Retha Wiesner

Bleak house or bright prospect? Human resource management in Australian SMEs

This study fills the gaps in existing research on HRM in Australian SMEs by considering a wide range of standard human resource (HR) practices and some industrial relations practices. The small business sector has been regarded as the natural home for ‘bleak house’ human resource management practices typified by low uptake of human resource practices, little or no collective representation of employees and little or no employee participation. The results, reporting a national study (n = 1435) on human resource management practices in Australian SMEs, reveal a moderate take-up of human resource management practices. These findings by themselves do not support what Storey has called the ‘bleak house’ scenario in Australian SMEs. However, there are factors that may have a negative impact on the relative positive picture portrayed in this study, when the impact of organisational size, the presence of a HR manager and prevalence of a strategic plan on the uptake of HR practices in SMEs are considered, together with low unionisation, low employee participation and a low incidence of collective practices.

Australian small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs): A study of high performance management practices

A B S T R A C T While there is extensive management and academic literature on the topic area of high performance management internationally, research on high performance management practices in the Australian context is limited. Furthermore, research on high performance management practices has focused predominantly on large organisations and is largely a new direction for research in SMEs. This study attempts to fill some of the gaps in existing studies by considering a wide range of high performance management practices in Australian SMEs. Owing to the dearth of national data on high performance management in Australian SMEs, the results of this study are used to determine whether there is any evidence of a ‘high performing’ scenario in relation to management practices in Australian SMEs. The results, reporting a national study (N = 1435) on employee management in Australian SMEs, reveal a moderate take-up of high performance management practices. The findings by themselves do not support a ‘high’ performing scenario in relation to management practices in SMEs; however the low application of participative practices in the context of low unionization, and a low incidence of collective relations, indicates that many SMEs need a makeover if they are to meet the demands of competition. It is evident from the findings in this study that high performance practices in SMEs stand to benefit from modernisation and improvement.

Bleak house or bright prospect?: HRM in Australian SMEs over 1998-2008

The aim of this paper is to determine whether Australian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) could be described as ‘bleak houses’ or whether they have developed over the last decade into ‘bright prospects’ typified by human resource innovations. This study builds on empirical work (n = 1425) from ten years ago (1998), and re-examines the prospects of SMEs through the lens of human resource management (HRM) practices. Uniquely, the 2008 cross-sectional data provides for the large-scale tracking of strategic HRM practices. Specifically, 110 HRM practices over five traditional areas across 1230 SMEs are analysed. The prevalence, change, and patterning of HRM practices used by Australian SMEs in 2008 are investigated. It was found that SMEs need less of a make-over in relation to the adoption of HR practices, compared to a decade ago. From a practitioner viewpoint, the study provides cross-sectional benchmarking against the previous time-point, 1998, as well as extending that work with an examination of a more extensive range of new and emerging HRM practices.

The Human Side of Small and Medium Enterprises

The limited research conducted on Human Resource Management (HRM) in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) suggests that acquiring, developing, compensating and retaining employees is a major problem. A Queensland-wide study of Human Resource Management Practices in SMEs (with a sample of 431) found a surprisingly high take-up of human resource management practices. The present paper discusses this study, presents the results obtained and reflects on its implications for human resource management in SMEs.

Employee perceptions of workforce retention strategies in a health system

Retaining a skilled workforce and decreasing unwanted employee turnover is an economic and service delivery necessity for organisations. Key to operational and service delivery excellence is high employee retention. Many studies have investigated the job satisfaction/turnover relationship with regards to employee retention. This study builds on these works to investigate employee retention from a different angle by examining employee perceptions of workforce retention strategies to determine if any aspects of the strategy have an influence on employee turnover intention. The test site for this study was Queensland Health. The 3000 nurses targeted were from 63 sites in 8 Health Service Districts within the organisation. Survey methodology was chosen as the most appropriate for the geographically spread sample. Three motivation theories were adapted and applied to workforce retention strategies to identify retention factors and these were included in a conceptual framework to test the relationships. The survey looked at awareness of, participation in, and perceived effectiveness of, 28 workforce retention strategies offered by Queensland Health and how these might influence an employee’s intention to turnover. The relationship between retention factors and turnover intention was also investigated, and demographic variables were included to determine if they affected the relationship between retention factors and turnover intention. The study’s findings confirmed that of the cohort of nurses surveyed, most were aware of, and had participated in, one or more of the workforce retention strategies listed. The major obstacle in the respondents’ awareness was their lack of knowledge of which workforce retention strategies were being offered, mostly due to lack of promotion. The ranking of the effectiveness of workforce retention strategies exposed a preference for those that provided a monetary advantage, and to a lesser degree, a professional development opportunity. The study also revealed that there was a positive relationship between retention factors and decreased turnover intention. Further to these findings, a number of themes emerged consistently and strongly regarding nurses’ perception of turnover intention. These included; lack of support, lack of leadership, high workload, shortage of staff, bullying and no recognition of the role. These results have important implications for practical improvements in Queensland Health. The findings have set a solid foundation for further investigations and expanded research opportunities, whilst shedding a little light on this complex relationship.

Environmental sustainability change management in SMEs: learning from sustainability champions

This study identifies the change management processes involved in undertaking environmental sustainability (ES) initiatives within Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs) and relate these to the main attributes of learning organisations. Using case study techniques, the study draws from the change management experiences of a sample of 12 ES champions in different industries. The findings suggest that the ES champions experience four distinct change management stages in undertaking ES initiatives; namely the design, internalise, implement and evaluate stages. Each stage is also found to relate strongly with a number of key characteristics of learning organisations. Overall, the findings suggest that SMEs with strong learning organisation attributes are more likely to be successful in implementing and managing ES change initiatives. The implications of the findings are also discussed.

Beyond HRM intensity: Exploring intra-function HRM clusters in SMEs

Abstract Human resource management (HRM) clusters have been studied in large organisations, however it is a relatively new direction of research in SMEs. Through the large-scale tracking of 110 HRM practices within five HRM domains across 1230 SMEs, the objective of this paper is to firstly undertake a quantitative exploratory analysis into the clustering of practices within recruitment, selection, training and development, remuneration and performance appraisal, and secondly to examine how the intra-function HR bundles are differentiated by contextual factors such as size, presence of a HR manager, whether the owner-manager is present and industry. This approach is in contrast to existing research which is premised on HRM intensity: that more HR practices are better. Our results show a strong multiple clustering of practices within HRM functions in SMEs, except for training and development. The predictors of HR practices show the liability of firm smallness and the difficulties firms face in the absence of HR professionals.

Managing Change Toward Environmental Sustainability: A Conceptual Model in Small and Medium Enterprises:

This article aims to develop a model for managing change toward environmental sustainability (ES) within small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by investigating the main ES change management actions evident from the ES journeys of SME ES champions. Using in-depth face-to-face interviews, the article draws from the ES change management experiences of a sample of 12 ES champions from the SME sector, as well as secondary organization–specific data. A multicase design was adopted to develop the proposed model. A thematic content analysis identified 10 main change management actions along with a number of associated actions. The findings provide an empirically developed ES change management model and practical managerial ES change management guidelines to SMEs embarking on an ES journey.