20. When any employee makes a mistake his supervisors treat it with understanding and help him to learn from such mistakes rather than punishing him or discouraging him. 29. This organisation ensures employee welfare to such an extent that the employees can save a lot of their mental energy for work purposes. 30. Job-rotation in this organisation facilitates employee development. 32. Weaknesses of employees are communicated to them in a non-threatening way. 33. When behaviour feedback is given to employees they take it seriously and use it for development. 34. Employees in this organisation take pains to find out their strengths and weaknesses from their supervising officers or colleagues. 35. When employees are sponsored for training, they take It seriously and try to learn from the programmes they attend. 36. Employees returning from training programmes are given opportunities to try out what they have learnt. 37. Employees are sponsored for training programmes on the basis of genuine training needs. 38. People trust each other in this organisation. Average

4.23

82.86

0.66

49

3.53

70.53

1.08

38

3.69

72.24

0.90

49

3.24

64.74

1.10

38

Mean

Telecommunication % SD

Mean

Insurance % SD

3.90

77.96

0.94

49

3.42

68.42

0.79

38

3.96

79.18

0.79

49

3.55

71.05

0.76

38

3.55 3.71

68.16 72.65

1.14 0.97

49 49

3.24 3.18

64.74 63.68

0.97 1.04

38 38

3.84

76.73

0.83

49

3.53

70.53

0.80

38

3.31

66.12

0.94

49

3.03

60.53

0.72

38

3.90

76.33

0.93

49

3.87

77.37

1.04

38

3.78

75.51

0.98

49

3.24

64.74

1.10

38

3.90 3.79 3.80

77.96 74.29 75.16

0.96 0.99 0.94

49 49

3.45 2.97 3.35

68.95 59.47 66.46

1.31 0.79 0.98

38 38

6.3. OCTAPAC Culture OCTAPAC (Openness, confrontation, trust, autonomy, pro-activity, authenticity, and collaboration) culture is essential for facilitating HRD. Openness exists when employees feel free to discuss their ideas, activities, and feelings with each other. By confrontation problems and issues are brought out into the open with a view to solving them rather than hiding them for fear of hurting or getting hurt. Trust is taking people at their face value and believing what they say. Autonomy is giving freedom to let people work independently with responsibility. Proactivity is encouraging employees to take 64

initiative and risk. Authenticity is the tendency on the part of the people to do what they say. Collaboration is to accept interdependencies, to be helpful to each other, and work as teams (Rao and Abraham 1986).

Table 3:
Items

OCTAPAC CULTURE
Telecommunication % SD 72.24 1.06 Insurance % SD 62.63 0.98

Mean 3.61

N 49

Mean 3.31

N 38

21. Employees are not afraid to express or discuss their feelings with their subordinates. 22. Employees are encouraged to take initiative and do things on their own without having to wait for instructions from supervisors. 23. Delegation of authority to encourage juniors to develop handling higher responsibilities is quite common in this organisation. 24. When seniors delegate authority to juniors, the juniors use it as an opportunity for development. 25. Team spirit is of high order in this organisation. 26. When problems arise people discuss these problems openly and try to solve them rather than keep accusing each other behind the back. 27. Career opportunities are pointed out to juniors by senior officers in the organisation. 28. The organisation's future plans are made known to the managerial staff to help them develop their juniors and prepare them for future. 31. Employees are not afraid to express or discuss their feelings with their superiors. AVERAGE

3.71

72.65

0.99

49

3.00

60.00

1.04

38

3.58

70.20

0.77

49

3.18

63.68

1.14

38

3.88 4.30

75.92 80.82

0.82 0.79

49 49

3.45 3.41

68.95 66.32

0.98 1.14

38 38

3.73

74.69

0.78

49

3.08

60.00

0.95

38

3.67

71.84

0.78

49

3.21

64.21

1.02

38

3.91

75.10

0.88

49

3.38

65.79

0.89

38

3.91 3.81

77.96 74.60

0.88 0.86

49

3.18 3.24

63.68 63.92

0.93 1.01

38

The overall mean and percentage scores for OCTAPAC culture are 3.81 (74.60%) and 3.23 (63.92%) for telecommunication and insurance companies respectively. This depicts a higher level of OCTAPAC culture in the telecommunication company than that of the insurance company. A high order of team spirit has the highest mean score of 4.30 (80.82%) in the telecommunications company while the insurance company has the highest mean score for item 24 where delegation of authority is used as opportunity for development. The mean score for this item is 3.45 (68.95%). In the Telecommunication company item 23 has the lowest mean score of 3.58 (70.20%) depicting the need for improvement in delegation of authority. However, in the insurance company, the lowest mean score of 3.00 (60.00%) is recorded for item 22. The company needs to do more in the area of employee empowerment.
Table 4: Comparative Analysis of Human Resource Development Climate
Telecommunication % Insurance %

HRDC Dimensions

Mean

SD

Mean

SD

65

General Climate HRD Mechanism OCTAPAC Culture

3.76 3.80 3.81

73.64 75.16 74.60

0.90 0.94 0.86

3.40 3.35 3.24

67.07 66.46 63.92

0.94 0.98 1.01

Table 4 is a comparative analysis of HRDC dimensions between the telecommunication and insurance companies in the study. In all the HRD dimensions, the telecommunications company appears to have higher mean scores than the insurance company. This is probably because of a more intense competition within the telecommunications industry than in the insurance industry.

7. Summary and Concluding Remarks

The main objective of this study was to investigate the prevalent HRDC within two leading private companies in Rwanda. The results of this study show that generally there exists a good HRD Climate in the organisation according to the perceptions of respondents. The employees in general showed a favourable attitude towards HRD Policies and practices of the organisations. However, it should be noted that the existing developmental climate within the insurance company is not as favourable as that of the telecommunication company. For the insurance company to practically improve its HRDC, attention should be paid to team building, supervisory skills development and interpersonal relationship skills enhancement. As suggested by Rao (1986), a general climate of trust, team spirit and employee empowerment are parts of the characteristics of an ideal developmental climate. These are specific areas where the insurance company in the study also needs to focus. Building a more favourable HRDC by both companies would guarantee their positions as top service providers. In series of studies on the factors to be considered for analyzing HRDC in various organisations, superiorsubordinate relationship, training and employee development practices, OCTAPACE culture, etc. were considered to determine the HRD climate in various organisations like public and private sector organisations, banks, educational institution (Jain, Singhal and Singh (1997), Rohmetra (1998), Alphonsa (2000), Kumar and Patnaik (2002), and Mishra and Bhardwaj (2002). Empirical evidence from research has also shown correlation between HRD practices/climate and employee performance, attitude and behavior. For instance, Abraham (1989) found HRD culture to be an important intervening variable in translating HRD practices into prot. HRD Climate also results in the development of employee competence and commitment (Rao, 1999). According to Athreya (1988), HRD system that supports a positive HRD climate makes existing systems more effective and makes Organisations more receptive to new HR practices. For organisational effectiveness in the era of discontinuity, intense competition, globalisation and constant change resulting from internal and external environment a highly congenial developmental climate is indispensable.

Acknowledgement
I acknowledge the support of my wife (Felicia) and my kids, Dave and Debby who allowed the funding of this research from family savings. My appreciation also goes to Miss Uwase Marie Ange, my committed and highly motivated personal research assistant, for her labour during the questionnaire administration and collection exercise.

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