For Seminar

1. HIWPs ia broad topic but,
In Human resource management literature the concept of best practices forms a critical
theme. These practices are called as ‘high involvement practices’ and are referred as non –
traditional HR practices that has become widespread in the companies (Ichiniowski et al., 1996).
These practices are generally defined in 3 dimensions i.e. high relative skills requirements; jobs
designed which provides opportunities to work in teams; and finally the incentive structure.
(Appelbaum et al., 2000).
High involvement work Practices (HIWP) allow for more input to the employees and
organizations to optimize their inherent abilities more efficiently and effectively. Employee
participation should be able to tell us how organizations should function and improve which can
benefit the organization and the staff. High Involvement is connected to the work place changes
and is one of the constructive models for High performance work systems.
A central of business management, as for human resources we mean management practices used
to attract, retain, develop and motivate talented prospective employees requiring the company to
achieve its objectives.
According to (Ruiz Sánchez, 2014)Now we will define that these are human resources practices
and what are its consequences, to then we be able to focus on the high involvement work
practices. Human resources practices, such as the selection process, performance
assessment, training and compensation, etc, determine to a large extent the experiences of
individuals in organizations. Each of these activities represents a choice of the organization on
how to treat employees, who to hire, who will be promoted, who will receive an increase in pay,
etc. Also, each of these practices has a major influence on the choices made by individuals
regarding the organization decided to participate degree of effort, time spent, and how to treat
colleagues. Furthermore, companies which want strategies that want to implement
practices require higher performance, depth, breadth of knowledge and a higher level of
commitment from workers, and these are the high involvement practices. These practices
provide employees with opportunities, skills and increased motivation to carry out their
activities, making the company capable of adapting turbulent environments more easily, because

2. their employees are eager to continue growing in their work day to day. For all this, it would be
appropriate to implement a system of high involvement practices in organization.
After this preface, everything has two existence one is internal and external existence of thing is
necessary for knowing
The term high-involvement work practices refer to a set ofpractices aimed at improving employee
performance by increasing employees’ skills and motivation (Pil McDuffie, 1996).
HIWP is a group of separate but interconnected human resource (HR) practices designed to
enhance employee effectiveness.
High-involvement work a practice (HIWPS) is a set ofbroad practices usesto improve employee
performance and increase skills and motivation.
Alike terms
To avoid the confusion I would like to explain some alike terms with HIWPs.
Some studies tend to treat the terms ofHPWS,high-involvement work practices (HIWP) and HCM
as interchangeable For example, Leggat et al.6 state that HPWS are ‘also referred to as high-
performance workplaces,high-commitment workplaces, high-involvement work systems and high-
performance practices’. Gould-Williams7 writes that practices are very loosely labeled ‘high
performance’, ‘high commitment’,or ‘high involvement’ practices. Similarly Gittell et al.8 report
‘multiple labels’ including HPWS, high-commitment work systems,HIWS and high-performance.
Other Authors describe employee involvement and empowerment within the organization is
similar to high involvement or high performance organizations. (Addison, 2005; Hardy & Leiba
-O’Sullivan, 1998; Klien, 1984, Riordan, Vandenberg, and Richardson, 2005)
However, from the above literature review we come to a conclusion that there is no
difference between high involvement, high performance and high commitment work
practices.

3. Although there are studies on involvement practices, they vary greatly in name high involvement
practices, high performance systems, employee involvement. (Buchanan, 1982; Huselid, 1995;
Pil & MacDuffie, 1996).
But before that let us firstly understand the actual meaning of High Involvement, High
Performance and High Commitment
High Performance: The general definition which is widely accepted is that they are set of
complementary work practices that cover three broad categories: high involvement work
practices; human resource practices and reward and commitment practices. These are also called
as bundles of practices.
It involves development of number of interrelated process which together makes an impact on
the performance in the organization through its people. This is achieved by enhancing the skills
and engaging the interest of employees. In other words they are simply the work practices that
are used in order to improve the organizational performance. (Journal of Industrial Relations,
2002)
It is the combination of bundle work practices rather than individual work practices which shapes
the pattern of interactions between managers and employees (Macduffie’s 1995: 200); (Human
Resource Management Journal, Vol 19, 2009)
Some of the common Practices include:
Employee Involvement
Team based work
Training and Development
Employment security
Performance based bay

4. High Commitment: It is described as a form of management which is aimed at eliciting a
commitment so that the behavior is mainly synchronized rather than controlled by sanctions and
pressures external to the individual, and relations within the organization and are based on high
levels of trust. Pfeffer. J (1998)
According to Walton (1985) high commitment can lead to low labor turnover, better product
quality and employee flexibility. Most committed employees always associate themselves with
the organization
Some of the Common Reward Practices are:
Performance pay
Profit sharing among employees
Job Rotation,
Flexibility in working hours
Family friendly policies
Share options to the staff members
What is HI OR EI?
With the increasing acknowledgement of employees being as an organization’s asset there is a
need to find ways to increase employee contribution to the organization whilst better
understanding how effective human resource systems operate. If an organization can recruit and
retain the right employees, develop them through training and skill acquisition, then this
knowledge can be used as a competitive advantage to drive the organization forward. Employee
involvement tends to be largely focused on direct forms of involvement i.e. involving each
employee, either individually or in groups, indirect communication between management and
employees with our third party interventions (Jeff Hyman and Bob Masob, 2015)

5. High Involvement: Employee Involvement (EI) spans a variety of organizational
procedures and practices which aim at creating a workforce that is committed to achieving
the objectives of the organization. (“John Gennard and Graham Judge”) These practices
encourage a greater level of trust and communication between employees and employers through
involvement. This in turn is accompanied by empowerment, and the extent of discretion among
the work force. (Journal of Industrial Relations, 2002)
Some of the common Involvement Practices are:
Information on Organizational Performance
Sophisticated selection techniques
Development of employee techniques
Job Security
Staff surveys
Quality circles/ Total quality Management
Staff Suggestion schemes
Self Managed teams
Some Authors describe employee involvement and empowerment within the organization is
similar to high involvement or high performance organizations. (Addison, 2005; Hardy & Leiba
-O’Sullivan, 1998; Klien, 1984, Riordan, Vandenberg, and Richardson, 2005)
Literature Review: Since the early 1990’s there has been tremendous growth in labor
management practices, which are categorized as ‘high involvement’ or ‘high commitment’ or
‘high performance approaches.

6. The term high involvement is used to highlight the importance enhanced opportunities for the
employees to make decisions (Lawler 1986); others use the term ‘high commitment’ to
understand the role of effective management in enhancing employee commitment and thereby
reducing the need for monitoring and control (Wood & de Menezes 1998).
Some of the common Involvement Practices are:
Information on Organizational Performance
Sophisticated selection techniques
Development of employee techniques
Job Security
Staff surveys
Quality circles/ Total quality Management
Staff Suggestion schemes
Self Managed teams
What are high-involvement work practices?
Numerous authors have developed a long list of management practices for generating high
involvement and high performance among employees. These range from selecting the right
people for the organization to a commitment to training and skill development, team based work
organization, job security, and incentive-based pay. In each of these general categories, a variety
of specific practices have been developed. For example, incentive-based pay can take the form of
a gain-sharing program, performance-contingent pay to individuals, team-based pay, or
employee ownership. Training programs can be developed for current and future skills, technical
and interpersonal skills, new hires and experienced employees. With all of the choices,

7. developing a coherent set of high-involvement work practices that are consistent across the
organization and reinforce each other is a nontrivial challenge for all managers.
In terms of HR practices, high involvement practices such as broadly defined tasks,
decentralized decision-making, information sharing, higher levels of training and greater use of
cross-utilization and teams are all consistent with providing employees with opportunity, skills
and motivation to contribute to organizational success in environments demanding greater levels
of commitment and involvement(Guthrie et al., 2002).
Components of High Involvement Work Practices:
According to (Whitfield, 2000) there are 3 main important components that comprises of. Firstly
employees should possess high level of skills and are assessed through training; secondly the
work itself is designed in such a way that the employees have an opportunity to use their skills.
This is done through the environment that the organization plays in and also depending on the
team structure, and then through job enrichment and job rotation; thirdly the pay structure which
motivates and brings the commitment of employees to the organization.
Other important components that constitute high involvement work practices:
This system seeks the commitment of employees, it increases the effort of employees, as it tries to meet
the needs in terms of fowling attributes.
Team working: Teams are important part of high involvement work practices. This can be
achieved only when there is quality of work and flexibility in work.
Employee Empowerment: This is possible when the information is shared about organization
performance, providing rewards, and finally giving employees to make their decisions
Information Sharing, task relevant information is shared throughout the unit
Rewards, Employees are rewarded for using their participation in decision making, information sharing,
and training to positively influence unit outcomes.

8. Knowledge
Training , employees are provided with necessary training to do their work; and
and decision making, employees should have the power to make decision and or to participate in
decision making;
(Laweler,Mohraman, &Ledford, 1995).
How to build High involvement system?
Organizational effectiveness scholar Edward Lawler and his colleagues identified four interlocking
principles for building a high-involvement work system that help to ensure that the system will be
effective and that the various practices will work together to have a positive impact on employee
engagement. These principles can be summed up as providing employees with power, information,
knowledge and rewards. (See article by Edward Lawler elsewhere in this issue of IBJ — Ed.)
Power means that employees have the power to make decisions that are important to their performance
and to the quality of their working lives. Power can mean a relatively low level of influence, as in
providing input into decisions made by others or it can mean having final authority and accountability for
decisions and their outcomes. Involvement is maximized when the highest possible level of power is
pushed down to the employees that have to carry out the decisions.
Information means data, including information on the quantity and quality of business unit output, costs,
revenues,profitability, and customer reactions. A major challenge for managers developing a high-
involvement work system is to create an information system that provides employees with data that is
timely and relevant to their particular work process, that they can influence personally by either
expending or withholding effort, and that they can understand.
The more transparent managers can make the firm’s operations, the more effectively employees can
contribute to the firm’s success. Transparency is important because it helps employees see the link
between their actions and the performance of the firm, thereby enhancing the cognitive aspect of
engagement. Hence,transparency is essential for employees to see what they are doing that is working
and what isn’t. As CEO Ricardo Semler says about his 800-person high- involvement manufacturing firm
in Brazil, “nothing matters more than those vital statistics – short, frank, frequent reports on how the
company is doing”.

9. Knowledge,or employee skills and abilities, can be distinguished from information, which is the data
employees use to make decisions and take action. Improving employees’ knowledge means a
commitment to training and development. The training investments are essential in a high- involvement
organization because when employees are making important workplace decisions, it is important that they
have the skills and abilities to make the right decisions.
The rewards component of the high-involvement equation means rewarding employees for expending
discretionary effort to enhance organizational performance. A key element in the high-involvement
equation, rewards for performance ensure that employees use their power, information and knowledge for
the good of the firm.
In each of the three cases mentioned in the previous discussion of power, information and knowledge,
rewards were in place for employee contributions to the firm, and that link was critical to the success of
the firm’s high involvement work practices (Ruiz Sánchez, 2014).
Some of the Common Reward Practices are:
Performance pay
Profit sharing among employees
Job Rotation,
Flexibility in working hours
Family friendly policies
Share options to the staff members
Advantages ofHIWPS
HIWPS are consistent with providing employeeswith the opportunity,skills and motivation to
contribute to organizational success in environments demanding greater levels of commitment and
involvement (Guthrie, Spell and Nyamori 2002).

10. High involvement work practices can improve, enhance and sustain both the competence and
commitment ofemployees,essentialfor competitive advantage in today’s turbulent business (Lado and
Wilson 1994; Ulrich 1998). High involvement work practices also put firms in a position to create
knowledge and opportunities,which makes organization more dynamic, flexible and agile, and thus
better able to adapt to turbulent environments (Teece et al, 1997). Employees in HIWP firms have more
skills to perform their jobs properly,more information with which to make thoughtful decisions about
how to achieve unit goals, more authority to make decisions in the unit’s best interests, and greater
incentives to align individual effort with unit goals. By choosing employees who are eager to continue
growing at work rather than simply “filling slots,” units with HIWP acquire personal who are willing and
eager to expand their roles and take on increasing amount of responsibility (Delery &Doty, 1996).
With HIWP develop both the breadth and depth of employees’ work competencies (Schuler & Jackson,
1987). Furthermore, with HIWP foster greater commitment to the organization (Spreitzer, 1995; Sun et
al., 2007). These practices are geared toward increasing employee skills and motivation through
participative decision-making, organization-wide information sharing, access to training, and using the
firm’s resources as incentives to enhance organizational performance (Huselid, 1995; Lawler, 19986,
1992; Lepark, Taylor, Tekleab, Marrone, & Cohen, 2007; Spreitzer, 1995; Wright & Senll, 1991).
Second paper
According to Guthrie, Spell, & Nyamori, (2002)in this developing literature is an emphasis on utilizing a
system of management practices giving employees the skill, information, motivation and latitude
resulting in a work force which is a source of competitive advantage. In addition, there is debate as to the
specific configuration which constitute these human resources practices (Becker and Gerhart,1996), there
is a growing set of prescriptive writing and empirical evidence (e.g. Arthur, 1994; Kochan and Osterman,
1994; Pfeffer,1994; Huselid, 1995,; Levine, 1995; MacDuffie, 1995; Koch and McGrath, 1996; Ghuthrie,
2001; Richard and Johnson, 2001) suggesting that high involvement work practices (HIWPs) can
enhance organization performance. HIWPs represent a ‘bundle’ of mutually reinforcing, overlapping
and synergistic HR practices which help to facilitate employee commitment and involvement (MacDuffie,
1995), (as cited in Guthrie et al., 2002).
Third

11. According to Mackie, Holahan and Gottlieb (2001) High involvement work practices (HIWPs) are an
important factor which reduces stress among employees. If employees are more involved, they will
experience less stress since they have more control to cope with these stressfulsituation (Halfers, 2018).
The use of HIWPs in an organization represent s investment in human capital in which employees are
more central(Guthrie, 2001). Base on the social exchange theory, if employer invest in employees, the
employees will do something in return to maintain the balance in their exchanges (Lambe,Wittmann &
Spekan, 2001).
Contribute to employee motivation and development and Reduce turnover intentions
According to Boxall & Macky, (2009) it is important to create awarenessby employers and employees
that HIWPs contribute to employee motivation and development, and should reduce the amount of stress
and turnover intentions.
Forth
Many previous studies (e.g. Guest, 1999; Vandenberg, Richardson, &Eastman,1999)found that HIWPs
can lead to a ‘win-win’ approach for both the organization and their employees in a way that they can
increase well-being and performance simultaneously. They have shown that HIWPs increase employees’
job satisfaction, trust in the organization, and organization commitment(Sciences & Nuland, 2019).
According to HIWP makes reference to the experiences of various counties in terms of actions fostering a
harmonizing of employee and employer objectives as well as developing employee autonomy and
responsibility on various organizational level ( as cited in Studies, n.d.).
HIWP develops optimistic beliefs and attitudes
According to the recent survey high involvement work practices develops optimistic beliefs and
attitudes and these practices generates different kinds of discretionary behavior that leads to
enhanced performance. With all these choices developing a rational set of high involvement
principles which are consistent to the organization is a challenge for managers (Alison, K. M.
2006).

12. How effective are High Involvement Work Practices at Organizations
There has been lot of evidences shown and has been documented in the research studies on the
effectiveness of high involvement work practices. Some of the organization evidences that are
shown below:
Saturn Corporation has incorporated the use of involvement and has organized into teams, work
rules have been simplified and the Unions would be involved in making decisions. The
communication would flow from bottom to the top of the organization.
Chrysler Corporation has redesigned job classifications, established joint consultation
committees and recognized work into teams.
In Another study conducted by (Eileeen Appelbaum and her colleagues (2000) studied 15 mills,
17 manufacturing industry and 10 electronic industry and has found that involvement showed
better-quality performance, affirmative attitude, trust, commitment.
In the manufacturing sector study conducted by Jeffery Arthur 1994, has found that there has
been significant improvement in training, more participation, higher productivity, and low
turnover.
Research was also conducted in automobile and the call centre industry which has proved that
there is increase in the job satisfaction, high commitment with the help of high involvement
practices.
In crux these bundle work practices has positive effect that is beneficial to workers and
organizations. Some of the positive factors are high morale, greater adaptability, increased trust,
better job satisfaction and sense of commitment.

13. Conclusion
A good high involvement work practices are one that involves and engages employees in such a
way that firm’s productivity level is reached. Open communication and fair remuneration should
be felt and valued in the organization.
It is very important that the high involvement work practices should be implemented right from
the beginning which helps in creating a sociological climate. This leads to change in the attitude
and more involvement would be there from the individual’s point of view. The components of
high involvement would allow the organization to be the part of integral system which helps in
overall functioning. The number of variables used in each area would allow the organization to
vary the degree of involvement from low to high.
High involvement work practices would function properly only when the organization follows
the comprehensive recruitment and selection procedure and more likely should develop sense of
trust among employees. Training plays a vital role in alleviating the managers to train their
employees in basic regulations which would enable them to make decisions.
Managers should understand how to implement high involvement work practices which has long
term benefits that focuses on organizational change. It is the investment in human capital in the
short-term that will lead to much greater results for the organization in the future. Feedback and
the information given to the employees appear to improve the overall productivity of an
organization. Employees should feel that they are secured and it is the culture of the organization
that gives freedom to the employees to voice out their opinions and put forward their suggestions
in order to improve work process.
How effective are high-involvement work practices?
Evidence of the effectiveness of high-involvement work practices has been documented in
several research studies. The multivariate statistical analyses conducted on the research data
introduce statistical controls for a variety of factors extant in the environment in order to rule
them out as plausible alternative explanations for the findings

14. High-involvement work practices that provide employees with the power to make workplace
decisions, training to build their knowledge and skills in order to make and implement decisions
effectively, information about how their actions affect business unit performance, and rewards
for their efforts to improve performance, can result in a win-win situation for employees and
managers. Employees seem to enjoy working in high involvement workplaces, and managers
reap enhanced performance from these systems.
Conclusion
Designing and implementing a high-involvement system is not a trivial task, however. Although
the four principles of power, knowledge, information and rewards can be generalized to both
manufacturing and service environments, their application to any particular workplace requires
fitting these principles to specific and somewhat unique situations.
Converting to a high-involvement work system requires that managers and employees work
together to virtually remake the entire organization through the process of self-design. Self-
design can start with small pilot projects almost anywhere in the organization, and handing
responsibility for a piece of an interdependent system over to employees can naturally result in
the cascading of employee involvement throughout the work flow process. Hence, high
involvement is a rigorous, long-term process, but the result can be a uniquely structured
organization with highly engaged employees and a strategic advantage over competitors.
Why Efforts to Implement High-Involvement Work Practices Fail
Oct 13, 1999
https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/why-efforts-to-implement-high-involvement-work-
practices-fail/
Peter Cappelli,

15. The professors stress that "Changing to high-involvement work is hard. Successful
change is rare, and variance in work practice is widespread. Simply making the
decision to implement suggestion boxes, job rotation, or work teams will not
automatically lead to success.
UK Essays. (November 2018). High Involvement Work Practices Management Essay. Retrieved from
https://www.ukessays.com/essays/management/high-involvement-work-practices-management-
essay.php?vref=1
Guthrie, J. P.,Spell, C. S., & Nyamori, R. O. (2002). Correlates and consequences of high involvement
work practices: The role of competitive strategy. International Journal of Human Resource
Management,13(1),183–197. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190110085071
Halfers, S. (2018). Perceptions of High-Involvement Work Practices and Turnover Intentions among
Nurses and Midwives: The Mediating Role of Stress, (June).
Ruiz Sánchez, L. (2014). High Involvement Work Practices and Engagement the Case of Brico Dépôt.
Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/5ea1/13a246e9e23dc8f6974ac1a5089ff98f88c6.pdf
Sciences, B.,& Nuland, J. Van. (2019). “ High Involvement Work Practices and Task Performance :The
Mediating Effect of Employee Engagement and the Moderating Effect of a Transformational
Leadership Style ’’, (July).

16. Studies, S. (n.d.). Stanisława Borkowska Human Resource Management and Innovation in the Business
Organization.