The Structure of Human Capital Management Practices in the Higher Education System of Pakistan

Abstract

This study attempts to explore the structure of human capital management (HCM) practices in the higher education system of Pakistan. The study does not consider the respondents to be conceptually aware of the concept of HCM, yet the prevailing practice within the HRM system might reflect a transition towards HCM. We collected our data using a selfadministered online questionnaire from 299 employees in the University of Pakistan. The data thus collected were analyzed using an exploratory factor analysis first and then a confirmatory factor analysis to further validate the structure highlighted in the data in the exploratory factor analysis. We found that there does exist a structure that can be related to HCM in the universities of Pakistan. Five components, as such, were highlighted in our analysis though we had initially added seven to the original survey. The component of talent was merged into knowledge and the component of retention was merged into supporting activities. This suggested the relevant correlations between these pairs. Thus, the structure suggests that Pakistani Higher Institutes (HIs) look for talent within education and knowledge rather than any separable aspect of human capital. Moreover, we found the retention is embedded into supporting activities. The study implicitly finds and claims that the mindset towards the implication of HCM is developing and performance evaluation and reward system are being considered as important trends in HIs of Pakistan. The study mainly focused on all the universities of Pakistan. It might be possible that the situation is different in the private and public sector HIs.