Multiobjective Management of the Small Firm

Summary

The present study was initiated as a consequence of critical conditions for many small Danish firms.

The small firm in Denmark averages about 15 employees. It is normal that the manager is the owner and the key person in the firm.

It is characteristic that the development of the firm and the development of the owner/manager is parallel: the start period with the creative and development-oriented manager, the growth period with the adaptation-oriented manager and the stagnation period with the control-oriented manager.

The crisis for the firm is a personal crisis for the owner/manager. The environment has changed and demands changes in the structure and function of the firm. But the manager has forgot then how to adapt and develop, he has been trapped in administrative work for several years.

Multiobjective management in this situation consists of “help” to develop the manager himself by establishing a search-learning process that enables him to focus on the necessary and sufficient set of objectives that he and his organization should try to attain in order to survive and expand.

Based upon a general search-learning model some empirical models are developed in firms. The multiobjective point of view is an important element herein.