Optimisation of technical human resource in management of road maintenance projects: A case study of Pallisa District

Abstract

The research study focused on examining an optimised use of technical human resources in management of road maintenance projects for Pallisa District. Technical human resource capacity deployed in a project is sought to be a key factor leading to poorly maintained road networks. There specific objectives set were to examine the Human resources capacity in relation to the gravel road network, assess the deficit in Human resource utilisation requirement and to develop an optimised plan to utilise and enhance Human resource capacity for Pallisa district. The study explored the specific objectives for ascertaining the skills that will be required in the management of gravel roads and how they will be acquired such that all members of the staff would be able to make effective contribution to the management of road maintenance projects. In addition the strategies generated for the optimised plan would be adopted for improving quality of roads, minimise costs and reduce work time spans. A cross-sectional survey research design that employed both quantitative and qualitative approaches for data collection and analysis were used. The data was collected using questionnaires, interviews, document reviews and analysed using the descriptive statistics of SPSS computer programme. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to assess the significance of the dependent and independent variables. The findings revealed that human capacity and deficit of human resource requirement had a positive significant effect on the management of roads maintenance projects in Pallisa. Technical human resource had a calculated p value of 0.035 (p=0.035) and human resource requirement deficit had a calculated p value of 0.002 (p=0.002). In contrast, developed optimised plan had a weaker significant effect on the management of roads maintenance projects with p value of 0.035 (p=0.035) probably due to intervening variables. The set value of p was 0.05 and any p-value less than this value results in significant effects, while any value greater than this value results in insignificant effects. For effective and efficient optimisation performance, the study concluded that improvement in human resources capacity positively affects management of roads maintenance projects in Pallisa district. This study therefore, recommends improvement of human resource capacity in terms of relevant training on management of roads maintenance projects for optimisation performance to be realised.