Gender and the practice of HRM in small business

Abstract

The small business sector is an important employer of labour in the Australian economy, yet there is currently little known about how human resource management (HRM) is practised in this sector. In this paper we explore HRM in small businesses in Australia with particular attention to the influence of the owner-manager's gender on HR practices. Our findings suggest that HRM as practised in small business in Australia tends to be informal, with little documentation and with a flexible definition of roles. It seems that there are more similarities than differences between how male and female owner-managers practise HRM and that where differences do exist, these may relate to the industry sectors in which women and men owner-managers operate.