Human capital management in rwanda: challenges and prospects for microfinance institutions

3.4. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

According to Lacy, Arnott and Lowitt (2009), human capital management can be seen from the point of view of employees knowledge, skills and attitudes since these impacts the organization change, leadership development, learning, performance management and employee engagement.

This guides this study as one wants to analyze dependent and independent variables as follows:

3.4.1. Research variables

Dependent variables are (a) organizational capacity to attract skilled employees, and (b) organizational capacity to retain skilled employees.

They depend on independent variables that include dream to work with MFIs; education level; education specialization; length of professional experience; levels of employment in Rwanda; capacity to effectively and efficiently recruit qualified employees; capacity to pay good salaries and benefits; existence of teamwork in MFIs; quality of supervision; organization ownership; availability of funds; microfinance popularity; availability of resource people; employees' age; management of the training programs; promotion management; performance evaluation; availability of qualified employees and career path clarity in microfinance.

Human capital management in Rwanda: Challenges and prospects for Microfinance Institutions 3.4.2. Research Assumptions

The study was conducted with the assumption that microfinance is a young sector in Rwanda. It is attracting enough attention from the GoR which is working to put in place a supportive environment for business. Human capital management, however, is not yet taken on a serious note. It is influenced much by the financial capacity of MFIs. The former, however, offer a challenging working place, which, when good conditions are availed, is likely to attract employees who are ready to learn and face work related challenges.

3.4.3. Research limitations

This study is subject to the following limitations:

i. Firstly, human capital management is not a common practice among many companies and organizations in developing countries. It has been difficult to access human capital literature regarding microfinance.

ii. Secondly, managers may not have admitted that they do not give enough value to human capital - at least they believe in this theoretically - as a consequence, they might not give honest answers.

iii. Majority of respondents were French speaking yet the study language is English. Questionnaires had to be translated in French. Dissemination of the research might not help them as the final report is in English.

iv. Research was conducted in few SAs not in cooperatives (SACCOs / COOPECs). This research conclusions and recommendations may not be applicable to other microfinance institutions of the same legal status, let alone cooperative microfinance institutions.

Human capital management in Rwanda: Challenges and prospects for Microfinance Institutions 3.5. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.5.1. Research type

According to Cresswell (1994) "a qualitative study is defined as an inquiry process of understanding a social or human problem, based on building a complex, holistic picture, formed with words, reporting detailed views of informants, and conducted in a natural setting» ( http://www.computing.dcu.ie/~hruskin/RM2.htm).

Generally, «qualitative research is used to help us understand how people feel and why they feel as they do. Samples tend to be smaller compared with quantitative projects that include much larger samples.» ( www.marketresearchworld.net/index.php?Itemid ).