MODELING OF EMPLOYEE RELATIONSHIPS IN SME BATIK: CASE STUDY OF WINDASARI BATIK

Batik industry in Indonesia is a traditional craft industry and is done manually. Batik industry is one of the creative industries which obtain full attention from the Indonesian government. As a creative industry, batik is very dependent on the innovative products to survive in an increasingly intense competition. Batik industry is generally done by batik SMEs with very simple management. In terms of size, capital, organization and management, batik SMEs are not comparable with clothing companies like garment. However, batik SMEs is forced by the competitive business environment to produce innovative products and to attract buyers. It is estimated that Batik industry will experience increasing pressure with the entry of competitors from other ASEAN countries and China as a result of AFTA-China in 2015. Internal collaboration in SMEs is one element that is essential for batik SMEs. Collaboration involving actors from various parts of the SMEs often occur in informal relationships and are not realized by SME management. This article attempts to examine the patterns of the actor's relationship in batik SMEs taking place in Windasari batik SME. Windasari batik SME is one of big SMEs in Sragen. This study employs saturation sampling technique for collecting data from almost all employees in Windasari batik SME. The data is analyzed using Social Network Analysis applications. The results of this study suggest that the relationships between actors in Windasari batik SME are weak and heavily dependent on just a few specific actoractors as an intermediary in making contact. Of course, these patterns of relationships are not so supportive for the efforts towards a good and effective collaboration.