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A three-fold framework for understanding HRM practices in South-Eastern European SMEs

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posted on 2023-10-02, 15:28 authored by Alexandros PsychogiosAlexandros Psychogios, Leslie Thomas Szamosi, Rea Prouska, Christopher Brewster

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study particular structural and organisational factors affecting the formality of human resource management (HRM) practices in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in South-Eastern European (SEE) post-communist countries, in particular Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in order to understand the antecedents of formalization in such settings.

Design/methodology/approach – Adopting a quantitative approach, this study analyses data gathered through a survey of 168 managers of SMEs from throughout the region.

Findings – The results show that HRM in SMEs in the SEE region can be understood through a threefold framework which includes: degree of internationalisation of SMEs, sector of SMEs and organisational size of SMEs. These three factors positively affect the level of HRM formalisation in SEE SMEs. These findings are further attributed to the particular political and economic context of the post-communist SEE region.

Research limitations/implications – Although specific criteria were set for SME selection, the authors do not suggest that the study reflects a representative picture of the SEE region because the authors used a purposive sampling methodology.

Practical implications – This paper provides useful insights into the factors which influence HRM in SMEs in a particular context. The findings can help business owners and managers understand how HRM can be applied in smaller organisations, particularly in post-communist SEE business contexts.

Originality/value – HRM in SMEs in this region has hardly been studied at all despite their importance. Therefore, this exploratory research seeks to expand knowledge relating to the application of HRM in SMEs in SEE countries which have their business environments dominated by different dynamics in comparison to Western European ones.

History

School

  • Loughborough Business School

Published in

Employee Relations

Volume

38

Issue

3

Pages

310 - 331

Publisher

Emerald

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Rights holder

© Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Publisher statement

This paper was accepted for publication in the journal Employee Relations and the definitive published version is available at https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-07-2014-0078. This author accepted manuscript is deposited under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC) licence. This means that anyone may distribute, adapt, and build upon the work for non-commercial purposes, subject to full attribution. If you wish to use this manuscript for commercial purposes, please visit Marketplace: https://marketplace.copyright.com/rs-ui-web/mp

Acceptance date

2015-06-10

Publication date

2016-04-04

Copyright date

2016

ISSN

0142-5455

Language

  • en

Depositor

Prof Alexandros Psychogios. Deposit date: 8 September 2023

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