This is a summary of a peer reviewed article taking into consideration the purpose of the article, the method of the research, as well as other relevant information regarding the article. The paper provides a discussion of the implication of results, and offers the opinion of the article. The paper identifies the flaws with the article.
¶ … Strategic human resource development in small businesses, in the United States," explores prior studies, which investigated the frequency and impact of strategic human resource development, and strategic planning in small businesses in America (Fox, 2013, p. 77-115). In order to achieve the objective, the paper utilizes studies from countries, for instance Canada, and the United Kingdom, primarily because the countries share several economic and cultural attributes with the United States (Fox, 2013, p. 79). Following the review, the paper aims, in addition to the fore-mentioned aims, to explore the role of human resource professionals in the strategic business planning (Fox, 2013, p. 99).
Fox's presents a literature review and follows a review of relevant literatures on the subject. The work depends greatly on prior literatures, which explains the online search strategy the author employed. Fox searched for the prior literatures using popular databases including Scopus, Business Source Complete, ABI Inform Complete, Academic Search Premier plus (EBSCO), PsychInfo and Engineering Village (Fox, 2013, p. 78-79). Notably, the author applied a restricted criterion when selecting relevant articles by excluding articles published before the year 1980. The reason behind this is the dynamic nature of business and the growth of human resource development during the year (Fox, 2013, p. 80), but it is important to note the important flaws whereby the author identified only firms that have conducted strategic planning (Kraus, Reiche and Rechske, 2007: Fox, 2013).
Fox (2013, p. 80-83) found out that many prior studies employed the Resource-based Theory, which identifies the workforce as the main asset in a company. This is because they have skills and competencies that the company can realize a competitive advantage. Moreover, the employees help in understanding the connection between strategic business planning, and human resource development. Owing to the different approaches used by different authors, Fox (2013) found out that the authors lacked a general definition of small businesses (p. 86: p. 111). However, the studies identified age of the business, annual fiscal figures, number of employees, and membership in a small business involvement or chamber of business, as important in defining a small business (p. 86).
Apparently, small businesses contribute to the economic growth of America (Fox, 2013, p. 91). The business offer employment to American citizens, pay taxes that contribute to the nation's budget, and continue to generate new jobs (p. 91). Although this is the case, the review reveals that many small businesses fail because of lack of planning (p. 92). This is because the practice is important and has the capacity to influence the sales, and overall profits of the small businesses (Kraus, Reiche and Rechske, 2007, p. 95). In addition, planning contributes to increased sales, revenue growth, return on sales, investments and assets (p. 95).
On the other hand, the frequency at which small businesses conduct strategic planning is vital to the success of the company. However, the review suggests that the studies followed a flawed method to establish this, and this makes it hard to offer a conclusive comment on the same. Owners have the capacity to influence strategic planning in a business. Managers who had worked in a large firm, qualified from college, and who were new in the business favored strategic planning (Fox, 2013, p. 98). In this context, generalization of findings was not applicable due to the confinement of some studies to some areas (Kraus, Reiche and Rechske, 2007), and the utilization of open questionnaires, which contributed to inconsistent results (Walker, 2005).
Nevertheless, the review reveals that the studies found relevant agree that strategic planning is important for small businesses in America. This is because the managers or owners, who plan, realize higher sales, profits, revenue growth, return on assets, sales and investments (Kraus, Reiche and Rechske, 2007). The studies showed consistency, and many of them suggested that strategic planning is a tool for evaluating, and identifying strategic alternatives that improve the businesses performance (Fox, 2013, p. 98). Following the results of the review, the business environment is changing rapidly. This has potential implications for the current small business, and emerging ones (Fox, 2013, p. 102).
Therefore, human resource professionals should be in a position to develop strategic planning skills, take part in business planning processes, in order to cater for the future needs of the business. By extrapolating current situations for future reference, strategic planning will offer programs for future use to achieve strategic management (Kraus, Reiche and Rechske, 2007). In addition, business will have to train their employees, to gain competency and skills, which will give the business a viable advantage over others. This suggests that the business will have to incur some costs for this program. In addition, companies will have to align their recruitment practices with the strategic needs of the business. Employee training and development are key aspects of strategic human resource development, and businesses will have to align their needs in this manner to remain viable in the dynamic business environment (Fox, 2013, p. 102-105).
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