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Bleak house or bright prospect?: HRM in Australian SMEs over 1998–2008
Author(s) -
Wiesner Retha,
Innes Peter
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
asia pacific journal of human resources
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.825
H-Index - 33
eISSN - 1744-7941
pISSN - 1038-4111
DOI - 10.1177/1038411110368465
Subject(s) - benchmarking , human resource management , business , work (physics) , scale (ratio) , human resources , marketing , empirical research , management , geography , economics , engineering , mechanical engineering , philosophy , cartography , epistemology
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.