Organizational Profile, HR Practices And The Perceived Quality And Performance Of Small Businesses: Empirical Highlights From The Urban Child Care Centers

Abstract

This paper examines the relationships among the organizational profile, the human resource practices, and the quality and profitability of private childcare centers of a large metropolis.  Organizational profile variables included: size (measured in terms of total FTE employees), age (measured in terms of number of years in service), HR practices included: empowerment and enrichment strategies, benefits, grievances, affirmative action, promotion, supervision, participation in decision-making, and the like. Quality is a variable reflecting the perception of service relative to the population of similar centers.  It also includes the application of quality concepts such as benchmarking, and continuous improvement. The organizational performance includes such variables as perceived relative profitability, annual revenues, and behavioral measures of employees (i.e., motivation, morale, commitment, trust, turnover, and job satisfaction).  Data was collected as a pilot project in 2001 through a mail questionnaire as well as through personal interviews of the owners/directors of 70 (out of 200 selected) private childcare centers of New York City. The findings of correlation and the regression analyses support a number of illustrative hypotheses pertaining to the association among the selected variables.  The paper interpreted the finding in the light of existing organizational theories and concludes with a list of highlights (imperatives) for the owner/directors of urban child care centers.