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.

Covering 3 areas
These practices are introduced in line with an organization's strategic objectives to align
the output of the workforce with the objectives of the organization. So, a widely accepted
definition of HPWPs is that they are a set of complementary work practices covering three broad
areas. The first area involves high employee involvement practices, which encourage trust and
communication between employer and employees. These practices empower employees to take
more control over their work and daily operational decision-making. In turn, this leads to higher
levels of motivation, leadership, communication and teamwork.
Caring about one's work is essential if we want employees to perform to the best of their
abilities. Poorly motivated employees are very often wasted or lost to competitors. Typical
practices would include self-directed teams, quality circles and sharing/access to company
information.
Employee involvement can only be achieved through a carefully managed process that involves
restructuring work to make it challenging, interesting and motivating. Employees at all levels are
given information about the organisation's operations and performance so that they may
understand where the company is going; this in turn creates job security.
The second area of HPWPs concerns HR practices that focus on human capital investment and
skills development within the organization. Typical HR practices include specific recruitment
processes, performance appraisals, work redesign, training and development, strategic work
force planning and organizational continuous improvement programs.
In this context, the HR role must shift from an administrative support function to becoming a
business partner in developing and implementing business strategies. This will require
companies to take a long-term strategic view of HR resources rather than a short-term
operational cost-cutting approach.
The third area of HPWPs considers the issue of reward and commitment, which are intended to
create a sense of commitment to the organization. Financial rewards, such as profit -sharing and
share options, offer a sense of belonging to the company, as employees become shareholders
within the organization. Performance-related pay is an important tool in enhancing commitment
and a higher performance output. However, one needs to be careful on how to implement
performance-related pay systems, as these may create the reverse effect and demotivate and
alienate employees.
Financial rewards are not the only tools for higher organizational commitment. Family-friendly
policies, flexible work, equal terms and conditions, career progression plans and subsidized
training opportunities all have a significant, if not higher, effect of creating a sense of
commitment.
Seven practices of high-performance work systems (HPWS)
HPWS systems emphasize employee involvement and reflect a commitment to create an
organizational culture based upon commitment rather than control. At the same time, the cultures
of high-performance organizations emphasize the pursuit of excellence and expect employees to
be well-qualified, highly competent, and constantly engaged in improving the organization.
Management experts have identified common high performance practices that create competitive
advantage and enhance organizational performance. The following is a summary of seven human
resource practices for producing higher profits through engaging employees as full owners and
partners in an organization’s success.
1. Ensuring Employee Security
Despite the trend of many businesses to engage in downsizing and hiring part-time and contract
employees to avoid creating obligations to employees, the evidence has shown that organizations
who engage in these practices have rarely created new wealth or improved the long-term bottom
line of their organizations. HPWS systems advocate creating high-trust partnerships with
employees that build commitment and promote extra-mile and extra-role behaviour that are
critical for success in the modern organization. A number of scholars have reported evidence that
organizations that implement policies that ensure employee security build trust with the people
who are hired and find that their employees perform better and are more committed to their
organization’s success.
2. Selective Hiring
Carefully evaluating new hires requires that organizations are precise in identifying the critical
skills and attributes of their employees in the first place. Hiring to fit requirements of the job
makes more sense than simply hiring candidates with the best academic pedigrees or who look
the best on paper. Identifying attributes like character, respect for others, and a service
orientation that do not change through training actually improve employee retention and long-
term fit. So, focusing on hiring the right people has been cited as a key difference in those
companies that are “great” rather than simply “good.”
3. Decentralized Decision-Making
Organizations that establish HPWS cultures recognize the importance of clearly identifying goals
and objectives. In implementing those goals, HPWS companies delegate decision-making
throughout the organization and empower their employees to deliver outstanding service to
customers and achieve optimal organization results. Incorporating well-trained and supported
self-managed teams that enjoy autonomy and broad discretion in making decisions demonstrates
the high trust in employees that characterizes HPWS.
4. High Results-Based Compensation
Developing a compensation system that rewards employees at all levels when the organization
succeeds promotes commitment to shared goals and increases employee awareness of their roles
in contributing to profitability. Compensating employee’s contingent upon organization
performance is most effectively adopted as part of a high-performance culture that incorporates
profit sharing throughout an organization. The logic of contingent compensation is implicitly
equitable and fair and confirms to employees that they will share in the fruits of their work.
Group-based profit sharing or gainsharing also creates a social system of accountability to the
organization and to other team members.
5. Training by Commitment
Virtually every HPWS organization emphasizes training by commitment as contrasted with
training focused on control-oriented management systems. Training employees in how to resolve
problems, to take responsibility for quality, and to take the initiative in suggesting changes in
organization work methods demonstrates trust in the quality of employees hired and an
acknowledgement of employee buy-in to a results-based compensation program. In contrast with
many organizations that deem training to be a frill that can be eliminated, HPWS systems
carefully determine the type of training that is most needed to achieve organizational goals and
then invest heavily on helping employees to optimize their ability to succeed. Research evidence
suggests that engaging employees in work-related team training increases their ownership and
commitment and their ability to contribute to the achievement of critical organizational goals.
6. Reduced Status Barriers
A basic assumption of an HPWS is that good ideas and organizational improvements can come
from employees at all levels of the organization. Wage inequality and the use of symbols like
language, dress, physical space, and benefits can send a message to employees that an
organization views status hierarchically, rather than treating every employee as if he or she is
both valued and valuable. Stephen R. Covey repeatedly noted that great organizations seek to
build high trust cultures by nurturing and developing people, rather than by controlling them.
Treating employees like valued partners by reducing status barriers, by empowering employees,
and by treating employees with dignity and respect builds trust and commitment.
Although the artifacts of an organizational culture may send a message about status barriers and
how employees are valued, the most important way that leaders demonstrate their attitudes about
employees is by creating a culture that values, trusts, and empowers employees. Leaders of
organizations communicate the importance of how employees at all levels are valued by the
policies, practices, and rewards that are provided throughout the organization.
7. Sharing Key Information
The sharing of financial, strategic, and performance information conveys to employees that they
are trusted partners who can utilize this important information to assist their organization to
achieve its goals. Highly motivated and well-trained employees need information to be able to
contribute to their organization’s success. Sharing information and providing the training in how
to use it to achieve goals makes implicit sense, yet many traditional organizations refuse to do
either and pay the price in lost opportunities and reduced trust.

Link b/w Ob and HPWP https://poseidon01.ssrn.com/delivery.php?

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HPW practices affect organizational outcomes by shaping employee behaviors and attitudes.
More specifically, high performance work practices (HPWP) increase organizational
effectiveness by creating conditions where employees become highly involved in the
organization and work hard to accomplish its goals, in other words, by increasing their
employees’ commitment to the organization and job satisfaction.