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HRM and Small-Firm Employee Motivation: Before and After the Great Recession

Author

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  • Alex Bryson
  • Michael White

Abstract

A long-running debate in the small-firms’ literature questions the value of formal human resource management (HRM) practices, which have been linked to high performance in larger firms. The authors contribute to this literature by exploiting linked employer–employee surveys for 2004 and 2011. Using employees’ intrinsic job satisfaction and organizational commitment as motivational outcomes, the authors find the returns to small-firm investments in HRM are U-shaped. Small firms benefit from intrinsically motivating work situations in the absence of HRM practices and find this advantage disturbed when formal HRM practices are initially introduced. Firms can restore positive motivation when they invest intensively in HRM practices in a way that characterizes high performance work systems (HWPS). Although the HPWS effect on employee motivation is modified somewhat by the Great Recession, it remains robust and continues to have positive promise for small firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Alex Bryson & Michael White, 2019. "HRM and Small-Firm Employee Motivation: Before and After the Great Recession," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 72(3), pages 749-773, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:72:y:2019:i:3:p:749-773
    DOI: 10.1177/0019793918774524
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Vathsala Wickramasinghe & Anuradha Premachandra, 2021. "Organizational career growth: the mediating role of career management practices," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 1(6), pages 1-29, June.
    3. Burdin, Gabriel & Kato, Takao, 2021. "Complementarity in Employee Participation Systems: International Evidence," IZA Discussion Papers 14694, IZA Network @ LISER.
    4. Chongryol Park & Ronald McQuaid & Jiwoon Lee & Seungjin Kim & Insuk Lee, 2019. "The Impact of Job Retention on Continuous Growth of Engineering and Informational Technology SMEs in South Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-19, September.
    5. V. Wickramasinghe & A. Premachandra, 2021. "Organizational career growth: the mediating role of career management practices," Post-Print hal-05458947, HAL.
    6. Beckmann, Michael & Grunau, Philipp & Kretschmer, Tobias & Shvartsman, Elena, 2025. "Does High Involvement Management Drive Affective Commitment? Causal Tests on System Coherence and Complementarity," IZA Discussion Papers 18047, IZA Network @ LISER.

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