Employee Responses to High Performance Work System Practices: An Analysis of the Awirs95 Data

Abstract

Since the early 1990s, there has been increasing academic interest in a range of labour management practices labelled variously as ‘high commitment management’, ‘high involvement management’ and ‘High Performance Work Systems’ (HPWS). Such sets of practices - which include performance-related pay, various employee communication mechanisms, training and team-based work- when used in combination, are said to be mutually reinforcing and to generate superior organisational performance. Advocates of HPWS argue that improvements in organisational performance are generated because these practices enhance employee discretion which, in turn, flows into improved attitudes to work. Conversely, critics ..