Human Resource Management And Business Objectives And Strategies In Small And Medium Sized Business

There is growing evidence of the importance of co-operation between managers and workers for improving industrial performance. One manifestation of this is the growing use of human resource management (HRM) strategies to increase the involvement of employees. The survey of small and medium sized businesses revealed that a substantial majority of small and medium sized firms used HRM methods and many more than one. The employment of HRM was positively associated with a commitment to non-price competition, longer term business objectives, the intensity of training, innovation, external collaboration and partnerships and the use and effectiveness of externally provided business services and advice. Whilst no causal relation can be necessarily implied from these statistical associations, it is instructive that a significant larger proportion of firms that used HRM practices, particularly in combination and together with training, innovation and external partnership and collaboration, traded in the more fiercely competitive overseas markets and were growing.