Human capital development: A qualitative analysis of university sport coaches’ perceptions

Abstract

Human capital development (HCD) is a critical tool to transform employees in an organisation into valuable assets that can help the organisation achieve its objectives cost-effectively and improve organisational effectiveness. University sport departments face huge challenges characterised by increased competition which requires proactive measures to keep pace with the rapid changes in sport. University sport coaches, who are recognised as a vital and precious human resource, play a significant role in helping the university to achieve its sporting objectives. There is little empirical evidence, particularly in the university context, of how HCD of sport coaches is managed. Hence, the purpose of this qualitative study was to explore university sport coaches’ perceptions of human capital development practices at their university. A qualitative exploratory research approach using semi-structured interviews was deployed for the study. The participants in this study were university sport coaches who were purposively selected to participate in the study. The data were content analysed and four themes, namely career planning, perceptions of HCD, challenges and HCD policy emerged through the content analysis of the data. The findings of this study suggest that not enough investment is made in sport coaches and not enough importance is attached to their professional development. Given the prominent role of sport coaches in a sport department it is important for sport organisations to support their professional development.

Keywords: Human capital development, sport coaches, university sport department