Being thesis submitted in the department of business administration and marketing, school of management

Hypothesis 4

x₄ = Performance appraisal practices

Y = Corporate entrepreneurship

Y = f (x₄) Y = α 0 + β₄x₄ + e_o

Hypothesis 5

x₅ = Compensation management practices

Y = Corporate entrepreneurship

Y = f (x₅) Y = α 0 + β₅x₅ + e_o

Hypothesis 6

x₆ = Industrial Relations

Y = Corporate entrepreneurship

Y = f (x₆) Y = α 0 + β₆x₆ + e_o

Hypothesis 7

Z = Internal environment of human resource management practices

Y = Corporate entrepreneurship

Y = f (XZ) Y = α 0+β₇X Z+ e_o

Multiple regression equation

Y = α 0 + β₁x₁ + β₂x₂ + β₃x₃ + β₄x₄+ β₅x₅ + β₆x₆+ β₇xz + e_o

Where

α =constant of the equation

β = Coefficient of the independent variables

e_o = error term (values that account for change but are not part of the present survey).

X= independent variables

Y= dependent variable

Z= moderator variable

The research study evaluated the derived model from hypothesis 1-7 which is summarized in the research Model below:

Y (Corporate Entrepreneurship)

X(Human Resource Management Practices)

X(HRMP)
Research Model Summary


Recruitment and Selection x₁

H₁



Training and Development x₂

H₂




Job design x₃

H₃




H₄




Performance

Appraisal x₄

Compensation, x₅

H₅




Industrial Relations x₆


H₆



H₇




Environment of HRMP (Z)



Figure: 1.1

Source: Researcher’s conceptual model summary (2016)

1.8 Scope of the Study

This study investigated Corporate Entrepreneurship (CE) as a variable which is subject to the influence of human resources management practices (HRMP) in selected private and public institutions in Lagos and Ogun States of Nigeria. The moderating effect of the internal environment of human resource management practices on this influence was also investigated. The two states were chosen because they are the most industrialised of the south western States of Nigeria. The service subsectors of the two States were focused in this study due to the importance of the service sector as a catalyst for economic development of a country (Rattanawong & Suwanno, 2014).

The sample frame for the study was limited to the middle managers in the civil service and the banking service sub-sectors of the two States respectively. These sub-sectors are the most visible, active and catalytic in their respective sectors (that is, public and private sectors respectively). The civil services regulate the activities of the other sub-components, such as public corporations, departments and agencies in the public service (Olaopa, 2014), while banks stimulate the activities of other components of the private sector, such as the manufacturing industries, through the mobilization of fund for their operations (Cofie, 2012).
Within these sub-sectors, the middle level managers were identified for the study. Top management and junior staff were excluded from the sample. The middle managers, by their education, experience and status, are likely to comprehend the issues involved and respond more accurately as pointed out by Burgelman, (1984b). Also, by their location in the hierarchy, they represent the top management and deal more closely with (and hence likely to know and influence) the lower level workers’ attitude and perspectives (Edralin, 2007). Their perspectives are therefore likely to reflect the scenario in their respective organizations more correctly. The key roles of these middle managers have made many studies to focus at this level (Hayton, 2005) and sufficient to achieve the objective of this study.
The study was concerned with the expression of CE behavior at the individual level. Hence the group and corporate level components of CE are not the primary focus. The unit of analysis would therefore be the level of the individual manager’s perception and expression of corporate entrepreneurial behavior in their respective institutions. However, the managers to be covered are those who were so as at 2014. Thus, the target population for this study comprise of ten thousand, nine hundred and forty seven middle managers (10, 947) in the service sub-sectors of each of these sectors.

1.9. Significance of the Study

Findings from a study of the relationship between human management practices and corporate entrepreneurship are of primary relevance to entrepreneurs and their managerial representatives. This is because, as businesses or organisations grow, the founding entrepreneurs and senior managers typically depend on their staff to take on increasing responsibilities for work performance. However a major problem confronting many of these entrepreneurial firm owners and senior managers in industry is their inability to motivate other workers to perform work entrepreneurially like themselves in the form of corporate entrepreneurship (Sobande, 2013). The findings of the study would enlighten them on how to do this through human resource management practices.

The result of this study is also of significant relevance to government policy makers. Governments have initiated many policy measures to solve the problem of unemployment and poverty through the promotion of self employment version of entrepreneurship. These appear not to have satisfactorily solved the problem as the rate of unemployment in the country is still high. By enlarging our understanding on how human resource management practices can promote corporate entrepreneurship or intrapreneurial work behavior, this study would provide a potent tool of revitalizing industry and developing future self employed entrepreneurs in a more sustainable and effective ways than the current self employment-for-all policy and programmes. Also, in this way, the findings from the study could provide alternative or complementary policy base in the process of reviewing the current entrepreneurship policies and programmes which appear to be failing despite institutional and financial support from government and other stake holders.
This study also has theoretical significance to researchers. Studies that focused the link between human resource management practices and corporate entrepreneurship in a comprehensive manner as was attempted in this study are scanty, being an emerging area of interest in literature, as compared with self employment version of entrepreneurship (de-Jong, Parker, Wennekest & Wu, 2015). This study therefore represents a contribution to the development of literature on the interdisciplinary study of entrepreneurship and human resource management for the effective practice of both.
The potential beneficiaries of the findings of this study include the human resource management practitioners. This is because, by establishing the link between human resource mangement and corporate entrepreneurship, the study provides the basis for the development of entrepreneurial work behavior development role model of HRMP which builds on Ulrich’s Business Partner Model. This would empower the human resource (HR) practitioners to become business partners through the use of HR craft to contribute to organization/business bottom line; profit-abilities or intrapreneurial work behavior capabilities.
The findings of this study would also be relevant to the public sector administrators. In an era of competitive political dispensation, the public services are increasingly concerned with innovation in programmes and programme implementation and are confronted with the problem of how to make the civil servants to be as entrepreneurial as the private sector workers. The study would provide insight into how HRMP could be used to develop intrapreneurial work behavior in the public sector environment which has become the unachieved objective of the many reforms in the civil services in Nigeria for many years.
The international community is faced with the dilemma of ensuring green jobs for the populace and at the same time promoting small scale businesses which are often by nature, unable to provide such jobs (ILO, 2005). The promotion of corporate entrepreneurship through human resource management practices which usually takes place in the context of large organisations which have traditionally been able to provide greener jobs than the small scale businesses would tend to be a way out. This study therefore has a great potential to solve the problem of providing and increasing green jobs as advocated by the United Nations and reducing the prevalence of high failure rate of small scale businesses in Nigeria.

1.10. Operational Definition of Terms

Entrepreneurship: The display of innovative, risk-taking and proactive work behavior to create and or exploit opportunities in self employment or as a worker in a formal corporate setting.

Corporate Entrepreneurship: The display of innovative, risk-taking and proactive work behavior to create and or exploit opportunities in a corporate setting

Intrapreneurship: This is used as an expression of corporate entrepreneurship at the individual level. It is being used interchangeable with corporate entrepreneurship.

Entreployee: Enterprenuerial Employee

An employee who works like an entrepreneur.

Intrapreneurial Work Behavior: This term is used interchangeably as corporate entrepreneurship with special reference to initiatives taken from below to the top management or from employee.

Location of HRMP: Variations in the geographical or industrial location which may affect the norms and context in which human resource management practices take place.

Internal Environment of HRMP: Factors that affect or reflect the status and capability of human resource management to perform its functions in an organization. This includes whether the functions are carried on by a full fledged department or conducted as an added function of another specialized department, level of it integration with other processes in the organization, whether or not it is headed by a certified professional and whether it is expected to play key role in corporate policy making or not.

Private Sector: Part of the economy that is not under the direct state ownership or control. This comprise private sector institutions and agencies involved in the provision of services or goods to the community for profit by the individuals rather than by the state.

Public Sector: Refers to public service institutions such as ministries, agencies and estra-ministerial departments owned by the state concerned with the provision of services to the community by the state rather than independent commercial companies or individuals.

Green Jobs: Jobs that are well paying, secured and take place in a safe and conducive working environment.

Brown Jobs: Jobs that are poorly remunerated, unsafe and are being performed under unconducive working condition.

CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
2.0. Introduction

This chapter presents the review of literatures which form the background for understanding and analyzing the subject of this study-the role of human resource management in the development of corporate entrepreneurship or intrapreneurial work behavior intensity among workers in selected public and private sectors institutions. The review covers conceptual framework of human resource management and corporate entrepreneurship, theoretical framework of theories and models relevant to understanding and analyzing the research questions as well as empirical framework of prior studies, leading to the identification and specification of specific gaps in literatures which were addressed in the study.

2.1. Conceptual Review

In this section, we shall discuss the concepts of human resource management, entrepreneurship, corporate entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship, environment of the practice of human resource management and entrepreneurship in the public sector.

2.1.1. Human Resource Management
2.1.1.1. Overview of Human Resource Management

Human resource is an asset that is far more important than any other factor of production (Swathi, 2014; Tiwari, 2012). The strategic importance of the human resource is in its ability to combine and activate other resources such as money, materials and machines, which are passive, to create tangible valuable products and services. In addition, it is the only resource that is endowed with discretionary decision-making power by which it becomes a source of competitive advantage for organisations (Anyim, Ikemefuna and Mbah, 2011).

From the macro perspective, Obasan (2014) describes the human resource as the knowledge, skills, creative abilities, talents and aptitudes obtainable in the population. It can therefore be referred to as the skills and competencies possessed by the entire citizens of a nation or society which potentially can be applied for the production of goods and services. From the micro level (corporate/organizational) perspective, human resource is used interchangeably with labour or personnel available to an organisation. However, this labour according to Obasan (2014), embraces the entire huma n machinery within an organization or the totality of all inherent abilities, acquired knowledge, skills and in the talents and aptitudes of its labour force. It thus comprises employees, Management, employers, entrepreneur, rather than employees only. It can therefore be concluded that human resources refer to all the personal attributes which constitute the potentials of human being to act and react at different levels of effectiveness. It comprises of the personal attributes like intelligence, skills, knowledge as well as the beliefs, values, attitudes, emotions of the individuals which enable human beings to do or not to do, act or react towards achieving an objective in or outside of formal organizations. It comprise of the qualities, abilities or characteristics of human beings, which may be expressed in the form of different compensable behavioural outputs and levels of entrepreneurial work behavior, rather than just their physical features.
Conceptually, this resource may be few or many, decrease or increase, well managed or mismanaged, enhanced or liquidated and hence can differentiate individuals or organizations in terms of effectiveness or levels of entrepreneurialness. They reside in and are represented by the workforce of organizations or a nation. Hence, according to Fayza (2012), the manner in which the workforce of an organization is managed affects the world of work, the level of their personal attributes, productivity, relative competitiveness, entrepreneurialness and consequently, that of their organizations.
Fayza (2012) describes the management of human resource as the strategic and coherent manner of managing the workforce of an organization, at individual as well as collective level, so as to ensure their optimum contribution to the achievement of its objectives. Storey (1993) regards it as a set of interrelated policies which has ideological and philosophical orientation and center on achieving two main goals; operational objectives of the organization and individual employees’ satisfaction with the working condition as well as the benefit and compensation that they receive. The above conception of HRM suggests that it may be regarded as the philosophy, policy framework and practices that are are designed to affect the attitude, behavior and performance of employees (Hollenbeck, Gerhart & Wright, 2010). The overall purpose of these human resource management practices is to ensure that the organization is able to achieve success through people in terms of competitive profitability

(Armstrong, 2009).

It should however be noted that human resource management practices do not in themselves create profit or competitiveness. They do this, and hence become strategic, when they (HRMP) foster the development and expression of organizational capabilities which create competitive advantage and profit (Swathi, 2014; Wright, 2008; Collins, Allen & Snell, 2005). Swathi, (2014) suggests that HR practices lead to these firm capabilities and performance when they are designed to work together to develop and enhance employee-based capabilities that may be deployed to create competitive advantage. It is in this sense that Collins, et al (2005) conceived of entrepreneurial human resource strategy as the set of human resource management practices that will facilitate the development and conversion of new knowledge to new products or services. This is what Wright, McMahan and McWilliams (1994) regard as strategic human resource management (SHRM). Specifically, they define SHRM as the system of organization practices and policies used to manage employees for higher organization performance. This implies that an organisation can build and reinforce innovative capabilities by aligning HR practices to create the required employee-based capabilities (Snell & Dean, 1992). Thus, SHRM enables the firms to develop and deploy internal capacity to adapt and adjust to their competitive environments through aligning appropriate HRM policies and practices with corporate strategy (Kidwell & Fish, 2007). Dyer and Reeves (1994), Huselid and Becker (1997), Barret and Mayson (2015) and Andonva and Zuleta (2007) have all added that this internal capability to develop and deploy HRM practices which align with business strategy is a source of sustainable competitive advantage. This occurs when HRMP are designed to develop and lead to the expression of employees entrepreneurial capabilities for sustainable competitive advantage of the organisation.
Twomey and Harris (2000) have conceptualized the study of strategic HRM into three perspectives; universalistic or best practice, contingency or best fit and the configurational. The universalistic perspectives focus on best practices in terms of policies and practices that are more effective and result in gains for a firm (Arthier, 1994; Huselid, 1995). In the contingency perspective, choices of the practice within HRM system are linked to the firm-level strategic position (Gomez-Mejia & Balkin, 1992). The configurational perspectives look for the ideal type of HRMP and adopting a particular explicit system with the assumption of equifinality (Beckert & Gerhart, 1996). While the configurational perspective appears too broad, the contingency approach appears to be too narrow as a tool of analysis. On the other hand, Becker and Gerhart (1996) have argued that the idea of best practice might be more appropriate for the purpose of identifying the principles underlying the choice of practices, as opposed to the practices themselves which characterizes the other perspectives. It is thus more amenable to scientific analysis and universal acceptability and application. It is therefore considered that the best practice perspective would enable us to examine and analyse the impact of HRMP in a more structured and systematic manner. Consequently, this study is based on an assumption of the best practice perspective. Features of best HR practices are thus identified in literatures and used as basis for determining the relationship between HRMPs and Corporate Entrepreneurship.
Sisson (1990) suggests that four main characteristics are being associated with strategic human resource management in relation to best practice perspective. These include an emphasis on the integration of personnel policies both with one another as well as with business planning; non relegation of the locus of responsibility for personnel management to specialist managers only; the shift of focus from management/trade union industrial relations to employee industrial relations and from collectivism to individualism, as well as a stress on commitment and the exercise of personal initiatives, with personnel managers playing the role of ‘enabler’, ‘change agent’ or ‘facilitator’. These features emphasize the creation of value through empowering and motivating people. They constitute a version of human resource management practices which, according to Storey (1993), assumes a particular set of beliefs and assumptions; a strategic thrust informing decisions about people management; the involvement of line managers and a reliance on a set of enablers, regarded as best practices to shape the employment relationship. Further, Storey (1993) contends that critical characteristics of this approach to human resource management are its internally coherent approach and policy formulation at the strategic level.
The above assumptions underscore the importance of best practice in the SHRM discussed earlier as well as the challenge to the tendency to focus elements of HRMP as discrete variables (training, compensation, job design, and e.t.c.) in corporate entrepreneurship/human resource management research such as in Edralin (2007). This discrete or stand-alone approach is considered as inappropriate because no one element can produce conclusive result in the absence of the other (De Jong, Parker, Wennekers & Wu, 2011). In any such (stand-alone) study, the other components of human resource management practices that are excluded would become the moderating variables that are not considered and hence becomes a limitation to the conclusion that may be usefully drawn from it practical operation purposes. Owing to such consideration, Edralin (2010) had to use a comprehensive approach later, after his discrete approach (which focused on training only) in 2007.


2.1.1.2. Human Resource Management Practices

Madu (2011) describes human resource management practices (HRMP) as those practices that improve the skills of the labour force, their participation in decision making as well as motivation to put forth discretionary efforts for effective achievement of organisation’s goal. These, according to Rattanawong and Suwanno (2014), comprise of activities that an organisation holds for personnel in order to develop work behaviours that can facilitate effective achievement of organisational goal. Fayza (2012) considers them (human resource management practices) as the understanding and application of the policies and procedures that directly affect the people working within a project, a team and or the overall work place. This understanding, policies and procedures reflect in practices such as human resource planning, recruitment and selection, training and development, job design, performance management, compensation system, health and safety practices and other employee related activities (Zakaria, Zainal & Nasurdin, 2011). Swathi, (2014) classify the HRMPs into six primary responsibilities including job analysis and staffing, organization and utilization of work force, measurement and appraisal of work force performance, implementation of reward systems for employees, professional development of workers, and maintenance of work force. Decenzo and Robbins (1999) however propose that human resource management practices consist of four basic components or functions namely; staffing, training and development, motivation, and maintenance as shown in Figure 2.1.

Employee Motivation


Employee Maintenance

Employee Training and Development

HRM



Employee Staffing