Human Resource as a Source of Competitive Advantage: A Study on Bankers in Pakistan

Abstract

The global market competition demands organizations to have competent human resource in the relevant specialized field. The study undertaken to investigate the relation between competency-based training and employees’ performance with special focus on banking sector for its economic contributions in the development of a society. The population of the study is the bank managers in the public and private banks of Pakistan. The selected random sample comprised of those managers who have attended a training program at least once in the current job, sample size (N= 250), both male and female, age groups (1 = 25 to 35 years, 2=35 to 45 years, 3= 45years above) in various banks of Peshawar city. The data was collected using a structured questionnaire (α= 0.82) on a commonly used Likert scale, to investigate the relationship between competency-based training and employee performance. A Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient among the variables is significantat p= 0.001, hence proving a positive correlation of specialized training imparted and the employees’ performance in the banks of Peshawar. Further it is concluded that majority of bankers had a positive favorable responses about competencybased training imparted. Therefore, specific-to-job trainingis a viable option for the investment in human capital to improve overall performance of employees. A regular training need identification is suggested for the banks to strategically train and develop the bankers in the highly dynamic industry. Nevertheless, further research is suggested on finding bankers’ perception of inducing the training to their work.