Professional Development of Contracts and Acquisition Professionals in the Public and Private Sectors : A Comparative Analysis

This study examined the influence of human resource development on systemic practices, utility, and organizational results among contracting professionals within the public and private sectors. The study used a quantitative, correlational research design to answer the research questions, which asked whether or not statistically significant correlations were observed between human resources development and systemic practices, utility, and organizational results in the public and private sectors. A purposive sample was drawn from the membership of the National Contract Management Association to obtain the data necessary to answer the research questions. Once data was collected, it was reviewed for missing values and outliers. Then, the data was coded and imported into SPSS version 22.0 for Macintosh for data analysis. The data was first analyzed descriptively to identify similarities and differences between public and private sector contracting professionals. Additionally, the data was arranged by construct and analyzed for correlations between HRD and systemic practices, utility, and organizational results. The study was grounded in two theories – Kirkpatrick’s hierarchy and contingency theory. The data were evaluated against each of these theories