Developing Human Capital according to the Communities of Practice: A comparative study by using Data Envelopment Analysis

Abstract

The research discusses the need to find the innovative structures and methodologies for developing Human Capital (HC) in Iraqi Universities. One of the most important of these structures is Communities of Practice (CoPs) which contributes to develop HC by using learning, teaching and training through the conversion speed of knowledge and creativity into practice. This research has been used the comparative approach through employing the methodology of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) by using (Excel 2010 - Solver) as a field evidence to prove the role of CoPs in developing HC. In light of the given information, a researcher adopted on an archived preliminary data about (23) colleges at Mosul University as a deliberate sample for this research. The research has reached several conclusions and suggestions, the most important of which: Reading the vision about the CoPs roles allows for officials of developing HC to get to know the frames that increases the efficiency of CoPs' performance, besides increases the CoPs' value in order to support for the development process. Also, the flexibility of DEA methodology make it as one of the most important of analytical models in the process of measurement and comparison, especially if we know that the concepts of developing HC focusing on outputs rather than inputs, as well as the DEA supports the orientation to outputs, besides towards input for measurement, comparison and optimization. This research suggests two directions in the future studies, the first are expanding the number of factors and indicators within the proposed analytical model, and the second direction is studying the timeframes for efficiency in colleges. Therefore, these directions will leads to several studies that include: the comparison among colleges that are similar in terms of knowledge domain locally, regionally and globally, besides studying the different timeframes to promote the Arab and international competition for these colleges.