CHALLENGES OF STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (SHRM)AND THE PERFORMANCE OF SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES IN THENORTH-CENTRAL NIGERIA

Abstract

The Nigerian government places emphasis on Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) for
socio- economic development and employment generation. Consequently, owners/managers
of SMEs in private sector adopt various strategies in order to achieve these set objectives.
One of the strategies that can be of immense benefit is the adoption of Strategic Human
Resource Management (SHRM) practices. However, existing studies on SHRM are mostly
concerned with financial institutions and big companies. This study, therefore, examined the
challenges confronted by private investors in the implementation of SHRM on SMEs
performance in the North Central zone of Nigeria.The study employed simple random
sampling technique in selecting 220 out of 489 registered SMEs in sub-sector of private
sector economy of the North Central region using a well-structured questionnaire. Mean
ranking test was used to examine the challenges of SHRM by SMEs. The findings revealed
that the challenges confronting the private ownership investor in adopting SHRM practices in
the North Central zone of Nigeria were most resided in leadership development problem
(µ=0.316 p<0.05) and adapting to innovation (µ=0.239 p<0.05). The study concluded that if
these challenges are removed it would be of immense advantage to the private investors to
imbibe the norms of Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) practices in sustaining
Small and Medium Enterprises despite other challenges affecting the implementation in
Nigeria. It is hereby recommended that approach and procedure for solving challenges
confronting the adoption of SHRM should be consistent with the organisational behaviour to
increase operational efficiency and SMEs’ performance in the private sector.