Definition

“High-performance work practices (HPWPs) can be defined as practices that have

been shown to improve an organization's capacity to effectively attract, select, hire, develop,
and retain high-performing personnel”.
Garman and colleagues (2011) identified the following HPWPs, organized into subsystems,
as particularly relevant to health care providers.
Subsystem #1: Engaging Staff. The four practices in this organizational engagement
subsystem share a common theme of ensuring employees' awareness of and personal stake in
the organization's vision and its current level of success in pursuing that vision.
Subsystem #2: Acquiring and Developing Talent. The four practices in this subsystem
focus on building the quality of the organization's workforce through attention to attracting,
selecting, and developing staff.
Subsystem #3: Empowering the Frontline. These practices most directly affect the ability
and motivation of frontline staff, clinicians in particular, to influence the quality and safety
their care team provides.
Subsystem #4: Aligning Leaders. These practices influence the capabilities of the
organization's leadership in running and evolving the organization as a whole.

Why do high-performance work practices matter?

Huselid (1995) reports that companies using HPWPs benefit from reduced employee turnover
while increasing their productivity and financial performance. Becker and Gerhart (1996)
also indicate that HPWPs can act as a source of competitive advantage as long as the
managerial practices are aligned with existing organizational features (internal fit) and with
strategic and operating objectives (external fit).
Elements of a HPWP
The elements of HPWP are as follow
 Information sharing
 Participative decision making
 Increasing knowledge
 Redistributing power

 Information Sharing
 Provide employees with information about the business
  Enables the employees to make suggestions for improving product &
processes
 Increasing knowledge
 Training
 Business knowledge
It enables the employees to understand long-term goals.
 Interpersonal and group skills
It gives employees the skills to work together and engage in problem-solving.
 Basic job skills
It gives them the foundation for understanding their role in the organization
and how it fits in to the total organizational goals.
 Rewarding performance
 Incentives to reinforce commitment
 Profit sharing, share in cost reduction
 Skill base pay or other systems to reinforce learning
 Provide incentives to engage in learning & participate
 Crucial to include job security
 Redistributing power
 Shifting decision-making downward
 Must empower workers to make decisions
 JetBlue does it by five core values which are safety, caring, integrity, fun, and
passion.
 Restructures organization to team level decisions
 such as quality circles, team meetings to systematically shift power downward.