Al-Hikmah University Journal

Human capital management is assumed to be affected by; inappropriate leadership practice, lack of engagement of employees in decision-making process, no knowledge acquired from the superior, and wastage of talents. Even the educational sectors are finding it difficult to attract and retain human capital. Hence, the need to carry out the present study on human capital management of leadership practice and employee productivity in selected universities in Ogun State, Nigeria. Survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of this study consists of academic and non-academic employees of the four (4) selected universities Babcock University, Covenant University, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta and Olabisi Onabanjo University located in Ogun State which amounts to 6,058 employees. Using Cochran (1997) equation, the sample size was 586 university employees and random sampling technique was employed. A self-structured questionnaire was administered to the respondents, the research instrument was validated by the average variance (0.831). The Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient confirms the reliability of the instrument, which suggests that the instrument used for evaluation is highly reliable and data gathered was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics (simple linear regression analysis). The result of the analysis showed there was a positive relationship between leadership practice and employee productivity in universities in Ogun State at the value of (β= 0.343, t = 7.237, p<0.05). The study concluded that leaders with expertise in HCM strategic management participate in corporate decision-making that underlies current staffing assessments and projections for future workforce needs in the academic environment for improvement and productivity. The study therefore recommended that leadership approach should be objective enough for the employee’s participation at all departmental level.