RELATIONAL CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT AND EMPLOYEE SKILLS MALLEABILITY OF AIRLINE OPERATORS IN RIVERS STATE

Abstract

This work examined the relationship between relational capital development and employee skills malleability in Airline Operators in Rivers State. Objective of the study was to examine how relational capital development relate with measures of employee skills malleability such as problem solving and critical thinking. The targeted population of the study consisted of (303) full-time staff of sixteen (16) Airline Operators in Rivers State. The entire population of three hundred and three (303) staff was used for the study without sampling. Structured questionnaire was used to obtain primary data after due validation, and ascertaining the reliability of the instrument at 0.74 using Crombach alpha. The researcher was able to retrieve 282 copies of the distributed questionnaire. SPSS Version 20.0 was used to run the analysis. Spearman Rank Order was used for the Bivariate analysis. The findings of the study revealed that there is a very strong positive relationship between relational capital development and problem solving in Airline Operators in Rivers State; there is a very strong positive relationship between relational capital development and critical thinking in Airline Operators in Rivers State. The study concluded that relational capital development is a veritable tool with which organizations such as Airline operators can build their employees’ skills malleability through problem solving, critical and other relating skills.  Amongst other things, the study recommended that employees of Airline Operators and other sister organizations should relate healthily with fellow employees and learn new skills from one another that will spur them towards problem solving and critical thinking.