Formulaciones definitivas: composición y caracterización

It has already been noted that the high likelihood of experiences of misplaced trust in employees in the first stages of the business means that early formulations of beliefs about the trustworthiness of employees is classed as a de-motivator to employment in the conceptual framework (see section 5.1.1). This may begin to change however when the process of effectual adjustment becomes more advanced, further supporting Sarasvathy and Dew’s (2008) argument that experienced business owners are more able to utilise effectual logic. It is not necessarily the case however that an early recruited employee who is able to provide these welcomed administrative skills would also become the most trusted employee, particularly if the aforementioned process of effectual adjustment (Goel and Karri, 2006; Sarasvathy and Dew, 2008; Goel and Karri, 2008) is a realistic interpretation of the trust-learning of owner-managers.

Instead, such well trusted employees are more likely to be discovered through an experiential process of trial and error. There was strong evidence of this in the responses of the employers, only one of whom, Cathy Cole, identified her first employee as the most trusted employee, although she exhibited a strongly expressed desire to employ no further. This was more clearly evidenced in the responses of Mike Hart, who, despite experiences of broken trust, delegated responsibility for the direct line management of all employees to Sally, a CIPD qualified HR professional whom he had recruited following her redundancy from a large national retailer. He demonstrated his growing trust in her, and that this was reciprocated, when he stated:

and I have to say, I would say I’ve learnt quite a lot from Sharon, but I think she would probably say she’s learnt quite a lot from me

166 Sally had been recommended by Mike’s domestic partner who had worked with her in the large retailer but the trust building process was gradual and steady:

(at her interview)… she had the right frame of mind, even though she’d had no experience of independent business, but we chatted for quite a long time, and I explained what I needed out of… from her, and I could see that she had the experience… she’d managed, sort of people below and above her well, you know, um…and it took…quite a few months for us to sort of gel, really, you know, because she didn’t really know what was expected of her, and I didn’t really know

MH190

Over a period of months, Sally developed a role that clearly began to fill the conditions identified by Chell and Tracey (2005) for effective relations in the OM-FLM dyad, including an understanding of the business environment and clear role delineation. Though Mike did not establish a job description for her at the outset, she developed for herself a position in which she took responsibility for employee discipline, reporting and monitoring of behaviour and attendance. Mike found that these tasks were not previously undertaken but had become much needed and he appeared satisfied that Sally had been able to take on these responsibilities successfully. There was therefore a shared comprehension of the environment and Sally herself ensured that role clarity and complementarity (Chell and Tracey, 2005) emerged as a result of her own actions. As a result, she soon became a much trusted and relied upon FLM.

It was perhaps fortuitous that Sally had already gained extensive experience, training and a professional qualification in her previous role, as this enabled her to adapt to the requirements of the far less defined job in Mike’s company. Given that strategic training is typically ‘unsophisticated’ (Jameson 2000, p43) in small firms and particularly unlikely in micro firms with unskilled staff (Storey and Westhead 1997; Bacon and Hoque, 2005), a new employee without prior experience or relevant qualifications may well have floundered in Sally’s role. Indeed Sally’s professional profile is not typical of the kind of employees usually available to the small firm labour market, the likes of which have already been noted in section 5.5 above. The trust relationship was built upon Mike’s appreciation of this expertise but it built very gradually as he ‘learned’ (MH166) to appreciate Sally.

Peter Martin also identified a key FLM in Tina, who had a very positive influence on the growth of the firm. Peter stated that it was when he took on Tina that ‘my business started to go, really’ (PM 188). Similarly to Sally in Mike’s business, Tina brought a wealth of expertise, having acted in a similar role with a ‘big electrical contractor’ (PM192) for at least the previous thirteen years. It appears that for Peter, as with Mike, his new employee’s high level of organisational skill and

167 previous experience, not easily available elsewhere, had a strong effect in engendering trust and leading to those employees playing a pivotal role in the company. Again, the establishment of trust occurred gradually, corresponding to a process of logical effectuation.

Other employers followed a similar pattern. Norman Daniels had appointed a trusted former colleague to oversee building projects that were running across various different sites but did so after acquiring his first staff members. This person was a man with experience of acting as a foreman and he fulfilled a basic line management role.

Clive Holder had eventually found Alice to act in a similar capacity within his salons and who also took on responsibility for the long term finances of the business. He recognised the value of:

someone senior like Alice upstairs, because they come from salons where the manager opens and closes, right, and cashes up the money… she has to do a yearly business plan, a monthly sales plan, she has to do a training plan, um so and then in her sales plan she has to say what she’s doing, how she’s going to do it.

CH 836; CH838

It was significant that Clive had initially installed his sister in this role but she had left the business after a year. He had tried to install a new FLM, Doreen, but she had not proven effective in the role, although Clive did not elaborate on why this was the case. Eventually, Alice had become the functional FLM and, given her financial responsibilities, had become trusted. Again, it can be seen that her experiential background in salon management had helped her adjust quickly to this role.

John Stuart had grown his business very slowly over a long period of time and had deliberated for some seven months over the recruitment of his fifth employee. He explicitly stated that such a person needed the ‘right experience’ because they would have a ‘huge effect on the dynamic of the business’ and would require the ‘requisite skills’ (JS62). While his business was too small and he was too close to the operational activities to require an FLM, he clearly did not distribute trust lightly and would only do so within his very small cadre of employees.

Neil Jones, as has been noted, deliberated most carefully over the selection of his first and early employees, more so than later. Yet Neil did not find his very first employee to be the most trusted, although did find from among his early recruitments an employee, Ellie, whom he was

168 able to confide in and ask for advice on later recruitment practice. He recognised the value of finding Ellie:

…I had to take somebody on and I took somebody on (Ellie) who was a very bright, sharp school leaver, very creative graphic designer. Then we (Ellie and Neil) had to take people on for various projects and we found that we were taking people on, you know this young lady, Ellie and myself, we got to know each other, worked well together, had, you know the same work ethic, and then we’d take people on, and we’d find that, you know, we didn’t have anything in common with them, we didn’t get on with them and there were three people, four of us sometimes, in an office, so Ellie and I over a beer worked out a very quick down and dirty questionnaire which was probably completely illegal...

NJ238

This demonstrates that Neil made some mistakes in his early recruitment practices, until he was able to identify a clear example of the kind of employee he was looking for in Ellie. He then sought to engage her in a reflective exercise that might lead to more successful recruitments in future. This can again be seen as evidence of effectual adjustment and the incrementalism that is inherent in the application of such effectual logic.

In this way, all of the employers were able to adjust their actions to recruit more trusted employees, which supports Sarasvathy and Dew’s (2008) argument that rather than act as a predictor of future actions, such logic allows business owners to become more adept at making judgments about their own future choices. The evidence presented here also suggests that there is a connection between the expertise and experience that employees can offer owner- managers and the increases the propensity for both parties to build a mutually trusting relationship. Such employees may then be able to take on a more senior, FLM role within the business. Although the extent to which this is a consequence of the developed trusting relationship or of the experience and ability demonstrated by the employee is not clear, it is perhaps likely to be a combination of both factors to some extent.