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

entryThe sh be of sm each and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) to the scotch ontogenesis and festering has been enormous. This contribution is meaning(a) for both(prenominal) the developed and underdeveloped world. M both governments receipt the fact that SMEs play a signifi raftt fiber in the maturation and development of their economies. Consequently, a estimate of government investiture take tos atomic number 18 gear towards fostering the increase and development of local SMEs.The institution of policies geared towards the facilitation and empowerment of SMEs as well as improving the mathematical operation of SMEs re uncomplicated(prenominal)s a major objective of many sparing policy makers and governments. In addition, international economic and pecuniary bodies such as the IMF, piece Bank, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the global Financial Corporation (IFC) flummox invested intemperately in making SMEs robust and vivacious in maturation countries . Furthermore, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in ontogenesis countries such as Nigeria give up sedulous advocacy and capacity-building campaigns to promote the growth of SMEs. disrespect the importance accorded to SMEs as well as their contribution to economic growth, Onugu (2005) struggles that the capital punishment of SMEs in Nigeria has been below expectations. Unlike SMEs in otherwise countries, the contribution of Nigerian SMEs to economic growth has not been real impressive (Onogu, 2005). side by side(p) from its independence, the Federal government of Nigeria has invested significant sums of property to promote entrepreneurial and small assembly line development projects (Mambula, 1997, 2002). However, burdens from these projects retain not been precise impressive. In edict words, most of these projects capture often been unable to yield their anticipate returns. Despite the countrys endowment with raw materials and other natural imaginations, thither h as been little progress towards the development of the manufacturing sector, which could put on increased the production of value added products thereby substituting imports, increasing exports and increasing piece of conk emerge (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 anxiety and poor mankind imaging heed. bit the poor performance of SMEs in Nigeria can be attributed to a number of factors, man alternative heed could be a major factor in de edgeine this poor performance. homophile beings options are a principal source of economic growth. the like other picks, valet resources require effective and efficient utilisation so as to ensure maximum contribution is achieved from them. close to 50 per cent of people work in small and medium sized enterprises.Despite this high proportion of piece resources in SMEs, most studies that matter military personnel resource counselling have pore on bountiful(p) corporations with very curb attention to SMEs. Moreover, most studies on the practices of gentlemans gentleman resource management have been carried out in the developed world with very particular attention paid to developing countries like Nigeria. This understand is one of the hardly a(prenominal) studies that focus on the management of tender resources in SMEs in a developing country. The country that has been chosen for the study is Nigeria. The melodic theme examines the factors that stupor the practices of sympathetic resource management in an SME in Nigeria and how these practices can affect the performance of the SME in particular and its contribution to the overall growth of the economy as a whole.Objectives of the Study The objective of the study is to examine the SHRM practices of an SME in Nigeria. The study go away also examine how those practices affect the performance of the SME and provide policy implications of the findings for future outline development. look for QuestionsThe news report go out be providing answers to the undermentioned questionsWhat are the strategic 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 strategicalalalal human resource management practices at the SMEResearch OutlineThe paper is going to follow the hobby areas Section one ordain secrecy the introduction member 2 pull up stakes be dealing with the publications recap section 3 provide be discussing the methodology and describing the selective information section 4 will provide the results and abridgment and section 5 will present conclusions and recommendations. literary productions Review strategical human resource management (SHRM) practices refer to those activities that are particular(prenominal)ally developed, executed and useed on a deliberate alignment to a squiffys strategy (Huselid et al., 1997). The phrase strategic human resource management is an recital that people in the firm are regarded as strategic resources (i.e human capital) that mustiness be managed and leveraged when implementing and executing the strategy of the firm. In early years, efforts made to develop a conceptual framework on strategic human resource management were ground on the assumption that in order to promote human behaviour that would actualize 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 draw near shot to human resource management is an come up that links the human resource management policies with the strategic objectives of the firm. at that place has been significant debate over the term SHRM as has been the fictional character for human resource management (HRM). Many questioners argue that SHRM lacks conceptual clarity (e.g., Bamberger and Meshoulam, 2000). Three competing frameworks on SHRM have emerged the adventure, commonplace and configurational perspectives (Miles and Snow, 1984 Schuler and Jackson, 1987 Delery and Doty, 1996 Pfeffer, 1998 Youndt et al., 1996 Boxall and Purcell, 2000, 2008). According to the universal perspective, 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 different frameworks and found inappropriate 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 in a higher place are mostly pertinent for large orga nisations. Little effort has been utilise 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 rationality 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) look on that HRM practices that work well in large organisations do not work justly in small firms. As a result, Heneman and Tansky (2002) stresses the need to develop different HRM models for SMEs kinda than simply extending existing models that are worthy for large organisations to SMEs. The literature on Human resource management in SMEs suggests that a strategic attack to HRM in SMEs is further to be developed. Conceptual models that relate human resource management practices in SMEs to the strategic capabilities of these organisations need to be developed in order to enable SMEs achieve t he abundant benefits of their human resources. As can be observed, most of the studies of HRM practices in SMEs have been limit to SMEs in Western Europe, U.S.A and India with very limited attention given to Africa in universal and Nigeria 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 summary and discussion of the HRM practices of a Nigerian SME.Research rules 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 wizard fact st udy 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 large data sets and quantitative research methods.The inductive approach is advantageous over the deductive approach in that it does not verbalise 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 use 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 sagaciousness of the approaches, the interpretive phenomenological Analysis (IPA) will be used to gain an in-depth analysis of the HRM practices of the SME. The Interpretative phen omenological 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, selection, training, remuneration, leave of absence, interpersonal communication, sick 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 efficiency and leverage ratios. The ratios will be analysed in proportion 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 in the main be primary data. This data will be collected using look questionnaires issued to the employees of the SME and interviews conducted with key manageme nt 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 management Where have we come from and where should we be goingInternational Journal of solicitude Reviews, 2(2), 183?203.Boxall, P., & Purcell, J. (2008). Strategy and Human mental imagery trouble. Hampshire Palgrave MacMillan.Chang,W. J. A., & Huang, T. C. 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