Human Capital Development and Performance in Garment Industries in Nigeria: Business Owners and Employees Simultaneous Development Perspectives

Abstract

The development of firm employees may not be sufficient without simultaneous development of business founders’ intellectual capital because of the role business founders play in business strategy decisions and their increasing involvement in business operations. Prior studies seem to have ignored this important role of business founders in ascertaining the effects of human capital development in corporate performance by focusing solely on firm’s employees. This study proposed and tested human capital development from both business founders’ and employees’ perspective and determined how such simultaneous intellectual development can enhance firms’ productivity in garment industry in Nigeria. A survey research design method was employed and the data collected from 100 individuals who either owned or belonged to the top management team of Garment Industries in Nigeria was empirically tested using regression analysis. The result indicated that human capital development of business founders and employees positively affect firms’ productivity suggesting that firms that engage in simultaneous training of employees and founders performed better than those focusing solely on employees. Simultaneous training, educating, mentoring and learning capacity of both business founders and their employees can generate substantial returns to garment firms that can revitalize the industry while making them internationally competitive. The positive effect associated with simultaneous human capital development of founders and employees depends on good management efficiency as training the founders requires effective human development strategy. Generally, this effect suggests that human capital development should be given adequate attention and may not be value adding if business owners are not connected in the model of organizational human capital development.