D R. MONDER RAM IS PROFESSOR OF Small Business and Director of' the Enterprise Research Centre at the University of Central England Buisiness School, United Kingdom. An inicreasingly noted feature of the small business population is the rise of the small professional service firm, yet comparatively little is known of the niature of employment relations in such enterprises. This paper aims to explore the maniner in which work is regulated in such settings by examining the internal management processes of three firms engaged in the provision of business and 'professional' services. The study, which is based on an ethnographic investigation over a year-long period, examines three particular processes that are deemed to be distinctive in this sector: recruitment, performance and supervision. Much of the rhetoric associated with social relations in such firms, for example collegialitv, person-centredness, trust, was evident in the study. BuLt it was clear that emiployee autonomiv still had to bc imanaged' and this process xwas a contingent and fluid one that often- contained a harsher edge thaIn existing accouints suggest.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Alvesson, M. (1993), 'Organ-isationis as Rhetoric: Knowledge-intensive Firm-ls and the Struggle with Ambiguitn Journal of Mfanaagement Studies, 30: 6- pp 997-1015 .
Bryson,J. (1997), 'Business Service Fiin-x1s. Service Space and the Management ot Change' , Entrepreneurship) aind Regon a'l Development, 9, pp 93-111
4.
Bryson,J., Wood, P., and Keeble, D. (1993), 'Business Networks, Small Fiinti) Flexibility and Reglonial Developmi eni in UK Business Se-Viccs Antrepr-pneurship andi Megiona Developmntrd, 5, pp 265-277 .
5.
Curran, J. (1991), 'Employment and Employment Relations in the Small Enterprise', Bolton 20 Years On The Small Firm in the 1990s, (eds.) Stanworth,J., and Gray, C., London: Paul Chapman Press .
6.
Curran,J. (1996), 'Small Business Strategy', International Encyclopaedia of Business and Management, Vol. 5 (ed.), Warner, M., London: Routledge .
7.
Curran,J., and Stanworth,J. (1979), 'Selfselection and the Small Firm Worker A Critique and Alternative View' , Sociology, 13, 3, pp 427-444 .
8.
Curran,J., Kitching,J., Abbott, and Mills, V. (1993), Employment and Employment Relations in the Small Service Sector Enterprise, Small Business Research Centre, Kingston Business School, Kingston University .
9.
Edwards, P. K (1986), Conflict at Work, Oxford: Blackwell .
10.
Edwards, P. K (1992), 'Comparative Industrial Relations: The Contribution of the Ethnographic Tradition', Relations Industrielles.
11.
Edwards, P K. (1995), 'The Employment Relationship; Industrial Relations in Britain, (ed. Edwards, P. K.), Oxford: Blackwell .
12.
Ferner, A., Edwards, P., and Sisson, K (1995), 'Coming Unstuck? In Search of the 'Corporate Glue' in an International Professional Service Firm, Human Resource Management, Fall, pp 343-361.
13.
Goffee, R., and Scase, R. (1995), Rporate Realities: The Dynamics of Large and Small Organisations, London: Routledge .
14.
Goss, D. (1991), Small Business and Society, London: Routledge .
15.
Hoel, B. (1984), 'Contemporary Clothing Sweatshops. Asian Female Labour and Collective Organisation', Work, Women and the Labour Market, (ed. West, J.), London: Routledge and Kegan Paul .
16.
Hyman, R. (1987), 'Strategy or Structure? Capital, Labour and Control' , Work, Employment and Society, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp 25-55 .
17.
Ingham, G. (1970), Size of Industrial Organisation and Worker Behaviour, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
18.
Holliday, R. (1995), Investigating Small Firms: Nice Work?, London: Routledge .
19.
Jenkins, R. (1986), Racism and Recruitment, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
20.
Keeble, D., Bryson,J., and Wood, P. (1992), 'The Rise and Role of Small Service Firms in the United Kingdom' , International Small Business Journal, Vol. 11, No. 2, pp 11-22 .
21.
Kitching,J. (1994), 'Employers' Work Force Construction Policies in the Small Service Sector Enterprise', Atkinson, J., and Storey, D. (eds.), Employment, the Small Firm and the Labour Market, ppl 72-205, London: Routledge .
22.
Kitching, J. (1997), Labour Regulation in the Small Service Sector Enterprise, Unpublished PhD thesis, Small Business Research Centre, Kingston University.
23.
Kunda, G. (1992), Engineering Culture, Philadelphia: Temple University Press .
24.
Mintzberg, H. (1983), Structure in Fives: Designing Effective Organisations, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall .
25.
Raelin, J. (1989), 'An Anatomy of Autonomy: Managing Professionals' , Academy of Management Executive, 3:3, pp 216-228 .
26.
Rainnie, A. (1989), Industrial Relations in Small Firms, London: Routledge .
27.
Ram, M. (1994), Managing to Sunrive Working Lives in Small Firms, Oxford: Blackwell .
28.
Ram, M. (1996), 'Uncovering the Management Process: An Ethnographic Approach' , British journal of Management, 7 (1): pp 35-44 .
29.
Scarborough, H. (1995), 'Understanding and Managing Expertise', in The Management ofExpertise, (ed. Scarborough), H., Basingstoke: Macmillan .
30.
Scase, R. (1995), Employment Relations in Small Firms', Industrial Relations in Britain, (ed. Edwards, P.), Oxford: Blackwell .
31.
Scase, R., and Goffee, R. (1982), "Fraternalism' and 'Paternalism' as Employer Strategies in Small Firms', I)iversity and Decomposition in the Labour Market, (ed. Day, G. with Caldwell, L., jones, K., Robbins, D., and Rose, H.), Aldershot: Gower .
32.
Scott, M., Roberts, I., Holroyd, G., and Sawbridge, D. (1989), Management and Industrial Relations in Small Firms, London, Department of Employment , Research Paper No. 70.
33.
Segal-Horn (1987), 'Managing Professionals in Organisations' , International Journal of Ian power, Vol. 8 (2), pp 11-19 .
34.
Slatter, S. (1992), Gambling on,Growth How to Manage High-tech Firm2s, Chichester: John Wiley anid Sons .
35.
Stanworth,J., and Cltnrran,j. (1981). 'SZCe of Workplace and Attitudes to Industrial Relations' , British Journal of Industrial Relations, XIX: pp 1-25 .
36.
Watson, T. (1994), In Search of Management, Londoni: Routledge .
Wlinch, G., and Sclhneider, E. (1993) Managing the Knowledge-based Organisation: The Case ot' Architectural Pr-actice , journal oJ Management Studies, 30:6, pp 923-937 .
39.
Yin, R. (1994), Case Study Researdh, London: Sage .
40.
Ztucker, L. (1991), 'Markets fouBur-eaucratic Autlhority aid Cionttrol Infornmation Qualitv in Professions anid Services' , Research in the Sociolop' O/ Organisations, Vol. 8: pp 157-190 .
