1. KLI/ILO National
Tripartite Workshop on Skill Development, High
Performance Work Organization and Social Dialogue
The Impact of High
Performance Work Systems
on Workplace Learning and
Social Dialogue
Ian Cummings, Senior Specialist, ILO EASMAT,
Bangkok
www.ilo.org
2. Overview of the presentation
• Introduction to the ILO’s work on learning and training
• Forces of Change in the global environment in which high
performance work organizations (HPWOS) exist
• Some challenges faced by HPWOs
• Management initiatives in high performance workplaces
• Benefits to employees of HPWOs
• Government’s role in promoting high performance work
practices
• Productivity and human Capital in HPWOs
• Workplace learning culture
• Conclusions
3. ILO’s work on learning and
training in enterprises
• High performance work organizations
• case studies and synthesis report including a major
monograph “Supporting Workplace Learning for
High Performance Working” (ILO 2002)
• Small and Medium Enterprises ( see monograph)
• case studies and synthesis reports in Asia, Africa and
Europe
• Ongoing research with partners such as the
International Federation for Training and
Development (IFTDO)
4. Forces of change: global
environment
• Unforeseen economic and social instability and
volatility throughout the world- threats to world
peace (war and terrorism)
• While nations in Asia continue to deal with
economic and social issues while grappling
with predictions of how globalization will alter,
and to what extent it will affect regional
economies and labour markets.
5. Forces of change: global
environment
• Risk analysis and economic predictions of
markets based on assumptions that the “future”
will proceed in a linear fashion now appears
limited
• Countries in Asia need to develop a new range of
policies to promote a more flexible response to
global social and economic fluctuations
• Requires flatter and more consultative
management systems, matched with continual
upgrading of skills to meet the challenge of new
technologies and new working arrangements
necessary to ensure productivity and global
competitiveness.
6. Forces of change: workplace
• HPWOs are a reasonably new development,
ostensibly driven by Globalization’s demand for
synergy between economic objectives
(competitiveness) and social objectives (participation)
in the global economy
• There is a requirement for management systems to
enhance performance
• Enterprises must become leaner, more flexible,
adaptive and quicker in their response to market
changes
• This dictates new structures and forms of work
organization away from Taylorist hierarchies to flatter
work organizations
7. Some challenges faced by HPWOs
• Costly lessons have been learned by firms making
half-hearted attempts to introduce high performance
work practices
• Some managers and workers resist change - if it is
not properly engineered
• Longitudinal studies find that rigid hierarchies result
in workers becoming physiologically stressed, lacked
self-confidence and dealt less flexibly with ideas
8. Management initiatives in HPWOs
• Previous confusion about what HPWOS were has
now reached a consensus on the main features:
• Strategic vision and leadership from management
• Devolved decision-making
• Self-managed work teams
• Clear links between training, development and
organizational objectives
• High levels of service and value added to the
customer
HPWOs devolve more responsibility and decision
making to individual employees and teams
9. Management initiatives in HPWOs
Comparisons between traditional and HPWOs
Traditional HPWO
- Rigid hierarchy-many levels - Flatter management
- Command and control authority - Devolved responsibility
- Strict demarcation of responsibilities - Team working
- Intense division of labour - Multi-skilling
- Fragmented tasks - Control through
- Close supervisory control commitment
Recent case studies show that, contrary to the belief that most
HPWOs were limited to larger multinationals, it is now emerging
that medium and smaller enterprises are adopting HPWPs
10. HPWO benefits to employees
• Employees benefit in a number of ways;
• higher wages
• more job satisfaction
• higher levels of training and skills (including
new skills
• better social skills
• participation in decision making
• improved self-confidence
Some trade unions now enter into social dialogue,
partnerships and workplace agreements on
HPWOs
11. Government’s role in promoting
high performance work practices
• Conventional role is to provide education and
public TVET institutions - but is this static model
still valid? As interdependence grows and new skill
paradigms emerge, market demand may not reflect
the true need for training because of:
- poor or obsolete labour market information
- employers’ reluctance to invest in training
- rigidities in promotion and wage systems
- social demand for training
- lack of real incentives for training
12. Government’s role in promoting
high performance work practices
Should governments retreat from direct training
provision to the role of providing the regulatory
framework and creating an enabling environment?
For example:
•Policy formation, the need for a clear view of
where a country, its economy and its human
resources are going
• Providing incentives
• Supporting better communication flows
• Providing foundation skills and tools for learning
13. Productivity and human capital in
HPWOs
• In the knowledge economy human capital and the
knowledge possessed can be considered as intangible assets
•A study cited in a recent OECD publication on employment in
a knowledge-based economy differentiates between four
kinds of knowledge know what, relates to knowledge of facts
(information); Know why, to do with scientific, technological,
managerial, societal etc.; know how, capability to do
something; know who (or know where), combination of social
skills and information about who knows what to do, an area in
which ICT can play a role.
• Social capital (a tight network of relationships within the
workplace) cannot be ignored as part of human capital
14. Workplace learning culture
At the level of enterprise - a learning culture can be
promoted through:
- flatter organizations and self managed teams;
- well developed induction training;
- more flexible work assignments within broader
job descriptions and realistic job reviews
- extensive training for experienced employees;
- more employee involvement in decision-making
- better job security; and
- shifting the role of managers away from day-to-day
control towards enabling & facilitation
15. Workplace learning culture
Specific techniques that mainly apply to Just-in-time
learning my be needed to support some production
processes, services, markets and clients:
- “cross training,” utilizing techniques of multi-skilling
- job rotation to broaden/deepen skills;
- formal and informal problem-solving groups (e.g.
quality circles);
- mentoring, through the use of more experienced
workers/mangers as guides and facilitators;
- promoting and rewarding “research” linked to
problems, products or processes and making use of
ICT
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16. Conclusions
• The intensification of competition in global markets
requires higher levels of productivity at a rapid pace
to respond flexibly and immediately to the needs of
the market
• While there are problems in transition to HPWOs,
there are many benefits in productivity, less industrial
discontent - higher wages and better conditions for
workers
• HPWOs are not the only answer to productivity in
countries where there is low-cost disciplined
workforces
17. Conclusions
• There is a need for governments to change their role
to meet the needs of a knowledge-based economy
and to provide incentives for enterprises to become
HPWOs
•Research into the trend towards HPWOs by many
enterprises and whether the benefits outway the
costs is by no means conclusive
•However, present research and anecdotal
information indicates that there are positive attributes
that are evident in HPWOs.
