High Performance Work Systems in Small Business

The paper will be examining the topic of high performance work systems and their application to small business. The concept of high performance work systems is not a new one but most of the existing material is concentrated on its use in larger organisations. It is not known how widespread the use of HPWS has been in small business or whether its application has been modified in some way to account for the different requirements of small business. In 1996, Bacon, Ackers, Coates and storey made a significant contribution to the work through a study based on small business in Leicestershire, England. It is planned to try to broaden the base of their work by looking at some of the contingent factors, such as different stakeholder interests, that might influence the rate or style of take-up of HPWS in small business. A review of related literature will be given. It is intended to try to build a picture of "typical" small business usage of HPWS, if there is such a thing, and to speculate why it may have so evolved. Although beyond the scope of this paper, it is planned to research small business in the Latrobe Valley to examine the validity of this model.