HRM and Small-Firm Employee Motivation: Before and After the Great Recession

Abstract

A long-running debate in the small firms' literature questions the value of formal 'human resource management' (HRM) practices which have been linked to high performance in larger firms. We contribute to this literature by exploiting linked employer-employee surveys for 2004 and 2011. Using employees' intrinsic job satisfaction and organizational commitment as motivational outcomes we find the returns to small firm investments in HRM are U-shaped. Small firms benefit from intrinsically motivating work situations in the absence of HRM practices, find this advantage disturbed when formal HRM practices are initially introduced, but can restore positive motivation when they invest intensively in HRM practices in a way that characterizes 'high performance work systems' (HWPS). Although the HPWS effect on employee motivation is modified somewhat by the Great Recession, it remains rather robust and continues to have positive promise for small firms.

A multilevel examination of skills‐oriented human resource management and perceived skill utilization during recession: Implications for the well‐being of all workers

“…WERS6 consists of multilevel data from 2,680 managers responsible for employment relations (organizational‐level data, 46% response rate) and 21,981 employees in these organizations (employee‐level data; 54% response rate) (see Department for Business Innovation and Skills, for instrument design and sampling). Due to the timing of data collection (2011), WERS6 provides an invaluable resource for researchers focusing on the effects of and recovery from the 2008–2009 recession (e.g., Bryson & White, ). It is, therefore, suitable for examining the efficacy of HRM on employee outcomes in recessionary climates.…”

“…provides an invaluable resource for researchers focusing on the effects of and recovery from the 2008-2009 recession (e.g., Bryson & White, 2018). It is, therefore, suitable for examining the efficacy of HRM on employee outcomes in recessionary climates.…”

High-performance work systems and innovation in Vietnamese small firms

“…Although studies that span levels of analysis have gained ascendancy in strategic HRM research since the seminal work of Bowen and Ostroff (2004), surprisingly, this approach has yet to be embraced within the literature that reflects upon HPWS and innovation, despite suggestive hints (Fu et al, 2015). Furthermore, notwithstanding a small but insightful body of work reflecting on the implications of HPWS for performance including innovation within SMEs (Bryson and White, 2018;Sheehan, 2014), it is one of the first analyses, to our knowledge, that assesses HPWS through the eyes of employees in a small business context. Since research suggests significant differences in perceptions of owners, managers and employees across the entire domain of labour management within SMEs (Harney and Dundon, 2006), honing in on the perspective of one key stakeholder-the employee -gets closer to understanding whether or not HPWS are gaining traction as envisaged by the senior team.…”

“…Third, measuring employee perceptions of HPWS speaks to the question of how employees perceive a work environment where HPWS, rather than being prescribed in a formal sense through policy documents, best practice guidelines and specified protocol, are made manifest through informal working practices, relationships with line managers, senior members and other employees (Marlow et al, 2005). Lacking formal HR strategies and policies does not necessarily mean that smaller companies value employees less (Bryson and White, 2018); rather that they communicate more directly with employees, through informal dialogue and discussion/ feedback that flow from the demands the work environment presents (Sels et al, 2006).. Gaining insight as to employee experiences and understanding of such practices goes some way towards capturing wider influences.…”

“…Despite progress, significant gaps in understanding remain. First, evidence pertaining to the HPWS and performance relationship within small, rather than large, organisations, remains mixed; a significant body of work points to a positive relationship with performance outcomes (Bryson and White, 2018;Sheehan 2014;Aït Razouk, 2011). Yet, other studies present a more complex scenario (Lai et al, 2017;Sels et al, 2006).…”