High-Performance Work Systems and Organisational Performance

Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources
http://apj.sagepub.com
High-performance work systems and organisational performance: Bridging theory and

practice
Peter Boxall and Keith Macky
Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources 2007; 45; 261
DOI: 10.1177/1038411107082273.
The online version of this article can be found at:
http://apj.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/45/3/261
Published by:
http://www.sagepublications.com
On behalf of:
Australian Human Resources Institute (AHRI)
Additional services and information for Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources can be found at:
Email Alerts: http://apj.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts
Subscriptions: http://apj.sagepub.com/subscriptions
Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav
Permissions: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav
Citations (this article cites 21 articles hosted on the
SAGE Journals Online and HighWire Press platforms):
http://apj.sagepub.com/cgi/content/refs/45/3/261
Downloaded from http://apj.sagepub.com by georgiana ciobanu on November 23, 2007

2007 Australian Human Resources Institute. All rights reserved. Not for commercial use or unauthorized distribution.
APJHR 45_3_Boxall.qxd
30/10/2007
11:01 AM
Page 261
2007 45(3)
High-performance work systems and organisational

performance: Bridging theory and practice
Peter Boxall
University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
Keith Macky
Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand
This commentary paper explores the meaning and significance of highperformance work systems (HPWSs), an important topic in the debate around
how to build a high-skill or high-road economy. Work reforms to increase the
involvement of production or front-line service workers are at the heart of these
systems, which are therefore more aptly called high-involvement work systems
(HIWSs). While emphasising that the specific practices in such systems need to be
customised to industry and occupational conditions, this paper outlines the core
features of HIWSs, including the wider managerial and governance processes in
which they are embedded. The paper goes on to explain how the literature in the
HPWS area is making a valuable contribution to our understanding of the role
of intervening management and employee variables in the performance of any
kind of HR system. This underlines the value to any company concerned about
its HR performance of looking at the chain of links that runs from management
intentions through management practices and employee responses to
organisational outcomes.
Keywords: high-performance work systems, high-involvement work systems
High-performance work systems (HPWSs), a type of HR system, are an

important concept in contemporary research on workplaces. In an era of
economic globalisation, they are a major issue in the policy debate around how
Correspondence to: Professor Peter Boxall, Department of Management & Employment

Relations, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand; e-mail:
p.boxall@auckland.ac.nz
Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources. Published by SAGE Publications (Los Angeles, London, New Delhi and
Singapore; www.sagepublications.com) on behalf of the Australian Human Resources Institute. Copyright 2007
Australian Human Resources Institute. Volume 45(3): 261270. [1038-4111] DOI: 10.1177/1038411107082273.

261
262
30/10/2007
11:01 AM
Page 262
2007 45(3)
to build a high-skill or high-road economy and avoid engaging in a race to

the bottom.
HR systems or models are clusters of work and employment practices
oriented to a particular group of employees. Large organisations typically have
one kind of HR system for managers and another for their main group of
production or operations workers. Where professionals, technical specialists
and administrative support staff are employed, it is commonplace to have
distinctive HR models for these groups as well. While there will be some
overlaps among these systems, the differences among them are important,
making a significant impact on the type of people recruited and how they
contribute to company performance.
The notion of HPWSs arises out of concern with the way in which
production workers have been managed in large parts of western manufacturing. There are various definitions but a common thread is that HPWSs are
systems of managerial practices that increase the empowerment of employees
and enhance the skills and incentives that enable and motivate them to take
advantage of this greater empowerment (Appelbaum et al. 2000; Gollan 2005;
Lawler 2005). While the key focus has been on the way production workers are
managed in manufacturing, the topic of HPWSs is actually part of a larger
agenda concerned with how HRM can be used to improve performance in all
kinds of organisations with various kinds of workers. In this article, we
highlight two sets of issues that have gained prominence under the rubric of
HPWSs.
The first issue is concerned with those situations where a companys HR
systems for its production workforce do not fit with its current competitive
context. In these situations, firms need to make some kind of serious change.
They can either outsource their production to sites which perform much better
in cost-effectiveness or revitalise their historical production sites through better
HR systems and new technology. The HPWS literature is mainly concerned
with studying western firms that decide to revitalise their historical HR
systems by examining why they change and what HR policies and practices
underpin the change.
The second set of issues is to do with how the links between these new
HR systems and organisational performance can be improved. Research on
HPWSs highlights the importance of the mediating links or intervening
variables between HR systems and organisational outcomes, including critical
variables to do with employee beliefs, attitudes and behaviours. The lessons
from this line of HPWS research have much wider applicability: they are
telling us important things about how any HR system needs to work.
HPWSs: the why and what questions
Going back to the landmark Hawthorne studies of the 1930s, there is a long
tradition of interest in how to make production jobs more motivating and

30/10/2007
11:01 AM
Page 263
HPWSs and organisational performance
enhance employee commitment. Serious management concern with HPWSs,

however, really stems from the rise of Japanese high-quality production
systems in the 1970s and 1980s, including such techniques as quality circles,
just-in-time inventory and delivery, and flexible, team-based production
(Bartram 2005; Boxall and Purcell 2003). Faced with competitors who were
simultaneously raising product quality, reducing production costs and
improving rates of innovation, some elements of western manufacturing (like
the British motorcycle industry)1 simply disappeared while others soon learnt
they could not rely solely on their marketing skills. To survive, they had to
fundamentally change their production systems and grow their reputation for
quality and value.
A long overdue focus on the internal operations of companies began to
take hold. In the automobile manufacturing industry, struggling western firms
made major efforts to reform their production systems by adopting Japanese
lean production principles (Womack, Jones and Roos 1990). This meant
moving away from the low-discretion, control-focused work systems associated with Fordist operations management towards work systems which
increased the involvement of production workers and raised their skills and
incentives (MacDuffie 1995).
Some commentators, like Appelbaum and Batt (1994) who published an
influential book on the subject, began to call these new work systems highperformance work systems while others, following Lawler (1986), talked of
high-involvement work systems (HIWSs). Yet others talked about highcommitment management (e.g. Walton 1985; Wood and Albanese 1995).
We should pause for a moment to sort out this terminology. In our view,
Lawlers involvement terminology is the most helpful because it makes it clear
what it is that is changing in HR systems for production workers: we are
talking about a major shift in the degree to which production operators are
involved in, or empowered to make, decisions that affect their work quality
and output. This then leads on to changes in practices that enhance their skills
(such as more selective recruitment and better training) and their commitment
(such as team- and company-based compensation). Collectively, these changes
in HRM are designed to enhance employee and operating performance.
We should note, however, that this concern with the quality of production-line work is not something that applies right across western manufacturing. In semi-conductor manufacturing, for example, an industry which
has emerged since World War II, production work has historically been
dominated by highly skilled professional engineers (Appelyard and Brown
2001). Unlike assembly-line production workers, these workers do not need
job enrichment because they have always enjoyed high levels of involvement.
The interest in HIWSs really forms part of a major change in production
1 For an excellent analysis of the rise and decline of the British motorcycle industry, see Ian
Chadwicks website: http://www.ianchadwick.com/motorcycles/britbikes/index.html

263
264
30/10/2007
11:01 AM
Page 264
2007 45(3)
systems in those parts of western manufacturing, such as steel making and car
manufacture, where the deskilling of production work and demarcation
among trades took a strong hold as mass production developed in the early
twentieth century.
In these manufacturing contexts, the need to adopt Japanese-style lean
manufacturing principles has led to change in work systems towards a highinvolvement model. High-involvement work practices typically include
greater decision-making autonomy on the job, as well as off line in quality
circles or other types of problem-solving groups. Managers, however, need to
keep in mind the importance of customising work practices to their specific
industry and occupational conditions. For example, in situations where
workers have high task interdependence, there is often a shift to teamwork,
but teams can be counterproductive in conditions of low interdependence
(Park, Gardner and Wright 2004; Sprigg, Jackson and Parker 2000).
Along with the Japanese quality challenge, a key environmental stimulant
of change in HR systems in manufacturing over the last 20 years has been the
advent of advanced manufacturing technology (AMT). This includes such
technologies as robotics, computer-aided design (CAD), computer numerical
control (CNC) machine tools, and electronic data interchange (EDI) systems.
Research on AMT, including work conducted among Australian and New
Zealand manufacturers (Challis, Samson and Lawson 2005), shows that such
technologies reach more of their potential when production workers jobs are
redesigned and their skills improved to enable them to enhance the operating
performance of these technologies. Studies by Wall et al. (1990) and Wall,
Jackson and Davids (1992), for example, show how work redesign and training
that enables production operators to solve technical problems as they occur
reduces the need to call in specialist technicians for problem-solving and
thereby enhances productivity. The productivity benefits come from quicker
response to these problems and thus lower machine downtime. In the longer
run, productivity improvements also come from more effective use of the
capacity of operators for learning: employees who enjoy greater empowerment
learn more about the reasons why faults occur in the first place and find ways
to reduce their incidence.
The converse of this argument is that investments in HIWSs are unlikely
to be economic in low-tech, labour-intensive manufacturing which makes little
use of AMT. Much of the apparel and toy manufacturing being conducted in
China, for example, works very cost effectively on classical management principles of labour specialisation without much worker empowerment (Cooke
2004). Firms in labour-intensive manufacturing are increasingly moving their
plants offshore to lower cost countries. A case in point is one of Britains most
innovative manufacturing firms, Dyson. The firm, an international leader in
vacuum cleaner technology, shifted its production facilities to Malaysia in the
year 2000. Relocation to Malaysia not only delivered lower unit costs than was
possible in the UK, but also ensured proximity to key parts suppliers, thus

30/10/2007
11:01 AM
Page 265
improving the firms location in its supply chain. HR strategy in Dyson now
revolves around managing a dual workforce: one in the UK where research
and development (R&D) staff are employed, and one in Malaysia where the
products are assembled.2
Bearing in mind, then, that the specific practices used to bring about
higher employee involvement need to be intelligently adapted across industries and work processes, the core features of HIWSs are outlined in table 1.
The table helps to make the point that HIWSs are embedded in an organisational context. There are features of the broader management process and the
leadership or governance of the organisation that need to be supportive if
HIWSs are to be successfully implemented (Gollan 2005).
While interest in HIWSs sprang from manufacturing, it is not simply a
manufacturing issue. There are also studies of the service sector which point
to the value of ensuring that HR systems fit appropriately with the nature of
the industry or the competitive segment within the industry. High-skill, highinvolvement systems of managing people are naturally necessary in professional services because workers capable of providing professional services need
Table 1
HIWSs: key direct and indirect drivers of workplace performance
HIWSs: direct drivers of

workplace performance
1. Technology Greater adoption of new technology in those

industries or work processes where it is a significant performance
enabler, including better IT
2. Work reorganisation More empowering styles of working in
those jobs where job enrichment or greater worker involvement
in problem solving and decision-making will make better use of
human potential and thus improve work quality or customer
satisfaction
3. Employee selection and skill Careful selection of employees
for job-match and for learning potential plus enhanced skill
development to take advantage of new technology and/or work
in a more empowered way
4. Performance and commitment incentives Enhanced incentives
to work smarter and to reduce employee turnover (e.g. financial
incentives, stronger vocational or career development, familyfriendly employment practices)
HIWSs: indirect drivers of

workplace performance
5. Management planning and measurement Improved systems

to plan and measure workplace performance, including data
gathering on employee attitudes, and ensuring the accounting
system properly recognises the investments in human resources
that drive performance improvements
6. Management capability and support Improved investments in
management development at all levels and in support for the
enabling role of front-line managers
7. More cooperative labour relations A more consultative
partnership style of labour relations with unions and/or with
employee representatives chosen by the workforce
2 For a summary of the companys history, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Dyson

265
266
30/10/2007
11:01 AM
Page 266
2007 45(3)
to be paid well and developed continuously, but they are also becoming
important in those service industries which are able to segment customer
needs. In the hotel industry, for example, luxury hotel operators can improve
revenue and customer retention through HR systems that empower front-line
employees to personalise service (Haynes and Fryer 2000). They therefore have
an interest in investing in the employee development and management
practices that will support a high-quality competitive strategy in this industry.
Such investments in employees, however, are unlikely to be economic at
the low-price end of the hotel industry where customers want a cheap bed
without frills. In general, HIWSs are unlikely in mass services where
customers are price conscious and willing to engage in self-service to help keep
prices low (Boxall 2003). It is important to bear in mind a critical difference
between manufacturing and services: while modern high-tech manufacturing
often has the capability to deliver better quality and lower prices, while also
investing heavily in employee development and retention, improvements in
quality in service industries generally translate into a price premium. If
customers are resistant to price increases for basic services, the options for HR
strategy are more constrained.
In summary, then, the first stream of literature in the HPWS area is
concerned with identifying the market or technological situations in which
firms have a clear interest in changing towards HR systems which increase
the empowerment, skills and rewards of production or service workers.
Recognising the need to be careful with specific practices, research is increasingly outlining the broad shape of the changes that are needed in such a highinvolvement HR model.
HPWSs: the how question
To provide more practical guidance, however, research needs to explain more
fully how such systems work. This involves studying the difficulties and
complexities that can arise in what researchers have called the organisational
black box (e.g. Purcell et al. 2003; Wright and Gardner 2004). The general
principles being developed in this stream of work are not relevant only to
HPWSs but can be applied to any situation in which there is a need for a
companys HR systems to perform more effectively. This focus here is on the
mediating links from managements intentions through to whatever notion of
organisational performance is desired (figure 1). The process of HRM is
actually a chain of links in which 1) intended HR practices lead to 2) actual HR
practices, which lead to 3) perceived HR practices, and then to 4) employee
reactions, and, finally, to 5) organisational performance.
Figure 1 underlines two important facts about the links between HRM
and performance. First, it emphasises that there is often a difference between
what management says the company will do and what managers actually do

30/10/2007
11:01 AM
Page 267
Figure 1
Intended
HR
practices
The HRM-performance causal chain
Actual HR
practices
Perceived
HR practices
Employee
reactions
Organisational
performance
Source: adapted from Wright and Gardner (2004); Purcell and Hutchinson (2007)
with their staff. Line managers, including supervisors and team leaders, are
responsible for converting much of managements intentions for HRM into
actual HR practice, given the resources they have to work with, and their
judgments about what will work and what serves their interests. It is useful
therefore to think of HR practice as a wide range of actual managerial
behaviour centred around a notional standard.
The second vital fact that figure 1 illustrates is that if management wants
to bring about valued organisational outcomes, it needs to influence employee
beliefs, attitudes and behaviour. Employee behaviour is critical to whether the
desired organisational outcomes will be achieved, and is influenced by
employee perceptions of, and their cognitive and affective responses to, HR
practices. Major gaps between management intentions and perceived management actions usually undermine employee trust and loyalty and thus affect
performance outcomes.
The possibility for gaps between rhetoric and reality (Legge 2005) underlines not only the need for senior managers in large organisations to figure
carefully what they want to achieve and then follow through on their pledges
achieving greater consistency in their own behaviour but also the importance of the management of lower level managers. While this includes both
staff specialists, such as HR specialists, and line managers, the latter are particularly important if consistency is going to be high in HRM. Line managers
are not simple conduits. Line managers action or inaction is often responsible
for the difference between espoused HR policies and their enactment. Some
formal HR policies (such as rates of pay and the details of pensions) are (nearly
always) directly transmitted from policy to practice without slippage, but much
else is filtered through line managers, positively or negatively.
The quality of the relationships between line managers and their team
members is starting to receive greater attention in the analysis of HR systems.
There is no doubt that ties within a work team can be much stronger than
those with remote senior executives because it is much easier to trust someone
you know, especially if you find them to be a person of competence and
integrity (Macky and Boxall 2007). A recent study by Purcell and Hutchinson
(2007) of the British retail organisation, Selfridges, underlines the value of
senior management taking a much greater interest in the selection, development, support and motivation of front-line managers so that they, in turn,

267
268
30/10/2007
11:01 AM
Page 268
2007 45(3)
manage front-line employees in ways that enhance employee satisfaction and

commitment.
The impact of HIWSs on employee outcomes has thus become central to
the academic debate in this area. The issue of whether companies gain from
HIWSs turns on the way the HR changes affect employee attitudes and
behaviour (Kochan 2004). Here the academic literature is split. On the one
hand, there are qualitative case studies that point to the dangers of work intensification, often when workers are confronted with greater responsibilities in
lean, downsized organisations (see Delbridge (2007) for a review of this
evidence). On the other hand, survey evidence indicates that HIWSs which
bring improvements in employee autonomy, greater development and use of
their skills, and greater financial rewards appeal strongly to workers, significantly lifting job satisfaction (Berg 1999; Vandenberg, Richardson, and
Eastman 1999). A logical conclusion would be that workers respond most positively when increases in their responsibilities do not come with an increase in
stress and strain (Macky and Boxall 2006; Mackie, Holahan and Gottlieb 2001).
In summary, then, the HPWS literature is bringing a sharper focus on the
intervening or mediating variables that lie between management intentions
and organisational outcomes in HRM. While there are key issues that relate
specifically to worker responses to HIWSs, there are also important lessons for
any organisation wanting to improve the process of HRM.
Conclusions
The burgeoning HPWS literature is playing two valuable roles in terms of the
development of contemporary HRM. First, it is helping us to identify the
market and/or technological situations in which a companys HR systems for
operating or front-line service workers would benefit from moving to a highinvolvement model. The broad outlines of this HR model are becoming clearer
and have been summarised in this article (table 1). Companies that see value
in this model, however, need to customise practices to their specific situation.
Second, aside from the contours of this particular kind of HR system, the literature in the HPWS area is making a valuable contribution in highlighting the
role of intervening management and employee variables in any kind of HR
system (figure 1). Thus, the literature reinforces the value to any company
concerned about its performance of looking internally at the chain of links that
runs from management intentions through management practices and
employee responses to organisational outcomes. The clear implication is that
data-gathering through such practices as regular employee attitude surveys
and focus groups is important when management wants to improve organisational performance through HRM. Better information on employee perceptions of, and responses to, espoused and actual HR practices is a prerequisite
to improving HRMs contribution to organisational effectiveness.

30/10/2007
11:01 AM
Page 269
Peter Boxall (PhD) is professor of human resource management in the Department of Management and
Employment Relations at the University of Auckland. He is co-author with John Purcell of Strategy and
human resource management, co-editor (with John Purcell and Patrick Wright) of the Oxford handbook
of human resource management, and co-editor (with Richard Freeman and Peter Haynes) of What
workers say: Employee voice in the Anglo-American workplace.
Keith Macky (PhD) is associate professor of human resource management in the Department of
Management at the Auckland University of Technology. He has more than 20 years HR experience in
both academic and consulting environments, including senior positions at Massey University, Ernst &
Young, and KPMG. He is the co-author with Gene Johnson of Managing human resources in New
Zealand.
References
Appelbaum, E., T. Bailey, P. Berg, and A. Kalleberg. 2000. Manufacturing advantage: Why
high-performance work systems pay off. Ithaca: ILR Press.
Appelbaum, E., and R. Batt. 1994. The new American workplace. Ithaca, New York: ILR
Press.
Appelyard, M., and C. Brown. 2001. Employment practices and semiconductor
manufacturing performance. Industrial Relations 40(3): 43671.
Bartram, T. 2005. Small firms, big ideas: The adoption of human resource management in
Australian small firms. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources 43(1): 13754.
Berg, P. 1999. The effects of high performance work practices on job satisfaction in the
United States steel industry. Relations Industrielles 54(1): 11134.
Boxall, P. 2003. HR Strategy and competitive advantage in the service sector. Human Resource
Management Journal 13(3): 520.
Boxall, P., and J. Purcell. 2003. Strategy and human resource management. Basingstoke:
Palgrave Macmillan.
Challis, D., D. Samson, and B. Lawson. 2005. Impact of technological, organizational and
human resource investments on employee and manufacturing performance: Australian
and New Zealand evidence. International Journal of Production Research 43(1): 81107.
Cooke, F.L. 2004. Foreign firms in China: Modelling HRM in a toy manufacturing
corporation. Human Resource Management Journal 14(3): 31 52.
Delbridge, R. 2007. HRM and contemporary manufacturing. In The Oxford handbook of
human resource management, eds P. Boxall, J. Purcell, and P. Wright, 40527. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Gollan, P. 2005. High involvement management and human resource sustainability: The
challenges and opportunities. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources 43(1): 1833.
Haynes, P., and G. Fryer. 2000. Human resources, service quality and performance: a case
study. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 12(4): 2408.
Kochan, T. 2004. Restoring trust in the human resource management profession. Asia Pacific
Journal of Human Resources 42(2): 13246.
Lawler, E. 1986. High-involvement management. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Lawler, E. 2005. Creating high performance organisations. Asia Pacific Journal of Human
Resources 43(1): 1017.
Legge, K. 2005. Human resource management: Rhetorics and realities. Basingstoke: Palgrave
Macmillan.

269
270
30/10/2007
11:01 AM
Page 270
2007 45(3)
MacDuffie, J. 1995. Human Resource bundles and manufacturing performance:

Organizational logic and flexible production systems in the world auto industry.
Industrial and Labor Relations Review 48(2): 197221.
Mackie, K., C. Holahan, and N. Gottlieb. 2001. Employee involvement management
practices, work stress, and depression in employees of a human services residential care
facility. Human Relations 54(8): 106592.
Macky, K., and P. Boxall. 2006. Work intensification, high-involvement work processes and
employee well-being. Paper presented to KCL-ACREW Conference, Prato, 14 July.
Macky, K., and P. Boxall. 2007. The relationship between high-performance work practices
and employee attitudes: An investigation of additive and interaction effects.
International Journal of Human Resource Management 18(4): 53767.
Park, H.J., T.M. Gardner, and P.M. Wright. 2004. HR practices or HR capabilities: Which
matters? Insights from the Asia Pacific region. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources
42(3): 26073.
Purcell, J., and S. Hutchinson. 2007. Front-line managers as agents in the HRM-performance
causal chain: Theory, analysis and evidence. Human Resource Management Journal 17(1):
320.
Purcell, J., N. Kinnie, S. Hutchinson, J. Swart, and B. Rayton. 2003. Understanding the people
and performance link: Unlocking the black box. London: CIPD.
Sprigg, C., P. Jackson, and S. Parker. 2000. Production teamworking: The importance of
interdependence and autonomy for employee strain and satisfaction. Human Relations
53(11): 151943.
Vandenberg, R.J., H.A. Richardson, and L.J. Eastman. 1999. The impact of high involvement
work processes on organizational effectiveness: A second-order latent variable approach.
Group & Organization Management 24(3): 30039.
Wall, T., M. Corbett, R. Martin, C. Clegg, and P. Jackson. 1990. Advanced manufacturing
technology, work design and performance: A change study. Journal of Applied Psychology
75(6): 6917.
Wall, T., P. Jackson, and K. Davids. 1992. Operator work design and robotics system
performance. Journal of Applied Psychology 77(3): 35362.
Walton, R.E. 1985. From control to commitment in the workplace. Harvard Business Review
63(2): 7784.
Womack, J., D. Jones, and D. Roos. 1990. The machine that changed the world: The triumph of
lean production. New York: Rawson Macmillan.
Wood, S., and P. Albanese. 1995. Can we speak of high commitment management on the
shop floor? Journal of Management Studies 32(2): 215247.
Wright, P., and T. Gardner. 2004. The human resourcefirm performance relationship:
Methodological and theoretical challenges. In The new workplace: A guide to the human
impact of modern work practices, eds D. Holman, T. Wall, C. Clegg, P. Sparrow, and A.
Howard, 31130. London: John Wiley.


High-Performance Work Systems and Organisational Performance

Caricato da

Informazioni sul documento

Titolo originale

Copyright

Formati disponibili

Condividi questo documento

Condividi o incorpora il documento

Opzioni di condivisione

Hai trovato utile questo documento?

Questo contenuto è inappropriato?

Copyright:

Formati disponibili

High-Performance Work Systems and Organisational Performance

Caricato da

Copyright:

Formati disponibili

Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources