Will high performance work practices always improve organisational performance? (PDF)

Essay from the year 2020 in the subject Leadership and Human Resources - Employee Motivation, grade: A-, University of Nairobi, language: English, abstract: The paper explores the various high performance work systems and practices and how they help in the improvement of the organizational performance.

The central argument of the paper is that there are moderating and mediating factors which impact the relationship between high performance work practices (HPWP) and organisational performance. Existing literature and scholarly works indicate that there are various antecedents such as organisational entrepreneurial orientation and organisational learning.

It cannot be said that HPWP always improve organisational performance, as there are moderating and mediating mechanisms between HPWP and organisational performance. HPWPs have a number of definitions. However, the common definition applied in various studies is that HPWPs refer to the managerial practice systems whose aim is to increase the employee empowerment and to enhance the incentives and skills that motivate and enable the employees to take advantage of their greater involvement.

On the other hand, entrepreneurial orientation refers to the organisational mind pattern reflected in terms of the entrepreneurial attitudes as well as the willingness to start new ventures and businesses. Considering that employees in an organisation are a major source of competitive advantage, strategic human resource management (SHRM) has gained heightened importance in the rapidly changing and knowledge-based economies.

As rare, inimitable and valuable assets for the organisation due to the socially complex, firm-specific and path dependent nature of the employees, human resources practices are important for firms as a means of achieving sustainable competitive advantage. High performance work practices (HPWP) is an important concept as it reflects the basic practices and philosophy of SHRM as it shapes the skills, behaviours, and attitudes of the employees by utilising and discovering knowledge, to achieve the organisational performance goals.

The essay thus explores the functioning mechanisms of organisational learning and entrepreneurial orientation in the HPWPs -Organisational performance nexus.