Cardon12 suggests that small and/or new companies might face problems in recruiting the
employees because they lack the resources and the stature. Williamson13 also reaches the
conclusion that without candidates having heard about the company, about its practices or its
members, it is difficult for small companies to find the necessary employees. In a survey upon
120 German companies with 1-50 employees, Rauch et al.14 found a significant positive impact
of the human resources development upon the small companies’ benefits.
It is said that HR practices do not influence directly the company performance but only through
a variable interim causal chain15. The basic idea is that the performance can be differentiated on
hierarchical levels, the net result of a level causing the performance of the next level. In spite of
some evident inconsistence in the specialized literature – concerning the number of hierarchical
levels or the used criteria –the generated models suggest that HR practices have the biggest
influence upon the employees’ motivation, knowledge, skills, competences16. In its turn, a
change in these components influences productivity. It goes without saying that the variation of
the productivity influences the company’s performance. De Kok and Den Hartog17 undertook a
survey on a sample of 800 small companies from Netherlands which proved a positive
correlation between HPWS and the innovation capacity (which is so crucial for small
companies). Furthermore, they also found a positive correlation between HPWS and work
productivity, which has a positive effect upon the organisation profitability. This suggests that
HPWS is able to increase the small company’s ability to select, develop and motivate a labour
force able to produce superior results.
Sels et al.18 carried out a survey on a sample of 416 Belgian companies which had between 10
and 100 employees, following the HRM impact upon the productivity and financial
performances of small companies. As we have mentioned before, the company performances
can be differentiated on hierarchical levels. The authors of the survey opted for three levels,
namely:
1. behaviour variable (staff voluntary fluctuation);
2. employees performance (labour productivity);
3. company performance (financial results).