Human Resource Issues in Global Entrepreneurial High Technology Firms

2007 Oxford Business & Economics ConferenceISBN : 978-0-9742114-7-3

Shawn M. Carraher

CameronUniversity

School of Business

2800 West Gore Blvd

Lawton, OK73505

(580) 581-2367

M. Ronald Buckley

University of Oklahoma

Division of Management

Norman, OK73019-0450

(405) 325-5729 (405) 325-1957 (FAX)

Sarah C. Carraher

Consolidation Enterprises

Gerald R. Ferris

FloridaStateUniversity

Department of Management

Tallahassee, FL32306-1110

(850) 644-3548 (850) 644-7843 (FAX)

Charles E. Carraher

FloridaAtlanticUniversity

Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry

Boca Raton, FL33431

(561) 297-2107 (561) 297-2759 (FAX)

Submitted to the Oxford Business and Economics Conference

Please address all correspondence to: Shawn M. Carraher

June 24-26, 2007
Oxford University, UK

2007 Oxford Business & Economics ConferenceISBN : 978-0-9742114-7-3

Human Resource Issue in Global Entrepreneurial Multinational High Technology Firms

Extended Abstract

In spite of the fact that high technology organizations are consistently rated as excellent organizations for which to be employed, we know relatively little about the human resources management practices that have been instrumental in facilitating this belief. In this study we examine the concerns of human resource managers from four samples (one domestic and three global) about their concerns with respect to managerial and professional employees. We conclude that more information is needed specifically geared toward this group of employees in this type of environment, that organizations need to spend more time seeking to accurately assess the performance of professional and managerial employees, and that many high technology firms have not changed practices since Sept. 11, 2001.

Although a majority of the positions in high technology organizations could be classified as blue-collar, there has recently been a dramatic increase in the attention given to human resources management issues in high technology organizations as they pertain to the professional (e.g., scientists, engineers, and R & D specialists) and managerial occupational groups (Spreitzer & McCall, 1997; Sullivan, 1999). Additionally, work in entrepreneurial high technology organizations is considerably different than that in any of the other environments in which professionals and managers typically practice (Parnell, Carraher, & Odom, 2000). The external and internal environments in which high technology organizations exist are neither well defined nor are they well understood which can create a set of unique demands on the activities of both supervisors and those supervised (Eisenhardt, 1989). In fact, the environment in high technology organizations results in a fundamental dilemma for management practitioners because there is a need to be both structured (in terms of making timely decisions concerning rapidly changing technology) and flexible (able to shift rapidly due to changes in technology). We must conclude, then, that surprisingly little is known about high technology organizations and that what we believe to be true may well be based upon a number of misunderstandings and assumptions that have been made in terms of the transferability of generic management practices to high technology environments (Ferris, Hockwarter, Buckley, Harrell-Cook, & Frink, 1999).

The purpose of this paper is to look at several human resource management areas where processes in high technology environments may different from other environments and to examine these issues as they pertain to the management of human resources in multinational entrepreneurial high technology organizations.

METHODS

Samples

In order to shed some light on issues of interest to multinational entrepreneurial high technology organizations we solicited the responses of the human resources directors of three groups of high technology organizations [all groups of firms focus on computer hardware and software]. For sample 1 (domestic firms) we surveyed 104 human resource directors from the Midwest in the late 1980's. For sample 2 (multinational firms) we surveyed 318 human resource directors attending 3 technology conferences 10 years later. For sample 3 we surveyed 155 human resource directors in late 2001. For sample 4 we surveyed 138 of the human resource directors in early 2006. The organizations represented were from (in order of number in the sample) the U.S.A., Japan, Canada, South Korea, Mexico, China, Taiwan, and Malaysia and had been in existence from 2 weeks to over 100 years with over 56% having been created within the last 10 years.

Data Collection

The first group of organizations was sampled via surveys mailed through the U.S. postal service. The second group of organizations was sampled at three technology conferences as were the respondents from the third sample. Members of the forth sample were contacted via e-mail. Using open-ended questions respondents were asked to answer questions about their primary concerns with professional and managerial employees within their organizations. Over 97.5% of individuals approached chose to participate in the survey.

Results

In terms of differences between our samples the primary differences were between the North American and Asian samples. In the North American samples a greater percentage of professional employees were being hired from Pakistan and India than had been the case in the 1980's and than was the case with the Asian samples. For the organizations which had been in existence for over 10 years, over 87% of the respondents had reported a large change in their recruiting sources within the last decade. For instance in the Mexican sample a large number of the professional and managerial employees come from Japan, but respondents reported that the percentage coming from Japan had decreased in the last ten years.

Overall, our surveys found that within both domestic and multinational entrepreneurial organizations the concerns of the human resource managers focused on three major issues: (1) the measurement and appraisal of performance, (2) the proper reward structures for employees, and (3) the attraction and retention of high quality employees. These three issues were of equal concern to both domestic and international organizations and all three had as their focal point how to differentiate between levels of performance both of current employees and potential future employees. We also found that there were no statistically different results from human resource directors before and after September 11, 2001 – whether months after the attack or years later.

REFERENCES

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Buckley, M., Fedor, D., Veres, J., Wiese, D., & Carraher, S. (1998). Investigating newcomer expectations and job-related outcomes. Journal of Applied Psychology, 83, 452-461.

Carraher, S. & Buckley, M. R. (1996). The effect of cognitive complexity on the perceived dimensionality of the PSQ. Journal of Applied Psychology, 81, 102-109.

Eisenhardt, K. (1989). Making fast strategic decisions in high-velocity environments. Academy of Management Journal, 32, 543-576.

June 24-26, 2007
Oxford University, UK

2007 Oxford Business & Economics ConferenceISBN : 978-0-9742114-7-3

Ferris, G., Hochwarter, W., Buckley, M., Harrell-Cook, & Frink, D. (1999). Human resources management: Some new directions. Journal of Management, 25 (3), 385-416.

Parnell, J., Carraher, S., & Odom, R. (2000). Business Strategy and performance in the entrepreneurial computer software industry, Journal of Business & Entrepreneurship.

Sullivan, S. (1999). The changing nature of careers: A review and research agenda. Journal of Management, 25 (3), 457-484.

June 24-26, 2007
Oxford University, UK