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Human Resource Management Sample Essay PDF
Human Resource Management Sample Essay PDF
IMPORTANT!
This review is for guidance only. I have produced it in response to student
questions about what a critical review looks like. Please do not include
headings in your assignments I have included them here to aid navigation of
the article.
On re-reading my review I wondered whether I had written too much on the
methodological discussion at the expense of discussing the results. Having
said this, perhaps my focus is justified given that the problematic research
strategy has implications for the results.
You will see that I have cited around 15 papers in my review you do not need
this many references in your assignment to get a good mark. I have simply
tried to demonstrate a few ways in which references might be incorporated
into your work.
through a critical review of Behrends paper, discussing in turn its conceptual bases,
recruitment, on the grounds that professional service firms are highly dependent on
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3. The study utilised a survey research strategy (3) to understand the recruitment
practices use in the focal firms (Methods). Behrends research findings suggest
recruitment and selection practices in SMKIPSFs, while distinct from the practices of
larger firms, are mostly suitable for the smaller firms in question (4). This finding
recruitment in SMKIPSFs, and indeed smaller firms more generally, that these firms
5. In criticising the management deficit (2007: 57) perspective, Behrends does not
offer many examples of studies taking such a position (5). Behrends does cite
Holliday (1995) along with Curran and Blackburn (2001) but it is unclear whether he
considers these authors to hold such a perspective or to share his criticisms of it.
Certainly from reading Hollidays (1995) study of working-life in smaller firms, and
Currans (2006) recent discussion of smaller firms distinctiveness (also see Torres
and Julien, 2005), it seems unlikely that the management deficit perspective is
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6. The lack of supporting evidence (5) offered for his assertion that Many
publications tend to construe the observable absence of (formal) HRM in small and
deficit perspective serves to throw the alternative equivalence model (2007: 57)
other words, the context of the organization should be taken into account when
basic functions, like recruitment, but they are expected to differ in how they fulfil such
functional requirements (2). Although some have criticised this functional view of
HRM in smaller firms (for example see Taylor, 2005) an awareness that smaller firms
should be judged on their own terms informs much of the recent literature on HRM in
small and medium organizations (Rainnie, 1989; Abbot, 1993; Marchington et al,
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9. Broadening his discussion beyond the primary concepts of deficit and equivalence
relations.
hypotheses concern the nature of recruitment in SMKIPSFs and the role played by
sectors. (2007: 62). The questions were mainly closed in nature and built around
organizations HRM activities, the social nature of the business, and considerations
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12. The 342 usable responses, a response rate of around 19%, represent an
13. The first issue with the research strategy concerns the studys focus. Although
Behrends explicitly identifies the concern of the study as relating to SME recruitment
practices (see for example the article title and the discussion on page 56), elsewhere
he describes the studys focus as being on policies (see for example page 62). The
distinction between policies and practices is important in itself because policies are
not always reflected by practices (Wright and Boswell, 2002). It matters from a
SMEs that survey responses are not necessarily matched by the practices in use.
criticism (5)
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Eight businesses over the 250 employee SME threshold were included in the 342 usable responses but these
were discounted by Behrends, leaving 334 organizations remaining for analysis.
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15. Secondly, the studys reliance on single respondents provides no means of
verifying the information provided by the respondent. This debate has already been
played out in the HRM literature (Paauwe and Boselie, 2005) and while single
respondent surveys are still present in research of HRM in SMEs (see for example
16. A third, and for current purposes final, challenge to Behrends research approach
concerns his use of closed questions. In setting out his initial position in relation to
the literature, Behrends is at pains to stress how research must be sensitive to the
the distinctiveness of smaller firms that informs Behrends critique of the deficit
in arguing for research that takes the context of smaller firms seriously but studying
these businesses via closed questions. Potential weakness (5) ... continuing below
...
17. Closed questions gather yes / no answers against a pre-defined set of policies,
of HRM in SMEs, however less good at detecting emergent practices not yet
(Scase, 1995) approaches to HRM might exist in these firms and yet not be
represented in extant research. If practices exist have but have yet to be reported in
the literature they are unlikely to be covered on Behrends list of closed questions.
2
Behrends partially acknowledges this limitation on page 73 but fails to explain why the research design
incorporated a significant weakness he was aware of
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Behrends research strategy therefore appears ill-equipped to meet his own standard
SMEs. If fact Behrends list is designed to confirm the existence of practices found
elsewhere rather than explore how SMKIPSFs context might inform the practices
they adopt.
approach makes it hard to discuss his reported findings with confidence (6).
Nevertheless, Behrends initial findings suggest that consistent with Kotey and Slade
(2005) larger firms have greater degrees of HRM formalization and infrastructure
than smaller firms. This means that firms of different sizes may vary in their
(2007: 72) involving existing employees, which recalls the earlier findings of
study suggests that SMKIPSFs may operate in ways similar to other SMEs (6). This
finding may be a product of the research design, however if this idea can be
generalised there may be scope for further research to test for whether general
research into HRM in SMEs can account for the activities of SMKIPSFs. [Practical
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to address the limitations of Behrends study and this seems to be the main practical
and recruitment in particular, to these firms along with the general absence of
that this was a worthy endeavour (6). Unfortunately fundamental difficulties with
Behrends conceptualisation and execution of his research mean that the reported
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References:
Abbott, B. (1993). "Training strategies in small service sector firms: employer and employee
perspectives." Human Resource Management Journal 4(2): 70-87.
Bacon, N., P. Ackers, J. Storey and D. Coates (1996). "It's a small world: managing human
resources in small businesses." International Journal of Human Resource Management 7(1):
83-100.
Curran, J. (2006). ""Specificity" and "denaturing" the small business." International Small
Business Journal 24(2): 205-210.
Curran, J. and R. Blackburn (2001). Researching the small enterprise. London, Sage.
Dennis, W. J. (2003). "Raising response rates in mail surveys of small business owners:
Results of an experiment." Journal of Small Business Management 41(3): 278.
Duberley, J. P. and P. Walley (1995). "Assessing the adoption of HRM by small and
medium-sized manufacturing organizations." The International Journal of Human Resource
Management 6(4): 891-909.
Kotey, B. and P. Slade (2005). "Formal human resource management practices in small
growing firms." Journal of Small Business Management 43(1): 16-40.
Marchington, M., M. Carroll and P. Boxall (2003). "Labour scarcity and the survival of small
firms: a resource-based view of the road haulage industry." Human Resource Management
Journal 13(4): 5-22.
Paauwe, J. and P. Boselie (2005). "HRM and performance: what next?" Human Resource
Management Journal 15(4): 68-83.
Rainnie, A. (1991). Small firms: between the enterprise culture and new times. Deciphering
the enterprise culture: entrepreneurship, petty capitalism and the restructuring of Britain. R.
Burrows. London, Routledge: 176-199.
Taylor, S. (2005). The hunting of the snark: A critical analysis of human resource
management discourses in relation to managing labour in smaller organisations. Managing
labour in small firms. S. Marlow, D. Patton and M. Ram. Abingdon: Oxfordshire, Routledge:
18-42.
Torrs, O. and P.-A. Julien (2005). "Specificity and denaturing of small business."
International Small Business Journal 23(4): 355-377.