DETERMINATION OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES OF MANAGERS OF SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES IN ANAMBRA STATE, NIGERIA

Small and medium enterprises are making positive contributions to economic growth and development in Nigeria, but the rate of failure is high. This failure rate may be attributed to lack of planning, employee participation in decision making and poor management. To survive and compete in this globalized world, SMEs require managers with vast experiences in human resource practices. This study determined the human resource management practices of managers of small and medium enterprises in Anambra State. Two research questions guided the study and four null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Descriptive survey research design was adopted using a population of 2, 610 managers of SMEs in Anambra State. Taro Yamane formula was utilized to select a sample size of 347. A structured questionnaire developed by the researcher was used for data collection. Cronbach Alpha was used to establish the reliability of the instrument. The reliability index obtained was r = 0.85 and 0.82. Data were analyzed using mean, standard deviation, t-test and ANOVA. Mean was used to answer the research questions and standard deviation used to explain how the responses of the respondents varied. t-test and ANOVA were used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significant. The results showed that managers agreed on the human resource management practices (resourcing and employee development) they adopted in their small and medium scale enterprises in Anambra State. The results also showed that there was no significant difference in the mean responses of managers on the human resource practices (resourcing and employee development) they adopted in their small and medium scale enterprises in Anambra State based on size of enterprise and years of experience. Based on the findings, the researchers recommended, among others, that managers of SMEs’ in Anambra State should embark on capacity building of their members to ensure better understanding of the relevance of human resource practices on organizational growth and performance.