The Management Awareness of Small and Medium Business Owners --Issues and Concerns of Owner-Managers in a Tumultuous Climate--

Atsuko Kuribayashi

Summary

As the business climate continues to worsen for small and medium-sized companies， owners of companies with at least 100 employees say that hiring good personnel and struggling with weak sales growth are their biggest problems. Price competitiveness follows close behind.
Other problems cited by owners vary with the company's year of establishment， size of labor force， annual sales， and other characteristics. For instance， companies formed prior to 1945 tend to emphasize the improvement of profit ratios， while those formed after 1945 focus more on sales growth. In addition， smaller companies tend to see the future as unclear and cite business uncertainties due to sales volatility. However， there were no clear patterns by industry.
Management style--such as whether the owner is involved in all final decisions， shares information with other managers， or stresses employee benefits--vary with the company's characteristics. For instance， the fewer the number of employees， the greater the tendency for authority to be concentrated at the top.
We extracted five management style factors: leadership， autocracy， focus on personnel， adaptiveness， and organizational development. While the types of issues raised by respondents are associated with the company's characteristics， our analysis showed that the issues raised are correlated to the particular management style adopted. In other words， management style gives a good indication of what issues a company is likely to be confronted with.
In confronting these issues， small and medium business owners will need to seek out new business opportunities. But to do so they will first have to reevaluate the suitability of their own management style to the tasks at hand.