Reflections of Human Resource Practices in Family Business

Abstract

Although much has been discussed about human resource management practices in large organizations, studies in the family firms' context are nascent in the literature. To better understand human resource management practices in the context of family firms, this study performed interviews on three experienced and successful family firm owners and human resource managers. The research findings reveal that family firms have professionalized, formalized, and employee-oriented perspective in their human resource practices. This study also showed that the new generations in the family are more aware of the importance of human resources and reflect this perspective to their human resource practices. Besides, employees' organizational justice perception is strengthened by considering equality between family and non-family employees in human resources practices. Implications of these results for practice and further research are discussed.