Human Resource Management Strategies that SMEs Business Leaders use to Increase Employee
Productivity
Table of Contents
Section 1: Foundation of the
Study……………………………………………………………..
1
Background of the Problem………………………………………………………………… 1
Problem Statement…………………………………………………………………………… 2
Purpose
Statement…………………………………………………………………………..
2
Nature of the Study…………………………………………………………………………. 3
Research Question…………………………………………………………………………. 4
Interview Questions………………………………………………………………………… 4
Conceptual Framework…………………………………………………………………….. 4
Definition of Terms………………………………………………………………………… 5
Assumptions, Limitations, and Delimitations……………………………………………… 6
Assumptions…………………………………………………………………………….. 6
i
Limitations……………………………………………………………………………….. 7
Delimitations……………………………………………………………………………….. 7
Significance of the Study…………………………………………………………………… 8
Contribution to business practice……………………………………………………….. 8
Implication of social change…………………………………………………………….. 9
A Review of the Professional and Academic Literature…………………………………… 9
Human Resource Management……………………………………………………………. 10
Human Resource Strategies……………………………………………………………….. 10
Employee Productivity…………………………………………………………………… 10
Company Productivity…………………………………………………………………….. 11
Transition and Summary…………………………………………………………………… 11
References…………………………………………………………………………………….
.
13
3
Background of the Problem
Profitability in many organizations is below envisaged levels due to a lack of knowledge
about effective usage of human capital among their HR professionals (Lawler &Mohrman,
2013). In Thailand, organizations that fail to implement the necessary HR strategies by their
recommended HR professionals often record the lowest profits or no profits and collapse within
2 to 4 years of their existence (Becker &Huselid, 2014). Zaugg and Thom (2013) asserted that
employee productivity and the subsequent profitability of many organizations could be increased
through the adoption of appropriate human resource management (HRM) strategies and adjust to
the fast- changing labour market. The company productivity is directly linked to the employee’s
productivity. If the employees are motivated and are given the freedom to express themselves in
a way that corresponds to the operations of the company’s efforts will result to improved
company performance.
Inefficiency as far as HR departments are concerned leads to insolvency or financial
distress of companies. Organizations have efficiently played a role in improving the nature and
the operations that are undertaken by the human resource (HR) professionals. The HR
professionals’ role is to ensure that the employees are effective in increasing the company
profitability and productivity (Wright et al., 2014). The creations of sustainable HR strategies are
essential for improved employee productivity and continued profitability in organizations in
Thailand (Pfeffer&Veiga, 2014). For instance, firms in Thailand have adopted HR strategies
such as motivation and ranking of position. This strategy helps the employees to work
excellently so that they can get the reward and at least get promoted to a certain position. In
return, the employees’ productivity and the company’s profitability increase since the two are
directly linked to one another.
4
Problem Statement
More than 50% of small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) business leader in Thailand
fails to utilize strategic human resource management (HRM) practices to manage employee
productivity (Platonova et al., 2013). HRM practice accounts for over 80% of employee
productivity in SMEs (Platonova, Hernandez & Moorehouse, 2013). The general business
problem is that lack of HRM strategies to manage employee productivity could affect SMEs
profitability (Chahal, Jyoti, & Rani, 2016). The specific business problem is that some SMEs
business leaders in Bangkok, Thailand lack HRM strategies to increase employee productivity.
Purpose Statement
The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study is to explore human resource
management (HRM) strategies that small and medium-sized (SMEs) business leaders use to
increase employee productivity. The target population consists of SMEs in Bangkok, Thailand. I
will interview five business leaders from SMEs who are successful in implementing HRM
strategies to increase employee productivity in their perspective organization. The implication
for social change stems from its design to help businesses to implement strategies to increase
employee productivity. Employee productivity could increase business profitability, which could
foster growth, resulting in employment opportunities for local communities.
Research Question
What HRM strategies that SMEs business leaders use to increase employee productivity?
Interview Questions
- What HRM strategies you use to increase employee productivity?
- What are the challenges you face while implementing HRM strategies?
- How do you overcome such challenges?
5
- How do you know that you are successful in implementing HRM strategies?
- What else could you share that is pertinent to your HRM strategies that we have not covered
for increasing employee productivity?
Nature of the Study
There are three types of research method: a) qualitative, b) quantitative, and c) mixed
method (O’Brien et al., 2014). In a qualitative method, a researcher seeks to understand the
event from the perspective of those who are experiencing the phenomenon (Vaismoradi et al.,
2013). Quantitative researchers use statistical method that gives numerical results to provide
additional data sets for analysis (Blau et al., 2013; Gherardi&Perrotta, 2014; Wolgemuth, 2014).
In this study, I will be interviewing participants to understand the particular occurrence from
their perspective. There will be no statistical analysis of numerical data. Therefore, I chose
qualitative method over quantitative method. Mixed method, researchers use both qualitative
and quantitative methods (Yin, 2014). The mixed methodology is not suitable for this study since
the quantitative method is not viable.
There are many designs to choose from under qualitative method. In ethnographic design,
a researcher collects ideas, histories, insight, and assumptions in cultural settings (Symons &
Maggio, 2014). In narrative design, a researcher collects data in a storytelling format to find the
research outcome (Benson, 2014). The purpose of this study is to explore HRM strategies to
increase employee productivity. Both ethnographic and narrative design is not suitable for my
research because I am not collecting data in a story telling from the participant’s point of view or
in cultural settings. The phenomenological design is suitable for the study that plans to explore
the lived experiences of the participants (Wagstaff& Williams, 2014). In this study, I do not plan
6
to capture the lived experience of participants in a general setting, and for this reason, the
phenomenological design is not appropriate.
I will use a multiple case study design for this study because it offers in-depth
information about a particular matter that would not be likely to get from other designs. The case
study is exploratory in nature that integrates multiple data collection techniques and helps to
develop common factors inherent in the collected data (Gherardi&Perrotta, 2014; Yin, 2014).
The multiple case studies will allow me to interview select SMEs business leaders from multiple
companies to understand their perspective on the phenomenon under study.
Conceptual Framework
The Ulrich model is the conceptual framework for this study. Ulrich and Yeung (1989)
developed the Ulrich Model in 1989. The Ulrich Model views the human resource process in
terms of talent acquisition, compensation and benefits, training and development, leadership,
organizational design, and HR development (Brockbank et al., 2013). The model connects HR
strategy, goals, objectives, and processes into an operating model (Brockbank et al., 2013). The
central objective of this model is to explain the relationship between the competency of HR
professionals and the performance of the organization (Huselid et al., 2014). This framework is
applicable to the study, as it will help me to understand how SMEs business leaders integrate HR
strategies, HR goals and objectives, and HR process in their overall business strategy to increase
employee productivity and business profitability.
Definition of Terms
The following defined terms are specific to the study topic. These definitions help the
reader to understand the study as a whole.
7
Cognitive Orientation: Cognitive orientation describes the different ways an individual
may go about the thinking process (Wolgemuth, 2014).
Competency Model: This is a set of expectations within organizations that are used to
serve as benchmarks for exemplary performance and increased productivity (Wolgemuth, 2014).
Competency: Competency describes the ability someone’s to do something effectively or
successfully (Huselid, Jackson & Schuler, 2014).
Effectiveness: It’s the potential of an organization to make use of its asset to generate
cash inflow that exceeds its cash outflow (Yeung, Woolcock& Sullivan, 2013).
Human Capital: Human capital is the skills, knowledge, and experience possessed by an
individual and includes education, experience, knowledge, and skills (Wright, Dunford& Snell
2014).
Management: It is the capability of a firm’s management to formulate and attain
challenging objectives, take change and decisive practices, outdo the competitors and motivate
other to execute efficiently (Weatherly, 2013).
Managerial Competencies: These are the motives, skills, as well as attitudes necessary
for a job, including characteristics such as problem-solving, communication skills, the ability to
work as a team, and customer focus (Weatherly, 2013).
Practices: Practices describes the ability to perform or carryout a particular method,
custom, or activity regularly or habitually (Wright, McMahan & McWilliams, 2014).
Strategy: Strategy describes a policy or a plan of action designed to attain a major or
overall aim of an organization (Yeung, Woolcock& Sullivan, 2013).
8
Sustainability: Sustainability is logical development based on the balance of economic,
social, and environmental outcomes to provide benefits to multiple stakeholders (Huselid,
Jackson & Schuler, 2014).
Assumptions, Limitations, and Delimitations
Assumptions
An assumption is acknowledged as accurate or confident to happen without having any
proof, (Baranyi, Csapo, & Sallai, 2015). Making sure that the study is complete, there are several
underlying assumptions. The first assumption is that during the interview process the researcher
should obtain continuous feedback from the research participants. Secondly, during this study,
women HR professionals are termed as considerate since they are looking for ways to increase
the profitability of their organizations. The third assumption is that the research participants
would provide perspectives or ideas that would assist other HR professionals a not only focus on
their industry and business alone but also think global and act the same time act local. This
assumption made on the premise that the research participants will articulate how to use HR
management strategies to increase organizations profitability.
Limitations
A limitation is the limiting circumstances or rule and restrictions, (Souba, & Souba,
2016). There is a limit of the study by the selected location of study, and there is a possibility of
research participants unwilling to share or holding back information. For the mitigation of this
limitation particularly the lack of willingness to open up and memory, the interview questions
focused on specific issues followed by probing questions to seek for clarifications to ensure that
short answers but on point according to the research questions obtained. The five research
9
participants are the other limitation of the study only focused on two medium sized businesses in
Bangkok, Thailand.
Delimitations
Delimitation is the choices which the researcher makes for the research which is under
the management of the researcher, (ZHANG, & ZHANG, 2013). The researcher must rationalize
these delimitations in a research proposal. To mitigate the limitations of the study several
delimitations established concerns the research participants, data, as well as the geographical
area of the survey. For instance, the study included participants from two HR organizations that
seemed to help organizations to manage their employee’s productivity. The data collection
included interviews with the SMES businesses, and the reviews documented. The geographical
area provided a reasonable representation of areas in Bangkok, Thailand.
Significance of the Study
Contribution to business practice
The creation of sustainable human resource management strategies is necessary for the
continued profitability of SMEs in Bangkok (Pfeffer&Veiga, 2014). The business profitability is
dependent on employee productivity (Ahmad et al., 2015; Becker &Huselid, 2014). The human
resource management strategies highlight HR activities within the organizations, both large and
small to remain sustainable (Becker &Huselid, 2014; Yeung et al., 2013). Organizations that
integrate HRM strategies are efficient in utilizing its human capital and ultimately displaying
high profits and growth (Huselid et al., 2014; Martina et al., 2013; Platonova et al., 2013). In
essence, the findings of this study could contribute to effective business practice in three ways.
10
First, the study results will provide HR operational, procedural, and process strategies that
successful SMEs use to increase employees productivities. Second, the study may help
businesses to identify HRM software and other business intelligence tools that successful SMEs
business leaders use to remain profitable. Lastly, the study findings may act as a precursor for
future research in strategy formulation to increase business productivity.
Implication of social change
The study results will lead to HRM strategies that are effective in the workplace to
increase employee productivity which could lead to business profitability. Effective HRM
strategies would make employees satisfied with their job and hence, lower employee turnover for
the company resulting in a reduced unemployment rate in the society (Gherardi&Perrotta, 2014;
Wolgemuth, 2014). (Wright et al., 2014). Moreover, employee productivity could increase
business profitability. Profitability fosters business growth, which could result in employment
opportunities for local communities.
A Review of the Professional and Academic Literature
The purpose of the qualitative is to explore human resource management (HRM)
strategies that small and medium-sized (SMEs) business leaders use to increase employee
productivity. To come up with comprehensive findings and results of the dissertations, various
resources were used. They were arranged in the Zotero software. Seventy articles were
researched as far as literature review is concerned, ninety seven percent of the articles were peer
reviewed and ninety three percent are in accordance with limited time period required by the
Walden University Chief Academic Officer (CAO) agreement. I limited myself to case studies
and peer review to acquire the necessary information that I needed to answer to the research
11
questions formulated and more so get to review the into detail about the human resource
management strategies that SMEs business leaders use to increase productivity.
The central research question of the study was as follows: What HRM strategies that
SMEs business leaders use to increase employee productivity? In this section, the topic to
discuss covers how organizations in Bangkok, Thailand uses or link the human resource
management with employee’s productivity that yields to company’s productivity. The
subsections include (a) human resource management, (b) human resource strategies, (c)
employee productivity, and (d) company productivity.
Human resource management
The primary role of human resource management is to hire and fire employees. However,
this changes as per the organizational environment and the nature of the firms operations. In an
organization, the human resources play with the company’s operations and they tend to waste
time even if they are working. To ensure productivity, the human resource management
department imposes human resource strategies such as motivation of workers to ensure
productivity. Doing so, they must come up with various HR mechanisms and strategies that are
flexible and easily adoptable by the employees, ((Yeung, Woolcock& Sullivan, 2013).It makes it
easier for the human resource to comply with the strategies and yield efficient productivity n
terms of company’s productivity. In return to this, the organization will increase on its core
competencies, gain a competitive position in the market that is resulted by a bigger market share
12
in the market arena as compared to the competitors. This makes the company profitable with a
strong financial position.
Human resource strategies
The imposed plans of the human resource management tend to motivate the staffs to
work a little bit harder to ensure efficiency and efficiency of the company’s operations. The
strategies imposed should be flexible and adoptable to change depending with the nature of the
business environment both internal and external. Also, the strategies must comply with the
demand and supply of what is been produced by the employees and what is needed by the
company from the human resources. If the strategies imposed by the HR management
department are not in accordance with the taste and preference of the employees, it is difficult to
force them to comply. On the other hand, if they are in accordance with their demand, they will
comply and changes will be identified in their productivity together with the company
productivity, (Huselid, Jackson & Schuler, 2014). Some of the strategies that are imposed are
motivations. Through motivations, the employees may compete fairly for the betterment of
attaining the award set for the winner or the group of employees. The results of this are to
increase the employee’s productivity.
Employee productivity
If the strategies imposed by the HR management department are not in accordance with
the taste and preference of the employees, it is difficult to force them to comply. On the other
hand, if they are in accordance with their demand, they will comply and changes will be
13
identified in their productivity together with the company productivity, (Huselid, Jackson &
Schuler, 2014). It is with no doubt that employee’s productivity is directly related to the human
resource strategies. When a company fails to impose good human resource strategies, it means
that the probability that the employee’s productivity will be high is less than 0.5 and vice versa.
When employees are well catered for, it guaranteed that they would reciprocate by working in an
effective and efficient manner for the development of the firm’s operations. When the employees
work excellently, the company profitability will increase since the organization market share and
the competitive position will gradually develop (Jakob et al., 2013).
Company productivity
When the HR mechanisms and strategies are flexible and easily adoptable by the
employees, ((Yeung, Woolcock& Sullivan, 2013) It makes it easier for the human resource to
comply with the strategies and yield efficient productivity n terms of company’s productivity. In
return to this, the organization will increase on its core competencies, gain a competitive position
in the market that is resulted by a bigger market share in the market arena as compared to the
competitors. This makes the company profitable with a strong financial position.
Company productivity is a result of increased or improved employee’s productivity.
When the staffs work increases, they develop the organization’s competences at a minimum
hurdle rate. With this, it means that the company operation cost is less hence huge profits.
Furthermore, improved employee’s productivity creates opportunities for the firm to operate
globally and this increases the firm’s competitive position and financial position.
Transition and Summary
The central research of this study is What HRM strategies that SMEs business leaders use
to increase employee productivity? The section covered some key elements in the study and
14
those are the Problem Statement, Purpose Statement, Nature of the Study, Research Question,
Conceptual Framework, Significance of the Study, and Literature Review sections.
Human capital shows a significant proportion of expenses in organizations that
subsequently reduce their profits (Platonova et al., 2013). Research shows a lack of profitability
strategies that are unique to the utilization of human capital (Platonova et al., 2013).
Organizations perform better when their human capital is aligned to their needs (Becker
&Huselid, 2014). The review of the literature on the practices of HR professionals and
organizations’ profitability has shown that in order for effective management of the human
resources there is need for organizations to ensure implementation. It entails the implementation
of innovative human resources management practices that are angered in the efficiency,
competencies, and willingness of the HR professionals (Ahmad, Kausar & Azhar, 2015).
The organizations which are in forefront at implementing such practices with
commitment and dedication, attains competitive advantage over their competitors. it is because
such practices influence other variables such as financial performance, job satisfaction, employee
turnover, employee commitment, among others positively. Therefore, lead to overall
organizations’ performance, productivity subsequently resulting in increased profitability
(Platonova, Hernandez & Moorehouse, 2013). The findings from the study could provide HR
professionals with a better understanding of the strategies that are effective to increase the
employee productivity.
The knowledge could facilitate HR professionals to enhance the profitability potential in
their organizations. The literature review provided an understanding of the processes, social
constructs, and motivations that are unique to human resource management. In Section 2, there is
a description of a qualitative method research approach, including the populations and sampling,
15
data collection, data analysis, and reliability and validity. The information in Section 3 presents
the doctoral study findings, including applications to professional practice, implications for
social change, and recommendations for future research.
14
References
Ahmad, A., Kausar, A. R., &Azhar, S. M. (2015). HR professionals’ effectiveness and
competencies: A perceptual study in the banking sector of Pakistan. International Journal
of Business and Society, 16, 201-220
