| Small business is a major innovator, economic force and job creator in today's marketplace. Yet, surprisingly little is known about the role human resources plays in small business. Further, the influence of gender on small business is unclear.; The purposes of this research are, within a small business context, to operationalize the concept of human resource strategy, to examine the relationship between human resource strategy and its chief determinant, competitive business strategy, to assess the influence of gender on human resource strategy, and to assess the relationship between human resource strategy and firm performance. This study measured human resource strategy through human resource priorities and programs.; Case studies were conducted with fifteen small businesses during the initial stage of this study to discern the types of competitive business strategies, human resource priorities and human resource programs, policies and plans utilized in the firms. Company documents, secured from the small business owners, were content analyzed for human resource priorities and programming specifics. Information from these two phases, combined with an analysis of one hundred case studies from the strategic management and human resource management fields plus a review of the literature, led to the development of a questionnaire. Two hundred thirteen small business owners located across the United States completed the survey.; Results of this study indicate that, in general, there is little difference in the types of human resource priorities emphasized by a firm given its competitive business strategy. Further, human resource programming does not differ significantly given the chosen competitive business strategy of the firm. However, such programming does differ when the gender of the small business owner is assessed alone or in conjunction with the competitive business strategy pursued. There are also few significant differences in the human resource priorities pursued or the human resource programs instituted between financially effective or ineffective small businesses.; Such mixed findings notwithstanding, this study offers empirical data to assist in the building of a theoretical basis for the small business discipline as well as highlighting the need to closely assess gender implications in the area. |
