Theories of Employment Relations in SMEs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Theories of Employment Relations in SMEs - Essay Example The researcher of this essay discusses the opinions of researchers and scholars in organisation studies, that often see small firms as the major sources of innovation and the drivers of the major economic change. SMEs are generally believed to be the greatest contributors to national and international economic growth and create an impression of being increasingly beneficial and attractive to potential employees, due to their flexibility, informality, and family-friendly environments, which are impossible in large organisations. These benefits, generate significant criticism: informality and flexibility in employment relations in SMEs are not without their problems. While some theorists position flexibility and informality as the positive factors of employee commitment and labour productivity, others consider flexibility and family-friendly environments responsible for lower job security, lower wages, lower quality of professional training, unsociable hours and even health risks. In t his essay, employment relations in SMEs are mainly underresearched and require developing a systemic framework. The discussion of employment relations in SMEs usually goes along the three distinct lines: the impact of the NMW, the role of informality, and the place of flexibility and family-friendly environments in SMEs. In its current state, the theories of employment relations in SMEs are both interesting and contradictory, but they lay the foundation for the development of a single systemic framework of how employees and employers coordinate.