Impact of human resources development practices on doctors' affective commitment towards their hospitals

This paper studies the relationship between a particular set of Human Resource Development (HRD) practices and the doctor’s affective commitment towards their patients and the hospital where they work. Data has been collected, using a structured questionnaire, from doctors working in multi-specialty hospitals in Coimbatore city, India. The set of HRD practices considered for this study includes Role Analysis, Performance Planning, Performance Appraisal, Performance Review and Feedback, Potential Appraisal and Succession Planning, Induction, Training Need Analysis, Training Program, Training Evaluation and Career Planning and Development. These HRD practices are considered for measuring the commitment of the doctors towards their patients and the hospitals where they are working. The findings reveal that (i) the HRD practices leads to the commitment of the individuals which, in turn, helps the organization to retain committed employees and also results in an improved performance of the individual as well as that of the organization, and (ii) there is a significant relationship of the Performance planning with Normative commitment. Other constructs do not have a significant relationship with normative commitment.