ABSTRACT
Chapter 1 has discussed the importance of an understanding of the interaction between informality and ethnicity in shaping workplace behaviours and management practices in ethnic minority small firms. The employment of family members eased management pressures and facilitated informal control strategies (Ram et al., 2000; Aldrich and Cliff, 2003). By employing ethnic female workers, owners could intensify their control and carry out low-pay strategies in labour management (Ram, 1994). Moreover, as ethnic small firms largely competed within low-profit added sectors, the introduction of NMW and WTR put extra pressures on these firms and forced some of them to engage in illegal practices (Jones et al., 2006).
