EFFECT OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES ON EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE (A STUDY OF SELECTED ACCESS BANKS PLC, CROSS RIVER STATE)

ABSTRACT The study examined the effect of human resource management practices on the performance of selected banks in Cross River State. The study sought to establish the effect of HRM practices of Career planning, Work-life balance and Employee empowerment on organizational performance variables of profitability and Service quality in selected banks in Cross River State. The study was anchored on the Resource Based View theory by Wernefelt, (1984). Six research questions were posed and six null hypotheses were formulated and tested. Cross- sectional survey design was adopted for the study with the target population being all the employees of the 3 selected banks. A sample size of 336 was drawn using the Taro Yamane's (1967) formula. The study used primary source of data, collected with the aid of closed- ended questionnaire while simple random sampling technique was adopted in choosing respondents for the study. Regression analysis was conducted using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) to ascertain the relationship between HRM practices and the performance of the selected banks. The findings revealed that there is a significant relationship between HRM practices of career planning, work-life balance and employee empowerment and organizational performance measures of profitability and service quality in the selected banks in Cross River State. It was concluded that HRM practices of Career planning. Work-life balance and Employee empowerment positively relates to organizational performance (profitability and service quality) in the selected banks in Cross River State. Employee Empowerment however showed a negative relationship with Service Quality. This study recommends among others, that management of the banks should sustain their effort in guiding their employees to select career goals and the path to achieving these goals in order to help employees achieve a better match between personal goals and the opportunities that are realistically available in the banks. Management of the selected banks in Benue state should also implement and sustain policies that balance out the work and life demands of the employe