HRM in Small and Medium-sized Organizations

Based on Human Resource Management in a Business Context by Alan Price - published by Cengage Learning

Contents

Objectives

The purpose of this chapter is to:
- Outline the nature of entrepreneurship.
- Evaluate the consequences of business growth on human resource practice
- Discuss the available research findings on human resource management in small and medium-sized businesses.
- Consider the consultancy as a special instance of the small business.

HRM in smaller organizations

International research

Business start-ups

Collaborative entrepreneurship

Small firm growth

The growth process

HRM practices in the small organization

Entrepreneurship and business growth research

Working in small businesses

Consultancies

Summary

This chapter introduced you to entrepreneurship and people management issues in small and medium-sized enterprises. This remains an inadequately researched area in HRM terms despite its importance to job creation and national economies. There is a fair amount of knowledge about individual entrepreneurs and their aspirations but comparatively little 'hard evidence' regarding collaborative entrepreneurship and the human resource aspects of the business growth process.

Further reading

International differences and similarities in small business research are outlined by Howard Aldrich in 'Learning Together: National Differences in Entrepreneurship Research' in D. L. Sexton and H. Landstrom (Eds.) The Blackwell Handbook of Entrepreneurship, (Blackwell Handbooks in Management), published by Blackwell (2000). His evolutionary approach to business growth is described in Organizations Evolving, Sage (1999).

Good texts on the growth process in SMEs include: Catlin and Matthews' Leading at the Speed of Growth: Journey from Entrepreneur to CEO, published by John Wiley & Sons (2001); and Flamholtz and Randle's Growing Pains : Transitioning from an Entrepreneurship to a Professionally Managed Firm, published by Jossey-Bass (2000).

Review questions

Problem for discussion and analysis

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