“The Effect of Human Resource Development Practice on Employee Performance (a Case of Ethiopian Electric Utility)”

Abstract

The general objective of this research is to study the human resource development practice and its effect on employees' performance by taking the case of Ethiopian Electric Utility. The study is a mixed research which is a blend of both qualitative and quantitative methods, descriptive and explanatory in design and cross-sectional in nature. The target population of the study is EEU staff working under different departments in the head office. The sample size for the study is 200 and the response rate is 155 (77.5%). The sampling technique applied is stratified random sampling. The sources of data explored are both primary and secondary. While the primary data is gathered through questionnaire and interview, the secondary data is gathered from company reports, previous researches, articles, books, internet sources and other publications. The major finding and conclusion drawn from the analysis made is that; although the varieties of HRD programs executed by EEU are full-fledged , the practice in terms HRD need assessment, design, implementation and evaluation is not strong and hence the contribution of EEU’s HRD practice to employee performance is not satisfying. The major recommendation forwarded to address the gap is: the HRD programs at EEU need to be executed by following the scientific steps in the process of HRD (need assessment, design, implementation and evaluation) so that the HRD programs can contribute for employee performance.