Organization development of start-up businesses through Human Resource Development practices: two Brazilian cases

Favourable conditions and state support have created a boost of new ventures and innovations. However, competition and fast pace of growth are challenges many new ventures face. This is an essential reason to investigate more about new ventures to perceive difficulties and conditions they have. The tendency for quick development of new ventures and high scale raises questions around the ways to reach these objectives. Human Resource Development (HRD) is one of the strategic options of organization development when a company has low readiness but high corporate growth expectations. The purpose of the research is to gain a deeper knowledge of Human Resource Development practices in the context of two Brazilian technology-based companies. The multiple-case study method considering the semi-structured interview with co-founders and internal documents review has been applied. The interviews have been coded and analyzed from a theoretical point of view. Conclusions of the research include that organizational culture and organizational strategy has important implications for Human Resource Development practices in start-up businesses. Organizational culture supports new companies to become a learning organization. Mostly, learning in start-up businesses is performed at the group and organizational level. Additionally, HRD practices are more formalized and diverse in companies with a larger number of employees.