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Alpha Metals, supplier of solders and solder related chemicals, has promoted Mr Stan Renals to the position of Sales and Marketing Manager, reporting to the General Manager. Having been with the company for some five years, originally as Southern Regional Sales Manager and latterly in the position of National Field Sales Manager, Mr Renals will take on the additional responsibilities of internal sales, marketing and export sales.

This article analyses the recent move from highly centralised and regulated Australian industrial relations processes towards a decentralised and deregulated system which emphasises enterprise and individual employee level determination of pay and conditions. The article focuses on the Western Australian Workplace Agreement system designed to take account of the interests of small business. Statistical analysis and case studies are used to identify the extent to which small service sector enterprises have used this more “flexible” framework to implement improved HRM processes. An evaluation of HRM “best practice” literature and case study analyses of successful small, service enterprises are used to analyse the questionable relevance to this sector of existing HRM “best practice” models. The omission of “functional” and “numerical” flexibility from many models is identified as being particularly problematic. The article outlines a research programme to identify the strategic use made of these forms of flexibility in other sectors.