HR Practices and Performance of the Employees in Universities of Odisha

With the growth of the economy, the Indian universities, the higher education in general and in particular have faced with a new challenge to provide qualified and skilled professionals to the burgeoning industries and corporate houses. The reason behind the establishment of university education in India and Odisha as observed by governments and others is to coordinate and enhance the development and utilisation of manpower in India vis-a-vis Odisha. The university must attract, develop and maintain an energetic workforce to support their goals and strategies. Prior studies have generally addressed the relationship between human resource (HR) practices like HR planning practices, performance appraisal practices, recruitment and selection practices, training and development practice and others and performance of employees in private sector organisations. There is a dearth of research in establishing the linkage between HR practices and performance in educational settings such as universities. This study makes an attempt to fill the identified gap by examining which HR practices are perceived to have linkages with the performance of the employees in an academic setting, more specifically in university educational setting. For the purpose, the two universities of the state including Utkal University, Bhubaneswar and Fakir Mohan University, Balasore have been considered. Data for the study were collected from secondary and primary sources that is through official records and a structured questionnaire from both the teaching and the non-teaching staff of the selected universities. The period of collection of primary data commenced in September 2015 and ended in March 2016.