Adoption Of High-performance Work Systems Research Articles

Do union strategic influence, job security and the industrial relations climate matter for the adoption of high performance work systems?

PurposeThe paper aims to explore the role of union strategic influence on the adoption of High Performance Work Systems (HPWS) in organisations and examines how the effects of job security and then in turn the industrial relations climate, mediate this relationship in a serial manner.Design/methodology/approachThe research analyses an original quantitative survey of union negotiators and representatives in 382 workplaces in England. The analysis employs structural equation modelling techniques to examine the relationships between union influence, job security, industrial relations climate and HPWS.FindingsUnion strategic influence has a positive effect on the take up of HPWS in unionised workplaces. Job security and the industrial relations climate demonstrate a serial mediation effect between union strategic influence and the take up of HPWS: union strategic influence has a positive effect on job security, which in turn positively impacts the industrial relations climate, thereby increasing the likelihood of the adoption of HPWS. The findings for the industrial relations climate are particularly strong.Practical implicationsFindings suggest that organisations will benefit from focussing on the development of positive industrial relations, where unions have genuine strategic influence, because this maximises the likelihood that HPWS can be adopted and sustained.Originality/valueThe paper provides a novel focus on the take up of HPWS within unionised workplaces. It focusses on the role of union strategic influence and the mediating effects of job security and the industrial relations climate, which are contextual factors that have been underexplored in the HPWS literature to date.

High-performance work systems in family firms: A mixed gamble approach

Research on the use of high-performance work systems (HPWSs) in family firms has yielded mixed evidence. This study aims to bridge this gap by using the socioemotional wealth (SEW) approach and the behavioral agency model (BAM) to explain why certain family firms have a greater incentive to use HPWS. We argue that the decision of family firms to implement HPWS is part of a mixed-gamble scenario of balancing risks with financial and family wealth prospects. Our results from 453 Spanish medium-sized and private family firms confirm that the importance of preserving SEW has a positive effect on the adoption of HPWS and that this influence is particularly pronounced in high-risk firms whose management is mainly controlled by family members and by the second generation. These findings contribute to the literature by explaining how using HPWS by family firms is significantly contingent on business risk.

High-performance work systems, learning orientation and innovativeness: the antecedent role of environmental turbulence

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to empirically examine whether environmental turbulence leads to the adoption of high-performance work systems (HPWS) and learning orientation (LO) in organizations and, if so, how these two elements contribute to innovativeness. Past research studies widely demonstrated that HPWS and LO are strong determinants of innovativeness. This study incorporates environmental turbulence as an antecedent and explains the interactions between these concepts.Design/methodology/approachThis paper involves a questionnaire-based survey of 233 firms. For hypothesis testing, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used.FindingsThe results revealed the antecedent role of environmental turbulence in HPWS and LO. Additionally, HPWS and LO mediated the relationship between environmental turbulence and organizational innovativeness.Research limitations/implicationsThis research has the limitations of a cross-sectional study design. The study draws out some implications for firms facing turbulent conditions and intending to increase their innovativeness by stimulating a learning culture and focusing on human capital through HPWS.Originality/valueThe overarching contribution of this study is to test the assumption that organizations initiate changes in their internal systems as a response to environmental turbulence. By doing so, the study enriches current studies by exploring the mediator role of HPWS and LO between environmental turbulence and innovativeness. This research also contributes to the literature by demonstrating the antecedent role of environmental turbulence in HPWS for the first time. Additionally, it provides evidence for the relationship between environmental turbulence and LO.

Examining the Adoption and Effects of High-Performance Work Systems

Drawing on resource orchestration theory, we proposed a moderated mediation model of the processes linking unabsorbed slack to the organizational outcomes of operational performance and labor productivity. Specifically, using a nationally representative survey data from South Korea, we examined (i) the moderating influence of top management human resource (HR) emphasis on the relationship between unabsorbed slack and the adoption of high-performance work systems (HPWS) and (ii) the conditional effect of perceived HR effectiveness on the indirect effects of HPWS on the two organizational outcomes through overall job attitude. The results of our analyses showed that: (i) top management HR emphasis moderated the relationship between unabsorbed slack and the adoption of HPWS such that this relationship was stronger when top management HR emphasis was high but not low, and (ii) HPWS indirectly related to operational performance but not labor productivity through overall job attitude when perceived HR effectiveness was high but not low. In sum, our results supported the two-stage moderated mediation of the relationship between unabsorbed slack and operational performance but not labor productivity. We interpreted these findings as underscoring the utility of resource orchestration theory in explicating variability in the adoption of HPWS which, in turn, develops the human resource-related internal capability leading to sustained competitive advantage.

Adoption of high‐performance work systems in small and medium‐sized enterprises

This paper investigates the factors influencing the adoption of high‐performance work systems (HPWS) in Chinese small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). The paper is based on a sample of 207 SMEs, which covers many of the ownership types and business sectors. The results of the correlation and regression analyses indicate that organizational factors have stronger explanatory power in predicting the adoption of HPWS than institutional factors. Specifically, top management support, perceived impact of HPWS, and organizational size are the three main predictors. The findings suggest that using management innovation theories to understand the underlying reasons associated with the adoption of HPWS is promising. The paper argues for the use of management innovation theories to explore the efficacy of institutional factors more fully.

High-performance work systems in mainland China: a review and research agenda

ABSTRACT This paper reviews the empirical studies on high-performance work systems (HPWSs) in the context of Mainland China at different levels of analysis, published in leading English- and Chinese-language journals in the relevant field between 2008 and 2018. In particular, we examine the factors that have affected the adoption of HPWSs in Chinese organizations and study the specific characteristics of Chinese HPWSs. We explore the nature and direction of the HPWSs-performance relationship as well as the underlying mechanism for the relationship in Chinese organizations. We present a research agenda for future directions in theoretical development, context, characteristics, and methodology. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.

Is Industry 4.0 a Good Fit for High Performance Work Systems? Trade Unions and Workplace Change in the Southern Ontario Automotive Assembly Sector

The automotive industry has long been a leader in the introduction of new forms of work organization and technology—including mass production and high performance work systems (HPWS). It has also been a focal point for how trade unions negotiate such systems. Recently, much attention has focused on Industry 4.0 (I 4.0)—a manufacturing system featuring advanced robotics, digitalization and artificial intelligence. However, in the automotive industry, I 4.0 is confronted with considerable technical and social challenges, and I 4.0 paradigms have been criticized for marginalizing the continuing importance of employees in shaping, if not ‘hybridizing,’ such new production processes. Based on a study of UNIFOR union locals in Canadian automotive assembly plants, we argue that I 4.0 has to be analyzed in terms of the ways unions have influenced the almost universal adoption of HPWS in that sector. We thus investigate the ways unions have impacted HPWS and its implications for their roles in workplace integration of I 4.0. As such, we first argue that, while overlapping, HPWS and I 4.0 represent different managerial strategies. Second, we develop an exploratory analytical framework for use in examining union roles in negotiating HPWS and technology adoption. Based on this framework, we then analyze 18 interviews we conducted in 2017-2018 with plant managers and key UNIFOR representatives at five southern Ontario assembly plants. The interviews illustrate not only commonalities in adoption of HPWS, but also differing ways in which the union influences the ‘hybridization’ of HPWS. Union practices differ significantly from one plant to another as a function of three variables: 1- firm-plant competitive positions; 2- the union’s overall monopoly face; and 3- internal union local solidarity and narratives around HPWS. Keeping these commonalities and differences in mind, we then consider the challenges that unions are likely to confront as they begin negotiating I 4.0.

Too Much Trust Can Make Every Empowered Individual Delusive: Why aren't HPWS' Always Effective?

The recent upsurge in the adoption of high-performance work systems (HPWS) has brought to the table a critical question: why aren’t HPWS as effective everywhere? Whereas strategic and agency perspe...

Organizational antecedents of firms’ adoption of strategic human resource practices: Toward a reconciliation of CEO perceptions and family influence

There is lively debate in the literature about the effects of family influence on employment practices. Particularly, little empirical research explores the role of family influence in driving a firm’s adoption of specific strategic human resource practices such as high-performance work systems. Drawing from the tenets of the resource-based and stewardship theories, this study examines the relationship between chief executive officers’ perceived human resource capability and firm adoption of high-performance work systems in family business, and the joint moderating effect of family management and ownership on the above linkage. Our analysis uses chief executive officer–human resource manager matched samples of 145 Taiwanese publicly listed firms, the results show that chief executive officers perceived human resource capability is significantly and positively associated with the adoption of high-performance work systems. Moreover, this relationship is found to be the strongest when the family assumes leadership in management (i.e. the firm has a family chief executive officer) and family ownership is high.

High Performance Work Systems and Public Sector Workplace Performance in Britain

Using nationally representative surveys of workplaces with 50 or more employees we find the adoption of High-Performance Work Systems (HPWS) in the public sector are positively correlated with workplace financial performance and the implementation of workplace organizational change. The associations are stable in 2004 and 2011, despite the intervening recession and cuts in public finance. The results are thus broadly consistent with studies finding similar positive correlations between HPWS and workplace performance in the private sector. There was little heterogeneity in effects across sectors within the public sector, with the exception of health services where the effects of HPWS on workplace change were lower.

The Impact of High-Performance Work Systems on Employees: A Sectoral Comparison

Using nationally representative linked employer-employee surveys of workplaces with 50 or more employees we find the adoption of High-Performance Work Systems (HPWS) in the private sector is largely positively correlated with employee job attitudes pre-recession. However, high intensity HPWS has partly adverse consequences for private sector employees in the post-recession period. In contrast, there are no indications of public sector employees responding positively or negatively to HPWS and HPWS is not associated with adverse effects post-recession. The sectoral difference in results is interpreted in terms of different employment relationships and different sources of employee motivation.

The Effects of Mutual Trustworthiness between Labour and Management in Adopting High Performance Work Systems

In this study, we examine the role of mutual trustworthiness between labour representatives and management and its relationship with the adoption of High Performance Work Systems (HPWS) in the Korean employment relations context. We argue that trustworthiness is a feature of the parties to the exchange, as opposed to trust, which explains the nature of exchange relationships. We follow existing literature on trustworthiness and agree that it is composed of three variables, i.e., ability, integrity, and benevolence. We test the effects of these three variables as important antecedents for the adoption of HPWS at the workplace level. Using the National Establishment Survey 2009 conducted by Statistics Korea as a sample frame, we survey a representative sample of Korean establishments. These data consist of 1,353 paired responses from labour representatives and managers. Our results show that labour-management mutual ability trustworthiness (MAT) has a positive and significant relationship with the adoption of high performance work systems ( Hypothesis 1 ); mutual benevolence trustworthiness (MBT) has a positive and significant relationship with the adoption of high performance work systems ( Hypothesis 2 ); and mutual integrity trustworthiness (MIT) has a positive and significant relationship with the adoption of high performance work systems ( Hypothesis 3 ). These results show that mutual trustworthiness in Korean employment relations is an important antecedent for the adoption of HPWS and can enable Korean industry to improve its position in the global economy. In the final analysis, it is implied that employment relations actors pursuing cooperative employment practices should ensure the development of a virtuous cycle of mutual trustworthiness.

Linking HRM competency to firm performance: an empirical investigation of Chinese firms

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to attempt to investigate the relationship between human resource management (HRM) competency and firm performance. Drawn upon the resource-based view and alignment theory, HRM competency is expected to be related to the adoption of high performance work systems (HPWS) and the achievement of external fit in HRM, which in turn contribute to firm performance.Design/methodology/approach– The data for this study were collected via a survey of in 157 Chinese enterprises located in the high technology development zone of three large cities. Two different respondents from each firm provided information about organizational characteristics, HRM policy and practices, and firm performance. Multiple regressions were used to test the hypotheses.Findings– Results indicate that HRM competency has a significant and positive effect on firm performance. Such an effect is found to be mediated by the achievement of external fit, but not the adoption of HPWS.Research limitations/implications– Limitations of the study include cross-sectional data, perceptual measure of firm performance, omission of external variables, and restricted sample. This study highlights the importance of HRM competency in strategic HRM, and provides evidence about how this construct is linked to firm performance.Originality/value– This is the first study that explores the effect of HRM competency on the adoption of HPWS and the achievement of external fit. It further reveals that the achievement of external fit mediates the relationship between HRM competency and firm performance, and hence contributes to the HRM literature.

Unions and the adoption of high-performance work systems in Korea: moderating roles of firms' competitive strategies

An unresolved question about the relationship between union representation and the adoption of high-performance work systems (HPWSs) is which factors affect the roles of unions toward the HPWS adoption. Using data from a 2009 multi-industry survey of 301 Korean firms, the author empirically examines the impacts of unions on the adoption of HPWSs. From the strategic choice perspective, he focuses on the roles of firms’ competitive strategies regarding the unions’ behaviors toward the use of HPWSs. The results indicate that Korean unions are negatively associated with the adoption of HPWSs when employers choose to implement more comprehensive HPWSs. Evidence suggests, however, that employers’ differentiation strategies moderate the union's negative impacts even when the employers comprehensively use the HPWSs. It implies that the differentiation strategy is a key factor to resolve the conflicts between unions and employers concerning the adoption of HPWSs.

High-performance work systems and the change management process in medium-sized firms

Both high-performance work systems (HPWS) and SMEs have received growing attention in HRM research. However, the literature on HRM in SMEs has mainly focused on the issues of ‘homogeneity’ versus ‘heterogeneity’ behaviours, on the one hand, and on the antithesis between the ‘small is beautiful’ and the ‘bleak-house’ perspectives on the other. On the basis of original information acquired by means of a survey performed on more than 100 Italian firms and an in-depth study of eight of them, this study analyses the degree of adoption of HPWS and aspects related to the processes of change towards HPWS in medium-sized firms. We consider the main theoretical approaches that address the choices made by enterprises, paying particular attention to the role of organisational culture. The main findings show that: (1) decision-making power on work organisation is a prerogative of the owner and top management, while HRM functions play an important role mainly in the proposal-making stage; (2) change in smaller enterprises is managed autonomously by management, while worker involvement prevails in larger enterprises; and (3) strategies for change concentrate mainly on clearly identified occupational groups and they do not translate into a true paradigm of change in organisational management as a whole. These findings have major implications for future research and for the SME policy debate.

The adoption of high performance work systems in foreign subsidiaries

This study examines the determinants and outcomes of the adoption of high performance work systems (HPWS) in foreign subsidiaries of multinational corporations (MNCs). Region-of-origin of MNCs, headquarters (HQ) influence, and strategic human resource management (SHRM) orientation are expected to determine subsidiaries’ use of HPWS, which affects firm performance via organizational climate. We found that HQ influence, SHRM orientation, and HPWS adoption varied among foreign subsidiaries originating in different regions. HQ influence and SHRM orientation were positively related to the adoption of HPWS. HPWS had a positive effect on subsidiaries’ performance, and this positive effect was partially mediated by organizational climate.