Small organizations encounter special problems due to their small size in locating, attracting and retaining qualified workers. A lack of critical mass limits their ability to provide well-defined career growth paths, flexible terms of employment and attractive compensation and benefits packages. As these small entities operate over time and grow, especially through mergers and acquisitions, seemingly harmless decisions often taken for the sake of expediency in a strictly local context to resolve these challenges, often translate into disproportionately large problems for the parent company. These issues along with mitigating options will be discussed.