Small Business Management Master Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Small Business Management Master - Case Study Example A brief reference to the theories stated in the literature regarding the above sectors has been considered as necessary in order to understand the operational structure of the firm and to estimate its prospects for the future. Scruffy Dog Media is based in Cumbria. The firm, in accordance with its official website is characterized as 'a family-owned video production company formed in 2007 to produce high quality video material for companies and organisations in and around the Cumbria area' (firm's website). As noticed above two particular sectors of the firm will be examined: the leadership and the HR management. In accordance with the firm's website the firm operates under the guidance of John Gilluley and Lorna Hardy. Both of them have worked in the area for many years before deciding to form their own firm. It seems that the leadership in the firm has been 'distributed' between these two persons who have equal obligations and rights regarding the firm's administration and profits. No other staff is clearly mentioned in the firm's website and it can be assumed that these two persons do the work themselves or they possible hire staff whenever the needs of a particular project require additional staff. Un der these terms, the analysis of the firm's leadership and its HR policies would be based on the role of these two persons in the firm's administration and the appropriateness of their decisions regarding the distribution of tasks in the firm. 3. Leadership and HRM - critical analysis 3.1 Leadership The importance of leadership for the development of any firm around the world cannot be denied. In accordance with Day et al. (1988, 453) 'when several methodological concerns are addressed, it is evident that executive leadership can explain as much as 45% of an organization's performance'. In other words, leadership is considered to have an important role in the firm's performance but it should be rather interpreted as part of the corporate activity, in combination with other characteristics of a firm's operational activities (HR management, operations management, financial management and so on). On the other hand, Hart et al. (1993) highlights the significance of the role of the CEO for the success of any corporate initiatives. More specifically, the above researcher supports that 'CEOs with high "behavioral complexity" - the ability to play multiple, competing roles - produce the best firm performance, particularly with respect to business performance (growth and innovation) and organizational (stakeholder) effectiveness; executive leadership role had little to do with firms' financial performance' (Hart et al., 1993, 543). In the case of small firms, where there is no CEO the above assumptions can be used only in order to evaluate the role of the firms' director(s), i.e. of the persons that have the responsibility for the design and the completion of any firm's activity. In this context, although there is no CEO having the supervision of all plans and initiatives, the responsibility of the directors is not limited but it is equally distributed among them. In the particular firm there is no reference to the firm's staff - apart from its directors. For this reason, only assumptions can be made regarding the HR policies applied by the firm. At a first level, it could be assumed that in any case that a project is too complex, the firm's