HUMAN CAPITAL AND ITS EFFICIENCY IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Human capital indirectly influences the performance in the project management. Appropriate combination of knowledge and experience acts as the key elements in any projects success. Higher the stock of human capital, the more successful the firm and more will be the competitive advantage over its rival and vice versa [1 ]. As Becker (2002) suggested, in many countries for example Argentina, the policy of having a protective market with modern machinery and excluding foreign imports was given more importance than people due to which their economy was highly ruined . Failure of these policies was due to the negligence of the investment in people and not giving them the opportunities in the economic development [2].To elaborate, these policies failed due to the absence of human capital which is the key to the knowledge -intensive work carried out in projects [4]. Human capital has been an asset for most of the firms. Firm uses human capital for its competitive advantages. However, these attributes along with the characteristics of the project manager is responsible for the firm s outcomes. An individuals human capital comprises his/her productive skills and technical knowledge and any other skills that might be useful to the firm (i.e., characteristics that may enhance his or her salary). Thus, a workers or managers compensation can be viewed as return to investment in human capital [6]. Employees bring knowledge with them and expect a growth in their human capital either by learning on their job or by some formal training [3]. Knowledge is basically classified as articulable and tacit knowledge. Articulable knowledge is mainly the academic knowledge and can be easily transferred. Tacit knowledge, on the other hand, is acquired by learning and professional experience and is difficult to b e transferred. It is unique, valuable, difficult to imitate and uncertain (Mowery, Oxley, & Silverman, 1996 ; cf. Hitt, M.A., Bierman, L., Shimizu, K. and Kochhar, R., 2001) . High quality of service requires high quality of knowledge and therefore, it is essential for the project managers to retain this knowledge. Among the various role s of a project manager, some of the prime roles are decision making and leadership qualities which can be ef fectively applied only if he/she has that certain amount of knowledge and s kill. People represent the primary source directly influenced by the activities of PM [1]. And to understand people, project manager needs to acquire certain knowledge and experience. Project management with diff erent profiles have been analysed and it is observed that project manager with higher values of human capital will reach the maturity in their career sooner [1]. Thus, it justifies that human capital affects the time performance of project management, specifically, in a construction industry. A person entering the industry without any articulable knowledge but with some industry specific knowledge takes more time in reaching a maturity level in his/her career than the person having both articulable and tacit knowledge. In contrary, person with a project management academic qualification and industry specific tacit knowledge will reach the maturity in their career before all the other profile managers as their specified academic qual ification will provide them with better job prospects and position in the initial stage of their career itself. However it can be argued here that individuals from a better institution will have more advantages. This is because individuals who receive thei r education from the best univer sities are assumed to have more and better knowledge and to have high intellectual potential to learn and accumulate tacit knowledge [5]. Due to which the probability of th e success of the project is higher. Also, leveraging of human capital within an organisation is also very important as it results in more human capital gain. A project manager who acquires academic qualification from a top university with strong intellectual knowledge and great abilities to cumulat e tacit knowledge will provide more benefits when leveraged. Therefore, it can be argued that human capital within any individual, or rather a project manager is very necessary for the success of the project. The main aim of project management is the co mpletion of the project within the specified target along with managing their team effectively . And for this specific time performance, it is required tha t project manager holds efficient knowledge and skills for better productivity .

REFERENCES:
1. Brown, A. W., Adams, J. D. and Amjad, A. A. (2007) The relationship between human capital and time performance in project management: a path analysis. International journal of project management , 25, 77-89. 2. GS Becker (2002) Human Capital . Accessed through: http://www.um.edu.uy/docs/revistafcee/2002/humancapitalBecker.pdf 02/11/2010 3. Katherine V.W.Stone (2002) Knowledge at Work: Disputes Over the Ownership of Human Capital in the Changing Workplace . Accessed through: http://library2.lawschool.cornell.edu/hein/Stone%20Katherine%2034%20Conn.%20L. %20Rev.%20721%20(2002).pdf 02/11/2010.

4. J.K.Crawford (2005) Optimizing Human Capital with a Strategic Project Office: How to Select, Train, Measure and Reward People for Organization Success . Accessed through: http://www.pmsolutions.com/uploads/file/Expert%20Series%20 %20Optimizing%20with%20SPO(1).pdf 29/10/2010.
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