What environmental influences will affect the role that human resources management could play within this organization?

The main theme of this book is that HRM-activities like recruiting, selecting, training, and rewarding en1ployees-is not just the job of a central HR group, but rather one in which every manager n1ust engage. Perhaps nowhere is this more apparent than in the typical small service business, where the owner-manager usually has no HR staff to rely on. However, the success of such an enterprise often depends largely on the effectiveness with which workers are recruited, hired, trained, evaluated, and rewarded. To help illustrate and emphasize the front-line manager's HR role, throughout this boolk we will use a continuing ("running") case based on an actual small business in Ottawa's high-tech region. Each segment will illustrate how the case's main players-owner-managers Jennifer Lau and Pierre LeBlanc-confront and solve HRM problems each day by applying the concepts and techniques presented in that particular chapter. Here is so1ne background information you'll need to answer questions that arise in subsequent chapters.