Human resource development in small and medium-sized enterprises: barriers to national HRD

Hill, R, 2001. Human resource development in small and medium-sized enterprises: barriers to national HRD. PhD, Nottingham Trent University.

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Abstract

The central research issue underlying the work described in the thesis concerns the poor take- up of National HRD (N/HRD) by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This problem is partly addressed through an exploration of how and why SMEs develop the HRD approaches they do. Although integral to understanding the central research issue, determining SME HRD typologies in the study is a means of addressing that issue, and is not positioned as a separate research problem itself. The study, therefore, aimed to explore and compare HRD in SMEs with the characteristics of N/HRD in order to understand the impact of SME HRD models and perspectives upon SME participation in N/HRD. To this end, the research sought to accomplish four specific objectives:

o Explore and describe the HRD models and perspectives found in the SMEs studied;

o Explore the characteristics of N/HRD, using Investors in People (IIP) as a focal context;

o Compare the HRD models and perspectives found in the SMEs studied with the characteristics of N/HRD;

o Determine the impact of SME models and perspectives upon SME participation in N/HRD.

The starting point for empirical investigations was the proposition that HRD approaches developed by SMEs may be a natural barrier to SME participation in N/HRD. Fieldwork comprised a multiple-case study of three SMEs in the north west of England, accessed by a preparatory survey. Data were collected intermittently over the period January 1996 to June 1999. The casework was supplemented by out-of-case interviews for other perspectives about SMEs and N/HRD.

From the study came an explanatory model of why approaches to HRD in SMEs might be a natural barrier to N/HRD, developed with the title of 'A Theory of SME Barriers to Participation in National HRD'. As the major theoretical development of the research, this model represents a new way of understanding why SMEs participate in or reject N/HRD, making an original contribution to that body of knowledge. The study has also added substantially to what is currently known in general about HRD in SMEs, and how to research it.

Item Type:	Thesis
Creators:	Hill, R.
Date:	2001
ISBN:	9781369316124
Identifiers:	Number Type PQ10183407 Other
Divisions:	Schools > Nottingham Business School
Record created by:	Linda Sullivan
Date Added:	25 Sep 2020 12:56
Last Modified:	23 Aug 2023 12:40
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/40936

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