Graduation Semester and Year

2013

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Business Administration

Department

Business Administration

First Advisor

Gary McMahan

Abstract

According to the resource-based view of the firm, human capital is a source of sustained competitive advantage of the firm (McMahan, Virick, & Wright, 1999; Wright & McMahan, 1992; Wright, McMahan, & McWilliams, 1994; Wright & McMahan, 2011). Based on micro-foundations, it is essential that one must begin with and understand the individuals that make up the organization before exploring it at the organizational level (Felin & Foss, 2005; Wright & McMahan, 2011). Hence, this study focuses on the individual level of human capital. The first research question of this study is "How does human capital affect the performance of employees?" The second research question of this study is "How does experience affect the performance of employees?" The third research question of this study is "How does social capital affect the performance of employees?" The purpose of this study is to theoretically develop and empirically test the relationships among multiple dimensions of human capital, social capital, employee behaviors, and performance by emphasizing the mechanisms (i.e., the mediators) between them. This study revisited the Wright and McMahan (1992) model by employing it at the individual level, adding a social capital variable, and categorizing human capital into context-generic human capital and context-specific human capital. Based on the existing literature, I hypothesize the relationships among context-generic human capital, context-specific human capital, job tenure, social capital (specifically, strong ties), in-role behavior, target-specific organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs), and individual performance as follows: (1) context-generic human capital is positively related to performance, (2) context-generic human capital is positively related to context-specific human capital, (3) context-specific human capital mediates the relationship between context-generic human capital and performance, (4) job tenure has a positive relationship with context-specific human capital, but this association diminishes as job tenure increases, (5) access to information resources mediates the relationship between social capital (specifically, strong ties) and context-specific human capital, (6) employee behaviors (i.e., in-role behavior and target-specific OCBs) mediate the relationship between context-specific human capital and performance, (7) employee behaviors (i.e., in-role behavior and target-specific OCBs) mediate the relationship between context-generic human capital and performance, and (8) context-specific human capital mediates the relationship between context-generic human capital and employee behaviors (i.e., in-role behavior and target-specific OCBs). All hypotheses were tested using a sample of nurses in Thailand. All data were tested using multiple regression analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis. Both methods yielded the same results, except the relationship between context-generic human capital and OCB-S. The results of this study showed that (1) context-generic human capital was positively related to performance, (2) context-generic human capital was positively related to context-specific human capital, (3) in-role behavior and two target-specific OCBs (i.e., OCB-I, OCB-O) partially mediated the positive relationship between context-generic human capital and performance, and (4) context-specific human capital mediated the positive relationships between context-generic human capital and these four types of behaviors (i.e., in-role behavior, OCB-I, OCB-S, and OCB-O). For the different result between two methods, context-specific human capital partially mediated the relationship between context-generic human capital and OCB-S in the multiple regression method, while context-specific human capital fully mediated these relationship in the SEM method. Moreover, job tenure and social capital were not significantly related to context-specific human capital.

Disciplines

Business | Business Administration, Management, and Operations

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