The Mediating Role of Human Capital in the Relationship Between the Organizational Culture and Performance

In an increasingly competitive environment excellence has become a key factor for survival of the organizations. The Excellence Model of the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) provides guidance for companies that wish to achieve excellence and to get better organizational results. Among factors that allow companies to achieve excellence and gain a competitive advantage are the organizational culture (Metri, 2005) and human capital (Wright, McMaham, & McWilliams, 1994), as key components of intellectual capital. The objectives of this research are firstly, to analyze whether the type of organizational culture that facilitates the successful implementation of the EFQM model (Culture of Excellence) also promotes the development of human capital to improve organizational performance, and, secondly, to study whether this human capital exerts an effect on the performance. To this end, it is proposed a model whose relationships have been tested using structural equations and in which organizational culture and human capital are classified according to Cameron and Quinn (2005), and Lepak and Snell (1999) respectively, and organizational performance has been measured by EFQM Excellence Model. The sample was obtained from the SABI database and data was collected through a structured questionnaire via webpage. 200 valid questionnaires were obtained that were answered by 4 managers of each of the 200 organizations. The results of the empirical analysis support the established relationships and also confirm the findings of previous studies, according to which human capital is a source of competitive advantage and is a key intangible variable for improving results.