6. Discussion and Conclusions
6.4. Future research suggestions
The research of HRM in the SME context remains scarce. Due to the relatively large number of SMEs in Finland it would be nationally significant to know more about the strategic management of human resources. Especially since the gap between entrepreneurs and academic research seems to remain relatively wide.
Thus, it would be fruitful for students and scholars to continue studying the SMEs in this type of researches to widen our understanding about the decisions and success factors related to HRM decisions.
The benefit of qualitative research is that it gives a subjective understanding and insight to the research object. However, the results can rarely be confirmed without substantial repetition, or quantitative research. It would be interesting to conduct a broader research on the subject with statistically significant sampling. That would help generalize the assumptions and implications made in this research. More importantly, it would prove the validity and reliability of the results.
However, the size of such research is beyond the resources of a Master’s thesis and should therefore be conducted e.g. as a doctoral thesis.
7. Summary
This research was based on the familiarization of the previous research of SMEs, HRM and organizational culture. The most pivotal critique presented by the previous research has been the insufficient consideration of HRM regarding the SMEs growth management and the effect of HRM on the organizational culture. The research of Mazzarol (2003) seemed as an interesting guideline, as he had studied companies of similar size and circumstances with Hydroline and Junttan. It was also very important to discover the research of Gabrielsson & Gabrielsson (2013) that contributed into the creation of the frame of reference by confirming in the INV context most of what Mazzarol stated previously.
Although SMEs form 99,8 percent of the population of Finnish companies and their role in employment and economic growth is widely understood, the research and literature has so far been very slim. This can be partly due to the large variety in sizes and diversity makes it really challenging to make universal conclusions about them. Even the very definition of an SME might differ vastly between different researches. Another reason might be, that due to the potentially unstable and uncertain nature of the SMEs, marketing and finance have considered to be more important subjects of research. However, the research of HRM produces valuable information about SMEs and provides the SME managers some new views to support the development of their management strategies.
Employees are an imperative resource for any business. Thus, every company should have an individual HR strategy to support their business plan and strategy. The HR strategy should describe the quantitative and qualitative goals for the HRM in a long-term period. HR strategy works as a guideline for the managers in their everyday decision-making. All HR related matters, such as planning, organizing, motivating and managing form together the HRM of the company that actualizes trough various HRM processes, e.g. recruiting processes, rewarding systems and training programs.
SMEs are often very different from the large international corporations, all though there are almost always some similarities. The very smallest micro companies are managed and often exclusively operated by the owner-manager, where as large SMEs, such as Hydroline and Junttan can have their own HR manager, or even entire HR department. The limitations of the resources and the motives of the managers are powerful influences in the everyday operations of SMEs. E.g.
only a fraction of Finnish SMEs aspires to grow. The motivation for running a small company is often the possibility for independent working, self-actualization or even simply to have a job.
However, those companies who aspire to grow should have a growing interest on developing their HRM in order to attract, develop, commit and maintain the skilled and motivated personnel they need to be competitive in the future, and tackle the various challenges that the globalization is constantly changing.
The goal of this research was to evaluate how important tool the managers of the researched companies considered HR development to be, and what stages of growth the companies had passed and which challenges they had encountered in order to launch the different decisions and development programs they had gone trough. The research was conducted by interviewing the HR managers of both companies and the CEO of Hydroline to get the insight of their visions and aspirations regarding HR development. An Entrepreneur Association specialist, who has also been an entrepreneur all of his working life was also interviewed to gain the ability to make some general assumptions about the visions and decisions of the interviewed mangers. HR planning, recruiting, training and rewarding were chosen as the subjects of examination, because they are areas of HRM that have to be considered at least on some level in every company. Qualitative research was a natural approach to the research questions, as the goal was to deepen the understanding of the HRM processes used in SMEs and the factors influencing them. The companies were employing 120-200 people at the time of the interviews and they operate in the hi-tech manufacturing industry, making heavy-duty machines and parts of high quality for international markets. Both Hydroline and Junttan are to be considered as growth companies, although they both have undergone some challenges over the past decade, due the global economic downturn. The economic situation has been more difficult for Junttan, as the sales of their products are bound to the economic trends of the construction industry.
Hydroline and Junttan have both been dramatically developing their HRM and their HR processes recently. They also seemed to be on the crest of development in various other aspects, e.g. production processes, technical solutions and product quality, as well. However, even these two companies considered visionary among their peers have started to understand the scale of possibilities of HR development just recently. They both went the first 40 years of their existence with the bare minimum of HRM, because they were smaller, and because that was the trend in the SME business – management by hierarchy.
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ATTACHMENT:
The questionnaire form for the interviews (in Finnish)
Haastatteluteemat
Taustatiedot 1.! Yrityksen historia?
2.! Markkinat?
3.! Omat vaiheesi yrityksessä?
4.! Tulevaisuuden johtaminen ja tavoitteet?
5.! Suurimmat ja oleelliset muutokset yrityksessä?
Rekrytointi
6.! Henkilöstömäärän kehitys ja henkilöstön vaihtuvuus?
7.! Tyytyväisyys henkilöstön laatuun / rekrytointitarpeet?
8.! Rekrytointikanavat?
9.! Kanavien valintaan vaikuttavat tekijät?
10.!Kanavia poissulkevat tekijät?
11.!Tärkeimmät uuden työntekijän valintaan vaikuttavat kriteerit?
12.!Rekrytointikustannukset ja niiden kehitys?
13.!Suurimmat haasteet rekrytoinnissa?
14.!Miten rekrytointiprosessi on muuttunut yrityksen kasvaessa?
15.!Tärkeimmät etapit?
Palkkaus ja työvoimamarkkinat 16.!Osaamisen riittävyys markkinoilla?
17.!Tärkeimmät keinot houkutella osaamista yritykseen?
18.!Kumppanuuksia?
19.!Vahvuudet työnantajana työmarkkinoilla?
20.!Palkanmaksuperusteet?
21.!Motivointikeinot?
22.!Palkan merkitys motivaatiokeinona?
23.!Miten palkanmaksuperusteet ovat muuttuneet yrityksen kasvaessa?
24.!Tärkeimmät etapit?
Kouluttaminen ja kehittäminen
25.!Työntekijöiltä vaadittava koulutustausta?
26.!Perehdyttäminen?
27.!Jatkokoulutus?
28.!Koulutuksen vapaaehtoisuus?
29.!Keinot motivoida työntekijöitä kouluttautumaan / sitoutumaan?
30.!Koulutuspäivät per työntekijä vuodessa?
31.!Koulutuksen vaikutus kilpailukykyyn?
32.!Henkilöstöjohtamisen vaikutus kilpailukykyyn?
33.!Miten suhtautuminen kouluttamiseen on muuttunut?
34.!Miten henkilöstöjohtamisen käytännöt ovat muuttuneet?
35.!Haasteet?
36.!Innovaatioiden hyödyntäminen?
37.!Keskustelukulttuuri vs. Hierarkia?
38.!Tärkeimmät etapit?