The author examines the relationship between employee involvement (EI) and small firms' financial performance
using statistical analyses of establishment-level data from the 1990 Workplace Industrial Relations Survey. The
author finds EI practices and EI combinations which 'work' for small-firm establishments are very different from
those that work for large-firm establishments. The least bureaucratic and least costly EI methods have the potential
to benefit small firms most. Whether they actually do so depends on the array of other EI and non-EI practices in operation: an inappropriate configuration can have a negative effect on performance. The findings take account of
factors associated with being an 'EI firm'.
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