Human resource management and the small entrepreneurial start-up: a new reading
Creators: name: Kaye, Leah
Publisher: name: Swinburne
Year: 2024

description: This thesis is broadly concerned with the factors that influence and shape the character of human resource management (HRM) within the entrepreneurial start-up enterprise. Specifically, it investigates the way in which such companies implement and action HRM activities, and evaluates the extent to which it is possible to characterise the activities as entrepreneurial and strategic. Human resource management is understood in this thesis in its broadest sense - that is, as signifying people management within employment relationship. Little is known, however, about the development and implementation of human resource management in small and medium size enterprises. The majority of published research to date focuses on HRM in large, formal organisations, and is inter-organisational, rather than intra-organisational. Welsh and White comment that 'Small business is not a little big business' (1981: 18), however, and it cannot be presumed that the two have the same managerial practices. Research into small business does, however, indicate that size, informality of structures and processes, and the personal preferences, values and attitudes of the owner/manager impact significantly on the way in which HR practices are adopted. Although there is little extant research that focuses on the relationship between HR practice and strategy in small business, it has been suggested by some that they have limited ability to manage strategically due to the informality of their structures and processes. Others however speak of HRM in the small organisation as strategic where there is a discernible link with the strategic goals and objectives to improve business performance and develop organisational cultures that foster innovation and flexibility. The 'entrepreneurial start-up enterprise' is understood in this thesis as a particular type of business; that is, a simple, small, informal enterprise with a founder/owner/manager who is opportunistic, innovative, responsive to the excitement of risk taking, and is interested in fast growth. In the past, studies of the effectiveness of HRM and HR practices in small companies have benefited from being qualitative in nature. However, methodologies employed in the study of entrepreneurship tend to lack diversity and neglect alternative approaches (Aldrich, 1992). There has also been insufficient effort focused on researching organisation formation activities (Gartner and Starr, 1993). This thesis employs a qualitative approach that is interpretive, naturalistic, and narrative in style, in an effort to go some way towards redressing the limitations of existing work in the twin fields of HRM and entrepreneurship research. This is a longitudinal case study of two self-styled entrepreneurial start-up enterprises: Consultco and Pilotco. Consultco is an interactive business consultancy with a recruitment practice as part of its service. Pilotco is a publishing and Internet company that was to produce a series of CD-ROM guides to key Internet sites. A case study methodology was chosen as a sound way to explain, describe, evaluate and explore close-up HRM activities in the natural world of the entrepreneurial start-up. Narrative was chosen as a way of making the respondents stories about the organisational experiences more accessible to both the researcher and the reader, and in this way captures the unfolding story of the founding of a business as it occurs. The thesis is presented in four parts. The first part explores entrepreneurship, the influence of the entrepreneur on their organisation's culture, and the concept of entrepreneurial strategy within the growth process of the enterprise. It also covers different views of human resource management and the practice of HR in the context of small business, specifically the entrepreneurial start-ups. The second part of the thesis is concerned with the theoretical methodologies that underpin the research, and the design of the study. Part 3 presents the stories of the respondents in their own voice, to create organisational narratives for Consultco and Pilotco. A cross-case analysis follows, which tries to throw light on the process of HRM as it is practiced in the entrepreneurial start-up context. This part concludes with the researcher's own story within the research process, and how this experience in turn influenced on the process of meaning making. The final part of the thesis revisits the factors that influence and shape the character of HRM in the entrepreneurial context, and posits an alternative way in which to interpret the meaning of HRM, and its relationship to the opportunistic enterprise.