Human Resource Development in Small Organisations

Research and Practice

Jim Stewart, Graham Beaver

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2003
• ISBN:
  9781134423460
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

In its description and analysis of the current context of research and practice of HRD in small organizations, this collection of essays provides a comprehensive and critical evaluation of current approaches. This evaluation leads to an exploration of a number and range of HRD methods as they are applied in the small organization context and provid

1 Researching and practising HRD in small organisations

Jim Stewart and Graham Beaver

 

 

 

Introduction

This book arose out of the ESRC funded Research Seminar Series on ‘HRD: the emerging theoretical agenda and empirical research’. The series itself was an initiative of the University Forum for HRD. The Forum had identified the practice of HRD in small organisations as both an underdeveloped and growing field of research and so one of the award holders of the ESRC grant and co-editor of this volume, Jim Stewart, organised a seminar on the subject. The papers presented at the seminar form the core of the book and are joined by additional contributions from leading researchers in the field, drawn from membership of the UFHRD.

In common with the other volumes in the Studies in HRD Series, the overall purpose of the book is to advance knowledge and understanding of the concept of HRD and its professional practice. Debate on the meaning of the concept continues to be vigorous (see McGoldrick et al. 2002) and so this volume does not impose or even reflect a single or unified definition. Neither does it reflect a single research paradigm. All of the chapters are based on recent or current research. However, there is diversity in the methodological assumptions informing the design of that research. The contributions therefore reflect the eclectic nature of HRD research and writing signalled and celebrated by McGoldrick et al. (2002). What is distinctive and important about the contributions is the common and unifying focus on small organisations. The latter term is a deliberate choice. The more commonly used term small and medium enterprises (SMEs) was rejected for three reasons. First, that term implies and is associated with organisations operating for profit in industrial and commercial sectors of the economy. By definition, this excludes the public and voluntary sectors, although it is recognised and acknowledged that the latter is likely to be most significant in terms of organisation size as a defining characteristic. The factor of size though is the second reason for rejecting the term SME. Various official agencies such as the European Commission and ministries of national governments provide and operate different definitions of SME based on numbers employed. This variety is reflected in the contributions to this volume. Our position as editors has been to accept the variety of definitions applied by the contributions. Finally, our view is that the term SME tends to emphasise and support the assumption of scaled down versions of large or larger organisations. In contrast, the term small organisations reinforces the concept of ‘smallness’ as being the important, if not defining, characteristic which has significance for the nature of HRD practice in that context.

We also consider the importance and significance of the context of small organisations to be self-evident. Small organisations are of growing influence as a source of employment opportunities (see Stewart and Knowles 1999, 2000; European Commission 2001). This of course has implications for all aspects of organising and managing. Given though the current policy emphasis on learning and development as a factor in achieving success, however defined or measured, it is arguable that HRD research is of particular importance. As Rosemary Hill (Chapter 2 in this volume) argues, HRD in small organisations is historically, a neglected field of study. This volume is a contribution to remedying that situation.

Aims

The overall purpose of the book then is to provide a comprehensive and contemporary review of research into the practice of HRD in small organisations. Following from this overall purpose are two main aims. First, to describe and disseminate the results of a wide range of research on HRD in small organisations. Achievement of this aim will in turn support learning and teaching of HRD. The second aim is to provide examples of HRD research projects in small organisations. The intention of this second aim is to stimulate, support and inform future research.

A number of subsidiary aims flow from the two main aims. The first of these is to describe and analyse the context of research and practice of HRD in small organisations. As already indicated, no single definition of ‘small’ is imposed. However, a consistent theme of the chapters is that ‘smallness’ implies certain characteristics that differentiate and define the context of small organisations. The book as a whole aims to identify and examine those characteristics. The second subsidiary aim is to critically examine and analyse a variety of approaches to HRD, which are developed and adopted in response to contextual characteristics of small organisations. As with other terms and concepts, the book does not adopt a singular or consistent understanding of the term ‘critical’ and certainly not the limiting understanding associated with ‘critical theory’. Contributors adopt and apply their own understanding, including that of critical theory in some cases. What is common though is an attempt to question what is arguably the dominant paradigm of analysing HRD approaches in small organisations as scaled down versions of those adopted in large organisations.

This varied critical style is reflected in a third subsidiary aim, which is to describe and analyse a range of HRD methods as they are applied and practised in the context of small organisations. A final objective is to provide a useful resource to all of those with an interest in the practice of HRD in small organisations.

Readership

The last objective gives some indication of our intended readership. The book, and its constituent contributions, can be considered to fall into the publishing category of research monograph. That signals that the content will be of relevance and interest to academic researchers and policy advisers and makers. We would include in that category those researching and studying HRD as students. In particular, the book is intended to support those working at doctoral level, and those on specialist master's programmes in HRD and HRM. In addition, those on more generalist master's programmes such as MBAs studying specialist HRD or HRM electives are an intended and expected readership. The particular focus of small organisations suggests another category of potential readers. The study of the management of small organisations is an established subject in its own right. We argued earlier that HRD is of particular significance and importance in that study. Therefore, academics and students working in the field of small organisations are also part of our intended readership. The study of HRD and small organisations are both increasingly a feature of undergraduate programmes. Final year undergraduates electing to study such modules are a further category of readers.

A final point needs to be made about intended and potential readership. We described ‘research monograph’ as a publishing category that, in that context, is defined in opposition to ‘textbook’. The latter is intended to signal a book intended to support what is now referred to as learning and teaching. In our view, such distinctions are not helpful and this book is certainly intended by us to provide the support traditionally associated with textbooks.

Structure and organisation

The overall structure of the book reflects its main and subsidiary aims. For that reason, the individual chapters are grouped into three parts. Part I contains four chapters. What these chapters have in common is a focus on the context of HRD research in small organisations. Both of these components are examined; that is the contextual characteristics of small organisations and the implications of these for the design and conduct of research into HRD practices. Following this context setting, Part II contains five chapters which report the results of research that informs understanding of approaches to HRD. These approaches include a number which are either directly connected to, or are indirectly associated with, initiatives taken under the vocational and educational training (VET) policy of the UK government. Such initiatives form a long history of government interventions that have attempted to support the survival and success of small organisations. Other chapters in this part examine recent approaches such as those based on developments in information and communications technology. Part III is concerned with HRD methods. The distinction between approaches and methods is somewhat arbitrary. A sense of scale and scope is applied here so that constructs such as mentoring and coaching are defined as methods. The overall logic then reflects that sense of scale and scope as we begin with context and move into approaches before completing the book with chapters focusing on methods.

Individual chapters adopt a similar structure and a common content, which may include the following items:

• objectives

• theoretical context

• research context

• findings/results

• interpretation

• conclusions and learning points.

The commonality of content is intended to support the identification and synthesis of emerging themes. We do not attempt to do this ourselves since leaving that task to our readers supports the use of the book as a resource to support learning and teaching. In addition, our reading of the contributions suggests scope for much argument and debate on what those emerging themes might be and so we do not wish to close off that debate by providing what might be seen as a definitive interpretation.

While the organisation of the contributions into the three-part structure has what we believe to be a defensible logic, the book does not have to be read as a single narrative. Specific chapters or parts can be read independently depending on particular and personal interests. Thus, the book can be seen and used as a resource to be used as and when necessary or desired.

Bibliography

European Commission (2001) Employment in Europe 2001: Recent trends and prospects, Luxemburg: EC.

McGoldrick, J., Stewart, J. and Watson, S. (2002) ‘Postscript: the future of HRD research’, in J. Stewart, J. McGoldrick and S. Watson (eds) Understanding HRD: A research-based approach, London: Routledge.

Stewart, J. and Knowles, V. (1999) ‘The changing nature of graduate careers’, Career Development International, 4, 7: 370–83.

Stewart, J. and Knowles, V. (2000) ‘Graduate recruitment and selection: implications for HE, graduates and small business recruiters’, Career Development International, 5, 2: 65–80.

Part I
The context of HRD in
small organisations

2 Why HRD in small organisations may have become a neglected field of study
ROSEMARY HILL

3 Neither market failure nor customer ignorance : the organisational limitations of employee training and development
SCOTT TAYLOR, SUE SHAW AND RICHARD THORPE

4 Now you see it now you don't: comparing traditional and discourse readings of HRD in small organisations
CLARE RIGG AND KIRAN TREHAN

5 The big business of strategic human resource management in small business
GRAHAM BEAVER AND KATE HUTCHINGS

INTRODUCTION

This part contains four chapters which examine various aspects of the context of HRD research and practice in small organisations. Chapter 2, by Rosemary Hill, presents an argument which seeks to explain why HRD research has neglected the field of small organisations. The argument in part rests on the premise that HRD needs to be understood in a different way if its practice in small organisations is, in turn, to be understood. A related premise is that large firm logic is inappropriate to the small organisation context. Based on these and other premises, Hill provides a particularised and contextualised way of understanding HRD in small organisations which, she argues, will inform and support future research.

Chapter 3 by Scott Taylor, Sue Shaw and Richard Thorpe can be said to support Hill's thesis. Drawing on research in four small organisations, the chapter demonstrates the important influence of ‘situated’ social practices on learning and development. In doing so, the chapter also questions and challenges more traditional and established ways of accounting for HRD practices in small organisations. These traditional and established approaches are, arguably, weaker because of their reliance on a logic which is more appropriate to large(r) organisations. The challenge to those approaches is continued in Chapter 4 where Clare Rigg and Kiran Trehan apply a discourse analysis and critical learning perspective to provide novel understandings of HRD practice in small organisations. In common with Hill, this leads them to question current and dominant definitions of HRD. It also leads, as with Hill and with Taylor, Shaw and Thorpe, to an argued shift in the approac...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Full Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Notes on contributors
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Researching and practising HRD in small organisations
• PART I The context of HRD in small organisations
• PART II Approaches to HRD in small organisations
• PART III Applying HRD methods in small organisations
• Index