Exploring HR interventions during the organizational development phases of a Unicorn startup in Thailand

Abstract

This dissertation pointed out the lack of exploration in HR interventions during the organizational development phases of unicorn startups in Thailand. Even though there are several research articles in the startup ecosystem, there is none of academic research among unicorn startups in Thailand recently. The definitions and the related theories of HR functions and interventions in the startups, and organizational development phases of the startups have been reviewed and discussed. Current Thailand’s startup landscape and the overview of a unicorn startup in Thailand which was a selected site have also been discussed. The research questions were used in the semi-structured interviews with critical incident technique to qualitatively explore HR interventions during the organizational development phases of a unicorn startup in Thailand. The startup classified organizational development phase into four phases which were startup phase, growth phase, expansion phase, and maturity phase. Their HR interventions, 114 codes in total, could be categorized into five themes, recruitment, retention, development, motivation, and organizational development. Findings of this research offered several implications for the startup organization, HR practitioners, and the management, as an example from one of Thai unicorn startups.