ABSTRACT
Studies of the employment relationship in small firms have tended to explore the work orientations of those employed in small firms and draw comparisons between these and their colleagues in larger corporations. This chapter discusses the managerial strategies found in different types of small firm and to make rather more explicit some of the differences that exist in these strategies in those businesses trading in the traditional manufacturing sector compared to those in the fast growing ‘creative’ and professional areas of the economy. A feature of traditional craft-based enterprises managed on the basis of mutual adjustment is the absence of a distinctively separate management function and the exercise of authority through formal hierarchical control. Entrepreneurs control over their businesses through directly imposed but mostly unwritten guidelines and instructions. A major constraint limiting small business growth is the process of mutual adjustment which characterises the work processes of small businesses.
