High performance work systems and employee voice

Abstract

Since the 1990s, ‘high performance work systems’ (HPWS) theory has risen in prominence in the field of human resource management (HRM) and has become the dominant model of links between HRM and organizational performance. Employee voice has been central to many accounts of HPWS and indeed has been accorded considerable weight in theoretical arguments about how HRM drives organizational performance. This makes a consideration of the role of voice in HPWS essential in understanding the contemporary sphere of HRM. This chapter considers the theoretical debates and the evidence concerning the role of voice in HPWS. It begins with theoretical concerns and explains how voice has been conceptualize..