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Research and Information
Key themes - High performance working - High performance work practicesHigh performance work organisations are characterised by their use of a wide range of high performance work practices (HPWPs). Mark Thompson's recent report for the Society of British Aerospace Companies identifies over thirty such practices, falling into three distinct but related groups:
- high involvement practices, which create greater opportunities for employee involvement;
- human resource practices, which help build skill levels, motivation and ability;
- employee relations practices, which can help build trust, loyalty and identity with the organisation (2002: 17).
David Ashton and Johnny Sung also summarise much of the evidence on high performance work practices when they suggest that the discussion should now move on from a debate about the relative merits of individual practices and consider the dimensions around which high performance work organisations are created and sustained. They present four dimensions or bundles of practices concerned with:
- work design/employee involvement (e.g. multi-skilling, quality circles, TQM, teamworking, self-directed teams);
- support for performance/training (e.g. annual /peer/360-degree appraisal, personal development plans, job rotation/cross training, mentoring, training for trainers);
- rewarding performance (e.g. group-based compensation, profit sharing, employee share ownership)
- communication and information sharing (regular individual/team meetings, consultative committees, staff attitudes surveys).
This research is closely related 'to', though not the same 'as' another growing and compelling body of evidence, (much of which has been sponsored by the CIPD) that effective people management and development affect 'the bottom line'.
Click here for more information about a CIPD led investigation into the relationship between people management and business performance.
Click here for summary of high performance working from the CIPD.
Researchers have identified three ways in which this may occur:
- through the use of good HR practice;
- achieving the right 'fit' between business strategy and HR practice;
- adopting specific 'bundles' of practices, as Ashton and Sung have done, which may vary according to the organisational contact.
Speaking for the trade union movement, the TUC broadly agrees with this analysis, stating that, 'the reason why these reforms work points to the importance of morale and the state of the relationships within a given workplace' (2002: 3). However it 'rejects the notion that an exclusive focus on individual employee involvement is a recipe for success' (4). It also rejects the view that the main purpose of such practices should be to align worker's aspirations with those of the organisation. It argues that this essentially 'unitarist' perspective 'undervalues the important role that workers' representatives can play in testing the logic of management proposals' (5).
Click here to view the TUC's submission to the DTI.
Search for more information about high performance work practices at Partnership-at-work.com our good practice database.
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