EXAMINING THE IMPACT OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT PRACTICES ON PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT THROUGH CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT AT AN AUTOMOTIVE SUPPLIER IN NORTH AMERICA
Open Access
Author:
Gao, Lin
Graduate Program:
Workforce Education and Development
Degree:
Doctor of Philosophy
Document Type:
Dissertation
Date of Defense:
September 27, 2010
Committee Members:
William J Rothwell, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor William J Rothwell, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Keywords:
Continuous Improvement (CI) Human Resource Development (HRD) Performance Improvement
Abstract:
This study was to examine how Human Resource Development (HRD) practices may impact business performance via Continuous Improvement (CI) activities as a whole, and the relationships among them within the context of various levels of employees and different functional areas at one North American Automotive Supplier. Dimensions of HRD practices – HRD framework (Garavan, 2007) have been adapted as independent variables, sixteen indicators adapted from the Performance Improvement Model (Jorgensen, Boer & Laugen, 2006) have been explored as three dependent variables. In addition, six CI abilities have been examined as mediators from the CI Maturity Model (Bessant & Caffyn, 1997) and two different moderators have been defined based on the real practices of the target population. In brief, only the first hypothesis was positively supported and the second and the third one were not supported in the overall relationship.
