Configuring and Contextualising Hr Systems: An Empirical Study of Manufacturing Smes**

Zusammenfassung

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Human resource management (HRM) has become for SMEs a critical factor of adaptation to an increasingly complex and uncertain business environment. Founded on open systems and contingency theory, the present study seeks to identify configurations of HR systems in manufacturing SMEs, and to determine the extent to which these configurations are associated to the environmental and organisational context. Survey data analysis of 176 manufacturing SMEs revealed three configurations of HR systems, namely a "strategic-high-commitment system", a "functional-high-commitment system", and a "traditional-low-commitment system". Differences in these systems are associated to variables that reflect the SMEs' environmental, organisational and technological context.

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Auszug

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Configuring and Contextualising Hr Systems: An Empirical Study of Manufacturing Smes**

Introduction

One of the important trends in the study of organisations in the last thirty years has been the increasingly explicit recognition of environmental factors, including the study of HRM in SMEs (Arthur/Hendry 1992). For Scott (2004), this is attributable to the development of open systems theory, focusing on the environment with which all types of systems interact, be it the cell or the solar system, or in which they operate and evolve. This theory has given rise to various theoretical approaches aimed at explaining the determinants of organisational structure, including contingency theory (Woodward 1958; Lawrence/Lorsch 1967), transaction cost theory (Williamson 1975, 1985), resource dependency theory (Pfeffer/Salancik 1978), network theory (White/ Boorman/Breiger 1976), population ecology (Hannan/Freeman 1977) and institutional theory (DiMaggio/Powell 1983; Meyer/Rowan 1977). Each approach has developed new arguments to explain how certain environmental factors interact with and affect organisations.

Being in close proximity to their business environment, small and medium-si2ed enterprises (SMEs) in particular must continuously adapt themselves to the pressures and constraints that emanate from this environment (Freel 2000). As well, these firms must be flexible in managing internal changes pertaining to their resources (human, technological, financial) and their organisation (e.g., changes in size, stage of development, production system) (Harney/Dundon 2006).

In adapting to changes in their internal and external environments, SMEs must make all sorts of adjustments, especially with regard to their HR systems. The manner in which these adjustments are made has given rise to an important body of literature characterised by a divergence between those researchers that have adopted the universalis...

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