Hargis and Bradley (2011) in their article, titled “Strategic Human Resource Management in Small Growing Firms: Aligning Valuable Resources,” are making analysis of most common selection, recruitment, compensation, and training practices typically applied by the owners of small business and representing the interpretation of a human resource management model grounded on small and growing enterprises’ operating needs.
Firstly, the notion of the human resource management practice is being explored in the paper; the term is used for describing an approach of designing, developing, and implementing interconnected people management practices that impact on the effectiveness of attracting applicants, keeping fruitful and enthusiastic employees, and, as a result, influencing job performance by the organization. The importance of constructive implementation of recruitment and selection procedures is also discussed within the article; whereas major goal of employee recruitment is formulated as creating a pool of applicants, the primary goal of the selection of employees is choosing most potentially appropriate workers for the company. Besides, it is noted that development and training programs are essential for the business, as skills and knowledge of its employees are needed to be constantly improving. Moreover, the role of compensation practices is presented as one of the most powerful factor of attracting, retaining, and motivating talented employees in small and growing enterprises (Hargis and Bradley, 2011).
Secondly, the significance of sufficient aligning of the resources in the firm’s performance is emphasized by Hargis and Bradley (2011). It is noticed that there are different capital’s forms which have a capability to contribute to the creation of the firm’s competitive advantage. Special attention is paid for human resources of the business; it is suggested that efficient evaluation of human resource strategies might play a decisive role in maintaining firm’s competitiveness.
Thirdly, the examination of current practices of human resource management in a sample of national organizations and a model produced with the goal of helping business with the implementation of the most sufficient plans of human resource management strategy are introduced by Hargis and Bradley (2011) in the manuscript. The authors used two specific archives of data sets to investigate the characteristics of national practices of human resource management; the data with interviews of 752 managers or owners of small employers having 250 or less workers was collected and analyzed. As a result, a set of conclusions were made by the authors. First, it was shown that the majority of the managers of small businesses used to have difficulties with recruiting and employing competent workers; most typically, problems occurred because of having complications with finding employees with specifically necessary levels of education. Secondly, it was demonstrated that numerous of small business owners prefer to organize training programs for their employees in order to enhance the quality of their performance. Thirdly, the role of compensations and benefits in terms of human resource management was investigated. Furthermore, guidance for small businesses owners and managers was introduced by Hargis and Bradley; it was, in particular, declared that human resource management should be regarded by the entrepreneurs as a crucially effective instrument of the increasing of the organization effectiveness, and it needs to be compulsorily applied.
References
Hargis, M. B., and Bradley, D. B. (2011). Strategic Human Resource Management in Small Growing Firms: Aligning Valuable Resources. Academy of Strategic Management Journal. 10 (2), 105-125.
