Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) Practices and the Performance of a Nigerian Small and Medium Size Enterprise (SME).

existenceThe contribution of subtile and medium- surfaced enterprises (SMEs) to the economical takeing and suppuration has been enormous. This contribution is satisfying for both the maturateed and developing world. Many judicatures ac fellowship the fact that SMEs influence a signifi brookt role in the growth and development of their economies. Consequently, a number of government investment projects ar ge bed towards fostering the growth and development of local SMEs.The institution of policies ge ard towards the facilitation and empowerment of SMEs as healthy as improving the performance of SMEs remains a major accusative of many economic policy makers and governments. In addition, international economic and fiscal bodies such as the IMF, gentlemans gentleman Bank, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the multinational Financial Corporation (IFC) generate invested heavily in making SMEs juicy and vibrant in developing countries. Furthermore, non-governmental org anisations (NGOs) in developing countries such as Nigeria give up employed advocacy and capacity-building campaigns to grow the growth of SMEs.Despite the sizeableness accorded to SMEs as well as their contribution to economic growth, Onugu (2005) argues that the performance of SMEs in Nigeria has been below expectations. Unlike SMEs in other countries, the contribution of Nigerian SMEs to economic growth has not been very impressive (Onogu, 2005).Following from its independence, the Federal government of Nigeria has invested significant sums of money to promote entrepreneurial and small business development projects (Mambula, 1997, 2002). However, results from these projects have not been very impressive. In nightclub words, approximately of these projects have often been unable to yield their expected returns. Despite the unpolisheds endowment with raw materials and other natural choices, there has been little come up towards the development of the manufacturing sector, wh ich could have increased the production of value added products thereby substitute imports, increasing exports and increasing employment (Mambula, 1997, 2002).Business failure often comes as a result of a number of factors. This could be as a result of poor customer service, poor focvictimization and poor tender-hearted imagery guidance. While the poor performance of SMEs in Nigeria can be attributed to a number of factors, homophile resource trouble could be a major factor in determining this poor performance. Human resources are a principal source of economic growth. Like other resources, benignant resources require effective and efficient utilisation so as to correspond maximum contribution is achieved from them. Approximately 50 per cent of heap field in small and medium sized enterprises.Despite this high likeness of benignants resources in SMEs, most studies that study adult male resource focusing have focused on abundant corporations with very express assis t to SMEs. Moreover, most studies on the practices of homo resource management have been carried come forward in the developed world with very limited attention paying to developing countries like Nigeria. This study is one of the few studies that focus on the management of human resources in SMEs in a developing country. The country that has been chosen for the study is Nigeria. The idea examines the factors that affect the practices of human resource management in an SME in Nigeria and how these practices can affect the performance of the SME in detail and its contribution to the overall growth of the economy as a whole.Objectives of the memorise The objective of the study is to examine the SHRM practices of an SME in Nigeria. The study exit overly examine how those practices affect the performance of the SME and provide policy implications of the findings for overtureing scheme development.Research QuestionsThe paper exit be providing answers to the following question sWhat are the strategical human resource management practices of the SME How do these practices affect the performance of the SME What are the implications for future development of strategic human resource management practices at the SMEResearch OutlineThe paper is going to follow the following areas Section one will administer the introduction section 2 will be dealing with the publications review section 3 will be discussing the methodology and describing the selective information section 4 will provide the results and epitome and section 5 will present conclusions and recommendations.Literature ReviewStrategic human resource management (SHRM) practices refer to those activities that are particular propositionally developed, executed and implemented on a deliberate alignment to a quicks strategy (Huselid et al., 1997). The phrase strategic human resource management is an indication that people in the firm are regarded as strategic resources (i.e human capital) that must(pre nominal) be managed and leveraged when implementing and executing the strategy of the firm. In early years, efforts made to develop a conceptual frame lead on strategic human resource management were based on the assumption that in order to promote human behaviour that would fulfil the strategic objectives of the firm, the firm had to implement specific human resource management practices (Fisher, 1989 Schuler and Jackson, 1989 Snell, 1992).A strategic prelude to human resource management is an approach that links the human resource management policies with the strategic objectives of the firm. There has been significant debate over the term SHRM as has been the case for human resource management (HRM). Many searchers argue that SHRM lacks conceptual clarity (e.g., Bamberger and Meshoulam, 2000). Three competing frameworks on SHRM have emerged the contingency, universal and configurational sides (Miles and Snow, 1984 Schuler and Jackson, 1987 Delery and Doty, 1996 Pfeffer, 1998 Youndt et al., 1996 Boxall and Purcell, 2000, 2008). tally to the universal aspect, all HR practices in all firms have a positive impact on firm performance (Delery and Doty, 1996). The configurational perspective suggests that firm performance depends on unique HR practices while the contingency perspective suggests that a firms HR practices are a function of its strategy (Miles and Snow, 1984 Schuler and Jackson, 1987). A number of studies have tested the assorted frameworks and found contradictory results. For example, Youndt et al. (1996) and Chang and Huang (2005) argue in favour of the contingency perspective while Tackeuchi et al. (2003) favour the configurational perspective.The frameworks suggested above are mostly applicable for large organisations. Little effort has been devoted towards the development of SHRM in SMEs. For example, Saini and Budhwar (2008) in a study of SHRM practices in SMEs in India argue that bounded rationalness tends to constrain the willingness to implement innovative HR practices in SMEs in India because most owners of SMEs tend to believe that they are doing their utmost best. Barber et al (1999) play on that HRM practices that work well in large organisations do not work properly in small firms. As a result, Heneman and Tansky (2002) stresses the need to develop different HRM models for SMEs rather than simply extending existing models that are suitable for large organisations to SMEs. The literature on Human resource management in SMEs suggests that a strategic approach to HRM in SMEs is yet to be developed. Conceptual models that continue human resource management practices in SMEs to the strategic capabilities of these organisations need to be developed in order to enable SMEs achieve the full benefits of their human resources. As can be observed, most of the studies of HRM practices in SMEs have been limited to SMEs in Western Europe, U.S.A and India with very limited attention given to Africa in general and Nig eria in particular. In the light of the above limitations, this study aims at contributing to the literature by studying the SHRM practices of SMEs in Nigeria. The study does not intend to test any hypothesis. Rather it intends to focus on providing an in-depth analysis and discussion of the HRM practices of a Nigerian SME.Research Methods and DataResearch Methods are the approaches taken to achieve the objectives of a research project (Saunders et al., 2009). There are two main approaches to research including the inductive and deductive approaches. The inductive approach is an approach that aims at developing testable hypotheses while the deductive approach focuses on testing existing hypotheses. The inductive approach can use a single case study to multiple case studies while the deductive approach depends on the use of multiple cases. Moreover, the inductive approach can use either qualitative or quantitative methods whereas the deductive approach relies heavily on the use of la rge data sets and quantitative research methods.The inductive approach is advantageous over the deductive approach in that it does not generalise its results to all cases. It aims at providing an in-depth analysis of a small number of cases. Therefore, it is the approach that will be used in this study.In other to achieve the objective of this study, this paper will use a case study approach. In order to do this, a Nigerian-based SME will be selected. An in-depth analysis of its SHRM practices will be examined and related to its performance. In order to gain detailed understanding of the approaches, the Interpretative phenomenological Analysis (IPA) will be used to gain an in-depth analysis of the HRM practices of the SME. The Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) is an experimental qualitative approach to research in psychology and the human, health and social sciences (Smith et al., 2009). The human resource practices that will be investigated include recruitment, select ion, training, remuneration, leave of absence, interpersonal communication, throw off pay, and promotion. The practices of these variables will be analysed and an evaluation of how they affect the performance of the SME will be conducted. The performance measures that will be used include profitability, liquidity, management might and leverage ratios. The ratios will be analysed in relation to the SHRM practices identified along with the Nigerian economic environment in which the SME is based.DataThe research will use both primary and secondary data. Data for the SHRM practices will generally be primary data. This data will be collected using survey questionnaires issued to the employees of the SME and interviews conducted with key management staff. Performance data will be collected from the financial records of the SME. Data on the performance measures will be gathered from the financial records of the SME.ReferencesBoxall, P., & Purcell, J. (2000). Strategic human resource man agement Where have we come from and where should we be goingInternational Journal of Management Reviews, 2(2), 183?203.Boxall, P., & Purcell, J. (2008). Strategy and Human vision Management. Hampshire Palgrave MacMillan.Chang,W. J. A., & Huang, T. C. (2005). 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