Towards human resource development at Hanoi Open University

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the roles of human resource development (HRD) in open universities. The study also intends to assess the current situation of HRD at Hanoi Open University (HOU) with an end view of proposing some suggested recommendations to enhance HRD to improve the training quality and effectiveness at HOU.

Design/methodology/approach

The study’s first two parts refer to HRD’s role in open universities. The third one summarizes the existing research literature on HRD used as theoretical base for the author to evaluate the current HRD at HOU in the fourth part. The fifth part involves the methodology to gather the data on HRD practices at HOU while the next two important parts deal with the study’s findings and recommendations for better HRD at HOU. The final part summaries the study’s main points. Referring methodology, the survey data were analyzed through frequency, percentage and weighted mean as statistical tools.

Findings

The study’s findings show that HRD practices at HOU are not as effective as expected in terms of human resource quality, human resource structure and human resource management. There is a shortage of full-time well-qualified employees, inadequate and imbalance working positions, and un-synchronous, fragmented personnel management.

Originality/value

The study’s values are not only useful for building policies on HRD but also for developing strategies to train and foster capable and adequate staff in open universities’ academic environment and in HOU as well.

Citation

Nguyen, H.T.T. (2018), "Towards human resource development at Hanoi Open University", Asian Association of Open Universities Journal, Vol. 13 No. 2, pp. 223-235. https://doi.org/10.1108/AAOUJ-12-2018-0031

1. Introduction

In the integrated world, more than ever human resource development (HRD) has become an underlying factor for improving the training quality and effectiveness because it ensures organizations in general and universities in particular to recognize and promote the workplace to have the right person on the right job. Developing human resource has a significant impact on universities’ performances and leads to positive universities’ performances in the era of the Industrial Revolution 4.0 since this puts right employees into suitable places, which stimulates their morale, brings about business opportunities and increases levels of labor turnover (Pilbeam and Corbridge, 2006).

Human performances in universities reflect employees’ knowledge, skills, behaviors and values. Therefore, all expenditures on education and development are long-term investment from which universities can benefit from. Universities enhance the quality of the staff by providing education and promotion to enable them to gain different qualities to create benefits for universities.

In fact, developing human resources is essential for open universities in general and Hanoi Open University (HOU) in particular to train managers, teachers, technicians and service staff to meet the requirements for the high-qualified workforce. The study’s objective is to assess the effectiveness of current HRD at HOU to identify the areas which need improvements to enhance the training quality and effectiveness.

2. HRD in open universities

Human resources in open universities enable open and distance learners to access instructional contents through online teaching and learning processes, which satisfies learners’ various needs of education regardless of their age, time and location. However, if open and distance human resources are not sufficient enough, problems can arise and the expected benefits cannot be achieved. Successful open and distance education requires certain preconditions known as access to ICT tools, network infrastructure and especially well-qualified workforce.

According to Pausits (2015), universities as knowledge-based organizations have a strong focus on the quality of their academic staff, as they are responsible for teaching, learning and research. Another important prerequisite to a successful university is its services, which highly depends on the quality of the administration and management. The quality of management and academia will depend on the quality of HRD. Human resources are a fundamental determinant of quality in open and distance education. Therefore, open universities must work hard to enhance their employees’ potential working competencies in virtual environment. Excellence can only emerge from a favorable professional environment based on open transparent and competitive procedures.

3. Literature review

3.1 HRD in open and distance education

HRD is identified as the process of improving individuals, groups and organization performances through training, career and organizational development initiatives (Nadler and Nadler, 2012). Organizations in general and universities in particular must continuously implement this process to assess and enhance the skills and knowledge of human resources to actively plan for ensuring employees having the required skills to perform their present and future jobs for universities’ benefits.

HRD enables universities to perform at their full capacities. Specifically, effective HRD ensures that universities are agile because their workforces are capable and flexible and have the correct skills at the appropriate time (Mittal, 2013). Understanding the influence of HRD on systemic practices, utility and university’s productivities is the key for enabling workforce improvements. Systemic practices refer to university training and development evaluation practices. Utility involves how well individuals can apply development opportunities to perform their jobs, while university results concern the extent to which a university achieves its mission or in other words university results.

A strong HRD environment is an essential component to demonstrate a commitment to university success (Kaifeng et al., 2012). Many forward-thinking universities are striving to create a positive university climate to retain valuable employees through various human resources development initiatives. HRD practices give employees opportunities and autonomy to contribute in making decisions. The effectiveness of HRD’s implementation has been assessed based on some models of HRD evaluation to obtain necessary information on HRD, including employee productivity, efficiency and overall satisfaction, to structure development programs to yield positive university results.

Open and distance learning (ODL) requires both education providers and students’ new skills to work and study in the virtual learning environment effectively. The majority of open and distance teachers and administrative assistants were trained to work in traditional education. The fast and continuous changes in online teaching and learning methods lead to the urgent demand to train educational and administrative staff to deal with the traits which are totally different from conventional face-to-face education. As a matter of fact, incompetent ODL staff may lead to the high rate of distance learners’ dropout.

According to Owusu-Mensah et al. (2015), ODL is characterized as education delivered by technical media – print, audio, video or computer. Teachers, technicians and administrative staff of open universities should be equipped with necessary skills, knowledge and competence to retain distance learners to do the course. Open and distance learners need more information, guidance and support to study academically. A number of universities generally and the University of Education, Winneba (UEW) in Ghana particularly have paid much attention to carry out staff development programs and build policies on HRD for ODL staff in relation to the operations of open and distance education institutions. UEW decentralizes the learner support system with training centers located throughout the country to make ODL more accessible to open and distance learners. Besides, all enrolled learners are assisted by the core administrative members to study via the delivery training mode.

3.2 HRD’s effectiveness on organization’s outcomes

A number of research studies have focused on identifying the close relationship between HRD and organization outcomes and evaluating the effectiveness of HRD practices on organization’s performances to propose the effective ways to increase organization’s benefits.

Kirkpatrick four-level training evaluation hierarchy (dated back in 1959) is an HRD standard applied to evaluate training. The model has four hierarchical levels: reaction, learning, behavior and results (Kirkpatrick, 2010). This model shows the concept that an organization must be adaptive in adjusting to environmental conditions, as the more adaptive an organization is at meeting these environmental changes, the greater the probability of successful outcomes.

Phillips (2012) proposed suggestions for improving Kirkpatrick’s approach of training and development evaluation by modifying the fifth level to assess the organization’s return on investment (ROI). Measuring ROI for training is a complex and challenging issue for the training evaluation field (Subramanian et al., 2012). Assessing ROI enables organizations to get more information about the training program’s benefits and to identify which training programs contribute to organizations’ success.

The Paul Kearns and Tony Miller model of HRD evaluation (KPMT) is similar to Phillips’ ROI model (Wankhede and Gujarathi, 2012) in terms of showing the essential role of clear objectives for effective training evaluation. The KPMT model differs from the ROI model in providing HRD professionals with tools to implement the model. The KPMT model focuses on bottom line results using questionnaires, evaluation of existing training and process mapping. This model consists of four levels of evaluation, namely reaction to training, learning, transfer of training to the workplace and benefits.

Another model of HRD evaluation is Stufflebeam’s model, which involves the evaluation of HRD to assess the effectiveness of HRD in a four-stage continuous process, namely context, input/training, process and product evaluation (Aaberg and Thompson, 2012). The first stage context involves the needs and goals of training. Context evaluation aims at identifying missed opportunities, focusing on determining how to utilize human resources to achieve universities’ goals. Input/training evaluation is known as the second stage, which concerns the components necessary for making the training process effective and cost beneficial. This evaluation addresses the effectiveness of specific aspects of the training program. The third process stage refers to specific organization evaluation on training implementation and performances. The process evaluation involves the decision implementation that manages and controls the program. The final product stage identifies the outcomes, assessing training program’s strengths and weaknesses and making decisions for the sake of training program values. Product evaluation concerns the data collection to determine the extent to which the objectives are gained (Figure 1).

The four components of Stufflebeam’s model closely interrelate and support one another for the sake of managers’ decision making. The CIPP approach demonstrates the anticipated effects of the program components in the short- and long-term development. A deep analysis of the CIPP approach will show the way how human resources are developed and how universities will obtain their desired performances. This model is a very important foundation for universities to make decisions, which are very important for universities to make decisions regarding what need to be abolished and what further development is required to achieve the set goals.

According to Amar Kumar Mishra (2012), HRD and organization outcomes have close relationship and interact well with one another. Effective HRD practices have positive impacts on HRD climate, which leads to employees’ and organization’s outputs. Effective HRD practices in terms of performance appraisal, potential development exercises, training, job rotation and career planning have strong effects on HRD climate, employees’ and organization’s and financial outcomes. Sufficient HRD climate involves role clarity, collaboration, openness, trust, authenticity, pro-activity, teamwork and autonomy, which results in employees’ outcomes. The major components of employees’ outcomes are more competent people, better developed roles, better utilization of human resources, more teamwork, positive synergy, satisfaction and commitment. Employee’s outcomes have mutual relationship with other factors known as technological upgradation and rationalized manpower. Organization’s outputs result from positive employees’ outcomes in terms of higher production, increased labor productivity and better quality, which leads to financial outputs known as increased profit.

The identification of the HRD components and assessment of the impacts of these components on organization outcomes are based on the following research model.

Research model

From Amar Kumar Mishra’s (2012) point of view, there is a casual relationship between HRD and organization’s outcomes. Effective implementation of HRD practices creates good HRD climate in organization. Putting the right person into the right place creates employees’ positive attitudes, beliefs and motivation in organization. The favorable HRD climate in organization also enhances employees’ performances. Warm and helpful working atmosphere motivates employees to achieve their personal best. Besides, adequate investment in technologies and effective employees’ recruitment and retention stimulate employees to work more effectively. In addition, more competent and satisfied workforce enables organization to achieve more productivity and profit (Figure 2).

The model of relationship between HRD and organization’s outcomes in Figure 2 is adapted by the researcher to develop, validate and administer the Survey Checklist Questionnaire, assessing HRD’s implementation at HOU in terms of HRD practices, HRD climate, employees’ outcomes, organization’s outputs and other factors. The figure finds out the effectiveness of HRD implementation at HOU, which is used as a basis for proposing relevant recommendations for better implementing HRD at HOU.

4. Human resource development at Hanoi Open University

Presently, there are two main types of employees at HOU known as full-time employees and part-time ones. Full-time employees tend to hold only one job, having university loyalty and giving HOU more control over their times and efforts. They are willing to devote all their time and knowledge to university and ready to go through any tough times universities may encounter. Part-time employees do not have the feeling a sense of HOU’s ownership as they work for other universities at the same time. HOU cannot control their time and efforts; therefore, part-time employees are not likely to spend their time and efforts to qualify for university-sponsored benefits. This most prominent feature of these systems of human resources influences on managing and developing human resources at HOU effectively and synchronously. HOU has more than 370 full-time employees among whom 233 people (more than half) holding master’s degree, 129 people (nearly one-fourth) having bachelor degree, 36 people (around one-tenth) possessing doctor degree and 12 people (taking account for 3 percent) with intermediate and college level (Figure 3).

As far as Figure 3 is concerned, the percentage of full-time employees holding master degree accounts for the highest percentage (about 63 percent) while the percentages of the employees with bachelor and doctor degrees ranking the second and the third are 24 and 10 percent, respectively. The percentage of other degree is the lowest one of the total labor forces (around 3 percent). It can be inferred that there is a shortage of high-qualified full-time employees at HOU as only 10 percent of the total labor force holds doctor degrees.

Over the recent years, HOU has actively trained system managers, course designers, lecturers and technicians for e-learning. It has shown that HRD plays a vital role in improving the training quality and effectiveness at HOU. The project KOICA (Korean International Cooperation Agency) has enabled HOU to update infrastructure for online training to meet the demand of the Industrial Revolution 4.0. Having systematically applied advanced technologies in online teaching and learning, HOU have succeeded in creating an effective virtual learning environment. In fact, the quality of online teachers and service staff at HOU has satisfied the online training in terms of V-class, tutorial, self-correction and middle-term exams.

However, the current human resource management in online training at HOU is still at the modest level to catch up with the innovation in online teaching and learning processes. In order to enhance open and distance training’s quality, it is essential for HOU to identify the achievements and drawbacks of HRD. This will provide HOU with useful information about the human resource management. Based on the analyses of HRD’s strengths and weaknesses, HOU can make important decisions for what to remain, what to adjust and what to abolish in terms of HRD practices.

5. Methodology

The study used a quantitative research methodology relying on the data obtained through the survey questionnaire. According to Grohmann and Kauffeld (2013), quantitative HRD research using surveys offers a cost-effective means to determine specific HRD influences on an organization and to measure the extent to which HRD practices influence organizational outcomes. The survey is designed to evaluate HOU’s HRD in terms of HRD practices, HRD climate, employee outcomes, university outcomes and other factors, aiming at collecting the primary data from the employees at HOU for the answer: “How effective is HRD at HOU for enhancing the training quality and effectiveness”?

Regarding the sampling procedures, the target respondents of the study were 378 full-time managers and staff of HOU. The respondents were purposely chosen because they involve open and distance education either directly or indirectly. A total of 378 survey questionnaires were distributed to the managers and staff of HOU and the researcher expected to receive 355 valid survey questionnaires.

The survey questionnaire was conducted and regarded reliable to gather the data. There were two parts in the survey questionnaire concerning the objectives of the study. The first part was designed to collect the demographic profile of the respondents. The second part was seen as tools to measure the effectiveness of HRD at HOU.

The statements in the survey questionnaire were arranged accordingly using the five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neutral (neither agree nor disagree), 4 = agree and 5 = strongly agree. The Likert scale with the method of validating and establishing the reliability was applied (Zikmund, 2010). The responses were computed to measure the agreement level in terms of means and standard deviations. The scale, shown in Table I, with its descriptive ratings for the questionnaire was used in the survey.

6. The findings and discussion

The survey questionnaire was carried out to collect the data on the current HRD at HOU in terms of HRD practices, HRD climate, employee outcomes, university outcomes and other factors. The respondents were asked to which extend they agreed or disagreed with the proposition on a five-point Likert scale. The respondents’ evaluation of HRD practices at HOU is summarized in Table II.

Table II presents the respondents’ agreement on the implementation of HRD practices at HOU with the weighted mean of 3.61 and standard deviation of 0.87. The respondents agree that “Career opportunities are pointed out to juniors by senior officers at Hanoi Open University” and “The primary objective of the performance appraisal at HOU is mainly to develop their capacities” with the weighted mean of 3.64 and 3.63 accordingly. The respondents evaluate “The top management makes efforts to identify and utilize the potential of the employees,” and “Induction training provides an excellent opportunity for newcomers to learn comprehensively about HOU” at the same weighted mean of 3.60.

The results of Table II show that the respondents actually experience HRD practices at HOU. However, the descriptive rating is not very high which implies that HOU needs to implement more effective HRD practices in terms of providing employees’ career opportunities, developing employees’ capacities and utilizing employees’ potentials. As far as standard deviation is concerned, the average one referring HRD practices is 0.84, with all the statements’ standard deviations greater than 0.80 and lower than 1.00. This implies that the level of dispersion of data is not high and the measuring scale is quite good because it can measure the specific trend of the respondents’ replies rather exactly.

Table III discloses the weighted mean distribution and standard deviations in the respondents’ responses on the HRD climate at HOU. With the average weighted mean of 3.64 and low dispersion of standard deviation (0.84), the respondents agree with six out of eight statements describing HRD climate (questions 7, 8, 10, 11, 12 and 14) and have the neutral opinion for the two last questions of the provision (questions 8 and 13).

As far as Table III is concerned, the respondents agree with the two statements concerning “People trust each other at HOU” and “The employees are encouraged to take initiatives and do things on their own without having to wait for instruction from supervisors” with the highest weighted mean of 3.87. The respondents rated the two last statements “People at HOU are helpful to each other” and “Team spirit of high order at HOU” as neutral with the weighted mean of 3.36.

The results of this table show that respondents perceive HRD climate at HOU is not efficient enough, especially in supporting and building team spirit activities. Thus, HOU needs to improve HRD climate to increase university’s performances.

Table IV summarizes the respondents’ evaluation of employee outcomes at HOU. The respondents agree with the provisions on employee outcomes with 3.81 average weighted mean and standard deviation of 0.79.

Table IV exhibits that the respondents agree with all of the statements particularly as “Development opportunities offered by HOU are beneficial to employee current work” and “Development opportunities offered by HOU are beneficial to employee current work” (WM: 3.94), “The employees lacking of competence in doing their jobs are helped to acquire competence rather than being left unattended” (WM: 3.85), “Employee’s job performances have improved through the application of knowledge and skills acquired through development” (WM: 3.77), “HOU is conductive to any employee interested in developing by acquiring new knowledge and skills through training” and “The employees returning from training are given adequate free time to reflect and plan improvement at HOU” (WM: 3.69).

The results of Table IV show that the group of respondents perceived that HOU has paid attention to HRD for employees to develop their competences. However, these activities are not sufficient enough to enable the employees to achieve their personal best. Hence, HOU should improve the provisions concerning employees’ outcomes.

Table V presents the respondents’ evaluation of HOU’s outcomes. The respondents have the neutral opinion for all the statements of the provision with the overall weighted mean of 2.74 and standard deviation of 0.77.

As can be seen from Table V, the respondents rate neutral with the statements on “HOU utilizes and benefits form the training programs”, “HOU believes that employee behavior can be changed and people can be developed at any stage of their life” and “Personnel policies within the organization facilitate employee development” (WM: 2.73). Similarly, the respondents have neutral opinion on the statements particularly on “Use of knowledge gained through development activities increases efficiency within Hanoi Open University” and “There is well-designed and widely shared training policy at HOU” (WM: 2.77).

It can be inferred from these results that the respondents think HOU’s outcomes have not effectively resulted from HRD in terms of staff-training policies, development programs. Hence, HOU needs to strengthen these activities to utilize benefits from HRD.

Table VI evaluates neutral for the effectiveness of the other factors concerning HRD practices in terms of technological infrastructure and manpower at HOU with the overall weighted mean of 3.39 and standard deviation of 0.82. The respondents agree with the statements concerning technological infrastructure with the average weighted mean of 3.58 and standard deviation of 0.78 while they rate neutral for the statements referring manpower the average weighted mean of 3.21 and standard deviation of 0.85. This implies that HOU should pay more attention to technological infrastructure and manpower to achieve better performances.

Table VII presents the weighted mean distribution in the respondents’ responses to the survey questionnaire on HRD at HOU. The respondents agree with HRD at HOU with an average weighted mean of 3.43 and standard deviation of 0.81.

As can be seen from Table VII, the overall weighted mean of HRD at HOU is only 3.43, which is not very high. This implies that the current HRD practices at HOU are not efficient enough to bring about university outcomes as high as they are expected. The employee–respondents agree on most of the statements describing HOU’s HRD with the descriptive statistic A (four out of five). The four dimensions of HRD at HOU agreed by the respondents are HRD practices, HRD climate, employee outcomes and other factors with the average weighted means of 3.61, 3.64, 3.81 and 3.39, respectively. However, the respondents have a neutral opinion on the dimension that HRD has significant impacts on university outcomes with the descriptive statistic N (weighted mean rated only 2.74). This shows that the respondents perceive that HOU needs to pay more attention to developing human resources as one of the fundamental factors to enhance the training quality and effectiveness. It can be inferred from the study’s findings that HRD at HOU still has some shortcomings in terms of human resource quality, human resource structure and human resource management.

7. Conclusions and recommendations

7.1 Conclusions

Based on the findings of the study, some conclusions are drawn. First, HRD practices at HOU are not strong enough in terms of providing employees’ career opportunities, developing employees’ capacities and utilizing employees’ potentials. Second, HRD climate referring to supporting employees and building team spirit activities at HOU is not efficient enough. Third, HRD at HOU is not sufficient enough to enable the employees to develop their competences and achieve their personal best. Fourth, HOU has not effectively utilized benefits from HRD in terms of building staff-training policies and implementing staff development programs to gain better performances. Fifth, technological infrastructure and manpower for online training at HOU still need improvement to fully actualize their thrusts.

7.2 Recommendations

Based on the findings and conclusions drawn, the researcher has proposed some recommendations for better implementation for HRD at HOU. First, HOU should build a system of working positions with necessary skills and competences for staff working in open and distance training. It is essential for HOU to develop a plan to train employees working online for each position, providing them with suitable career development, enhancing their capacities and enabling them to achieve their potentials. Second, HOU should create a favorable working environment and build quality culture to inspire the employees to work creatively and effectively. Third, HOU should build adequate policies on recruiting and employing open and distance staff. It is essential for HOU to implement flexible wage policies based on talent and contribution efficiency. Besides, opportunities for promotion will appeal and retain more high-qualified employees to contribute to HOU’s performances. Fourth, it is essential for HOU to build and seriously implement the plan to train and foster human resources of open and distance education rationally both in headquarter and in local training centers to enhance their skills and competences dealing with open and distance learners. Last but not least, HOU should hold regular training programs on exploiting technologies in open and distance training for both full-time and part-time staff.

The above-mentioned recommendations are essential for HOU to develop human resources in open and distance education, which requires time and proper investment in all aspects from the very beginning until the human resources are working effectively. HOU is urgently required to undertake the comprehensive and effective measures to develop high-quality human resources for education integration in order to achieve its education development goals.

Figures

Figure 1

Stufflebeam’s training evaluation approach

Figure 2

The model of relationship between HRD and organization’s outcomes

Figure 3

Full-time employee’s structure of Hanoi Open University

Table I

Five-point Likert scale for measurement of agreement level

Scale	Scale range	Descriptive rating
1	1.00–1.79	Strongly disagree (SD)
2	1.80–2.59	Disagree (D)
3	2.60–3.39	Neutral (N)
4	3.40–4.19	Agree (A)
5	4.20–5.00	Strongly agree (SA)

Table II

Respondents’ evaluation of the HRD practices at HOU

	Descriptive statistics
HRD practices	Weighted mean	SD	Descriptive rating
Q1. The primary objective of the performance appraisal at HOU is mainly to develop employees’ capacities	3.63	0.84	A
Q2. Performance appraisal reports are based on objective assessment and adequate information	3.62	0.89	A
Q3. The top management makes efforts to identify and utilize the potential of the employees	3.60	0.88	A
Q4. Induction training provides an excellent opportunity for newcomers to learn comprehensively about HOU	3.60	0.89	A
Q5. Job rotation at HOU facilitates employees’ development	3.61	0.86	A
Q6. Career opportunities are pointed out to juniors by senior officers at HOU	3.64	0.87	A
Overall weighted mean	3.61	0.87	A

Table III

Respondents’ evaluation of HRD climate at HOU

	Descriptive statistics
HRD climate	Weighted mean	SD	Descriptive rating
Q7. Seniors guide their juniors and prepare them for future responsibilities/roles they are likely to take up	3.51	0.82	A
Q8. People at HOU are helpful to each other	3.36	0.86	N
Q9. The employees are informal and do not hesitate to discuss their personal problems with their supervisors	3.83	0.83	A
Q10. People trust each other at HOU	3.87	0.84	A
Q11. The employees discuss the problems raised and try to solve them rather than keeping accusing each other behind the back	3.51	0.86	A
Q12. Delegation of authority to encourage juniors to develop higher responsibilities is quite common	3.83	0.88	A
Q13. Team spirit of high order at HOU	3.36	0.80	N
Q14. The employees are encouraged to take initiatives and do things on their own without having to wait for instruction from supervisors	3.87	0.85	A
Overall weighted mean	3.64	0.84	A

Table IV

Respondents’ evaluation on employee outcomes resulted from HRD practices

	Descriptive statistics
Employee outcomes	Weighted mean	SD	Descriptive rating
Q15. The employees lacking of competence in doing their jobs are helped to acquire competence rather than being left unattended	3.85	0.80	A
Q16. HOU is conductive to any employee interested in developing by acquiring new knowledge and skills through training	3.69	0.79	A
Q17. Employee’s job performances have improved through the application of knowledge and skills acquired through development	3.77	0.81	A
Q18. Human relation competencies are adequately developed at HOU through training in human skills	3.94	0.79	A
Q19. Development opportunities offered by HOU are beneficial to employee current work	3.94	0.78	A
Q20. The employees returning from training are given adequate free time to reflect and plan improvement at HOU	3.69	0.81	A
Overall weighted mean	3.81	0.79	A

Table V

Respondents’ evaluation on HOU’s outcomes resulted from HRD practices

	Descriptive statistics
HOU’s outcomes	Weighted mean	SD	Descriptive rating
Q21. HOU utilizes and benefits form the training programs	2.73	0.76	N
Q22. Use of knowledge gained through development activities increases efficiency within HOU	2.77	0.75	N
Q23. HOU believes that employee behavior can be changed and people can be developed at any stage of their life	2.73	0.79	N
Q24. There is well-designed and widely shared training policy at HOU	2.77	0.78	N
Q25. Personnel policies within the organization facilitate employee development	2.73	0.78	N
Overall weighted mean	2.74	0.77	N

Table VI

Respondents’ evaluation of other factors referring to HRD at HOU

	Descriptive statistics
Other factors	Weighted mean	SD	Descriptive rating
Q26. HOU has upgraded technological infrastructure for online training	3.58	0.78	A
Q27. HOU has put manpower rationally	3.21	0.85	N
Overall weighted mean	3.39	0.82	N

Table VII

Respondents’ evaluation of HRD at HOU

	Descriptive statistics
Human resource development	Weighted mean	SD	Descriptive rating
HRD practices	3.61	0.87	A
HRD climate	3.64	0.84	A
Employee outcomes	3.81	0.79	A
University outcomes	2.74	0.77	N
Other factors	3.39	0.82	A
Overall weighted mean	3.43	0.81	A

Source: Developed from the survey questionnaire

Appendix