IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp10737.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

HRM and Small-Firm Employee Motivation: Before and after the Recession

Author

Listed:
  • Bryson, Alex

    (University College London)

  • White, Michael

    (Policy Studies Institute)

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. We contribute to this literature by exploiting linked employer-employee surveys for 2004 and 2011. Using employees' intrinsic job satisfaction and organizational commitment as measures of motivation we 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, find this advantage disturbed when formal HRM practices are initially introduced, but can restore positive motivation when they invest intensively in HRM practices in a way that characterizes 'high performance work systems' (HWPS) and 'strategic human resource management' (SHRM). Although the HPWS effect on employee motivation is modified somewhat by the recessionary transition, it remains rather robust and continues to have positive promise for small firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Bryson, Alex & White, Michael, 2017. "HRM and Small-Firm Employee Motivation: Before and after the Recession," IZA Discussion Papers 10737, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10737
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp10737.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Frölich, Markus & Huber, Martin & Wiesenfarth, Manuel, 2017. "The finite sample performance of semi- and non-parametric estimators for treatment effects and policy evaluation," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 91-102.
    2. Aysit Tansel & Şaziye Gazîoğlu, 2014. "Management-employee relations, firm size and job satisfaction," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 35(8), pages 1260-1275, October.
    3. Chris Moule, 1998. "Regulation of Work in Small Firms: A View from the Inside," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 12(4), pages 635-653, December.
    4. Harvie Ramsay & Dora Scholarios & Bill Harley, 2000. "Employees and High‐Performance Work Systems: Testing inside the Black Box," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 38(4), pages 501-531, December.
    5. Alexander Hijzen & Richard Upward & Peter W. Wright, 2010. "Job Creation, Job Destruction and the Role of Small Firms: Firm‐Level Evidence for the UK," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 72(5), pages 621-647, October.
    6. Hainmueller, Jens & Xu, Yiqing, 2013. "ebalance: A Stata Package for Entropy Balancing," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 54(i07).
    7. Ichniowski, Casey & Shaw, Kathryn & Prennushi, Giovanna, 1997. "The Effects of Human Resource Management Practices on Productivity: A Study of Steel Finishing Lines," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(3), pages 291-313, June.
    8. Jan de Kok, 2003. "Human Resource Management within small and medium-sized enterprises," Scales Research Reports N200310, EIM Business and Policy Research.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. 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.
    2. Alex Bryson & Lucy Stokes & David Wilkinson, 2023. "Is pupil attainment higher in well-managed schools?," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(1), pages 129-144, January.
    3. Böckerman, Petri & Bryson, Alex & Ilmakunnas, Pekka, 2012. "Does high involvement management improve worker wellbeing?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 84(2), pages 660-680.
    4. Marsden, David & Cañibano, Almudena, 2009. "Participation in organisations: economic approaches," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 25167, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. John Forth & Alex Bryson, 2019. "Management practices and SME performance," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 66(4), pages 527-558, September.
    6. Bellmann, Lutz & Cornelißen, Thomas & Hübler, Olaf & Pahnke, André, 2008. "Betriebliche Reorganisation, Entlohnung und Beschäftigungsstabilität (Organisational change, wages and job stability)," Zeitschrift für ArbeitsmarktForschung - Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 41(2/3), pages 259-285.
    7. HAURET Laetitia & MARTIN Ludivine & OMRANI Nessrine & WILLIAMS Donald R., 2016. "Exposure, participation in human resource management practices and employee attitudes," LISER Working Paper Series 2016-16, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).
    8. John Forth & Alex Bryson, 2018. "The impact of management practices on SME performance," DoQSS Working Papers 18-04, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London.
    9. Naval Garg & Bhajan Lal, 2015. "Exploring the Linkage between Awareness and Perception of High-performance Work Practices with Employee Well-being at Workplace: A New Dimension for HRM," Jindal Journal of Business Research, , vol. 4(1-2), pages 81-100, June.
    10. Davide Antonioli & Paolo Pini & Roberto Antonietti, 2014. "Flexible pay systems and labour productivity: Evidence from Emilia-Romagna manufacturing firms," Working Papers 2014143, University of Ferrara, Department of Economics.
    11. Isabel Maria Bodas Freitas, 2011. "Technological learning environments and organizational practices--cross-sectoral evidence from Britain," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 20(5), pages 1439-1474, October.
    12. Michael White & Alex Bryson, 2018. "HPWS in the Public Sector: Are There Mutual Gains?," DoQSS Working Papers 18-10, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London.
    13. Michael Barry & Alex Bryson & Rafael Gomez & Bruce Kaufman & Guenther Lomas & Adrian Wilkinson, 2018. "The ''Good Workplace'': The Role of Joint Consultative Committees, Unions and HR policies in Employee Ratings of Workplaces in Britain," DoQSS Working Papers 18-08, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London.
    14. Massimiliano Mazzanti & Davide Antonioli & Susanna Mancinelli, 2011. "Are Environmental Innovations Embedded within High-Performance Organizational Changes?," Working Papers 201115, University of Ferrara, Department of Economics.
    15. Pedro Paulo Carbone & Tito Belchior Silva Moreira & Osvaldo Candido, 2017. "Assessing the Human Capital Emergence, Performance and Effectiveness in a Brazilian Retail Bank," International Journal of Economics and Finance, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 9(12), pages 134-152, December.
    16. Petri Böckerman & Edvard Johansson & Antti Kauhanen, 2012. "Innovative work practices and sickness absence: what does a nationally representative employee survey tell?," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 21(3), pages 587-613, June.
    17. Alex Bryson & Michael White, 2011. "HRM and Workplace Motivation: Incremental and Threshold Effects," CEP Discussion Papers dp1097, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    18. Bryson, Alex & Dale-Olsen, Harald & Barth, Erling, 2009. "How does innovation affect worker well-being?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 27781, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    19. White, Michael & Bryson, Alex, 2013. "Positive employee attitudes: how much human resource management do you need?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 51167, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    20. Nathalie Greenan & Ekaterina Kalugina & Mouhamadou Moustapha Niang, 2017. "Work Organisation and Workforce Vunerability to Non-Employment: Evidence from OECD’s Survey on Adult Skills (PIAAC) [Organisation du travail et vulnérabilité au non-emploi : une étude empirique à p," Working Papers hal-02162457, HAL.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    small firms; human resource management; high performance work system; workplace motivation; intrinsic job satisfaction; organizational commitment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L23 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Organization of Production
    • M50 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - General
    • M54 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Labor Management

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10737. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.