Comprehensive Report: HPW and HPWO Practices for Organizations

This report delves into the concepts of High-Performance Working (HPW) and High-Performance Work Organizations (HPWO), exploring their frameworks, components, and the link between HPW systems, processes, and cultural changes. It examines leadership practices, strategic planning, organizational structure, development strategies, and reward systems within HPW frameworks. The report references relevant literature on sustained organizational performance, employee well-being, and competitive advantage, highlighting the importance of employee engagement and the role of HR. It addresses barriers to HPW implementation, such as unclear strategy, lack of trust, and inadequate leadership, and discusses the stages of the performance management cycle. The report also provides examples of incorporating line managers in various processes, emphasizing the role of performance management in different streams and offering recommendations for the sustainability of HPWS and HPWO, including fostering trust and commitment. The report concludes with examples of organizational reorganization in connection with ethical practices.

Running Head: REPORT TO ADD HPW AND HPWO PRACTICES IN AN ORGANIZATION
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Running Head: REPORT TO ADD HPW AND HPWO PRACTICES IN AN ORGANIZATION
Contents
Section 1................................................................................................................................................3
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................3
Question 1.............................................................................................................................................3
Demonstration of the HPW frameworks and their components.........................................................3
Question 2.............................................................................................................................................5
Reference of the literature dealing with HPW components...............................................................5
Competitive advantage......................................................................................................................7
Q 3.........................................................................................................................................................8
The link between HPW systems, processes and cultural changes......................................................9
A note on the main barriers.................................................................................................................10
Unclear strategy and wrong priorities..............................................................................................10
Leadership style Choices.................................................................................................................11
Lack of Trust...................................................................................................................................12
Poor coordination between the departments....................................................................................13
Inadequate leadership......................................................................................................................13
Closed Vertical communication.......................................................................................................14
Fear of criticism...............................................................................................................................14
Attitude towards change..................................................................................................................15
Section 2..............................................................................................................................................15
Question 5...........................................................................................................................................15
Stages of the performance management cycle and the role of appraisal..........................................15
The role of the performance reviews for organizational and legal purposes....................................16
Question 6...........................................................................................................................................17
Examples to include line managers in various processes.................................................................17
Performance appraisal and recognition............................................................................................17
Training, coaching, and guidance....................................................................................................17
Employee Engagement....................................................................................................................18
Creating and maintaining a learning environment...........................................................................18
Work-life balance and wellbeing.....................................................................................................18
Mentoring to ensure quality.............................................................................................................18
Question 7...........................................................................................................................................19
The role of performance management process in various streams...................................................19
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Running Head: REPORT TO ADD HPW AND HPWO PRACTICES IN AN ORGANIZATION
Question 8...........................................................................................................................................20
Examples of the reorganization in connection with the ethical practices.........................................20
Section 3..............................................................................................................................................20
Question 9...........................................................................................................................................20
Recommendations for the sustainability of an HPWS and HPWO..................................................20
Trust............................................................................................................................................21
Enthusiasm and commitment.......................................................................................................21
Supporting and enablement of a high-performance culture.........................................................21
References...........................................................................................................................................22
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Running Head: REPORT TO ADD HPW AND HPWO PRACTICES IN AN ORGANIZATION
Section 1
Introduction
The concept of High-Performance Working (HPW) allows a company to hire the best
personals under a given setup for the best results. HPW is emerging as a common solution for
big organizations because the trends in the market are changing fast. Low-performance
economic workers can waste a lot of time in the process of the gestation and technology on
which they are working may go out of the business. A working system enabled by High-
performance workers along with a culture to facilitate high-performance working is also
known as "High-performance working System (HPWS)." In the current assignment, we are
exploring some of the important aspects of HPW phenomenon and trying to come up with a
set of recommendations that can help an organization in the successful implementation of
HPW culture and HPW system (Foley et al.,2012).
Question 1
Demonstration of the HPW frameworks and their components
HPW frameworks are self-sustainable frameworks. The main components of this framework
are
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Running Head: REPORT TO ADD HPW AND HPWO PRACTICES IN AN ORGANIZATION
 HPW enabled leadership practices
 HPW enabled strategies to formulate self-sustainable operation plans
 HPW enabled the working structure of the organization
 HPW enabled development strategies
 HPW enabled reward and punishment systems
 HPW enabled HR practices to ensure the belongingness of the employees
Every HPW framework starts with three objectives that are to ensure high-level performance
with maximum profitability and best customer satisfaction. In order to achieve these three
objectives, the HPW enabled leadership comes up with some action plans where employees
can meet short term targets and supervisors can check the sum of this achievement with an
intention to meet the long term goals. It is different from a regular process where we set fixed
targets for the employees and the role of the supervisor becomes more important because of
the checks and balances associated with the process.
The operation plans of an ideal HPW enabled organizations promotes the culture of fixing
quality managers instead of employee supervisors. The focus here is more on the products,
rather than the management of the people. In other words, we can say that it is a different
kind of people management HR machinery and other tools of planning ensure high
involvement levels of a self-motivated employee.
Instead of focusing efficient people management, the HPW framework promotes the culture
of the effective people management; this culture enables a manager to give autonomous
status to various teams where they can come up with their own set of solutions and working
procedures.
In a regular system, planner act as a visionary, whereas in a system facilitated under the HPW
realms, managers' act as a visionary and supervisors set necessary targets for the team. In
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Running Head: REPORT TO ADD HPW AND HPWO PRACTICES IN AN ORGANIZATION
other words, we can also say that the vertical integration of a command line is shorter when
we apply HPW practices in a system. This shorter vertical integration also ensures swift
communication between the teams and allows them to make quick decisions for ensuring the
best outputs from any given assembly line.
Question 2
Reference of the literature dealing with HPW components
1
Sustained organization performance
This source of literature mainly gives us an account of the integration of the current
capabilities of an organization into self-sustainable HPW model with the help of a system
keeping a check on the undue exploitation of the resources. It promotes the culture of
exploration by assigning adequate indicators based on the previous achievements of the
goals. This literature also promotes the culture of the creation of alternative pathways to meet
difficult situations. These pathways can also be accommodated as a mainstream solution in
the case of consistent satisfactory performance Arhendse, L. (2015).
Raisch. (2009). Organizational Ambidexterity: Balancing Exploitation and Exploration.
Organization Science, vol. 20, no. 4,, PP 685-695.
According to the author, organizational learning, wisdom gained by the senior participants
can be converted into tacit knowledge pool and this knowledge pool can work in the direction
of maintaining the sustainability of the operations. This piece of literature also introduces us
with the concept of short term agility to handle unwelcome realities. With the help of a
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Running Head: REPORT TO ADD HPW AND HPWO PRACTICES IN AN ORGANIZATION
proper knowledge pool working as the evaluator of the future moves, this feat of short term
agility can be implemented with great effect.
2. Employee Wellbeing for HPWS
Ishak, M. (2017). High-Performance Work System (HPWS) and Organizational Performance:
The Mediating Role of Employee Attitude. IMICO 2017,
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317676792_High_Performance_Work_System_HP
WS_and_Organizational_Performance_The_Mediating_Role_of_Employee_Attitude.
Author M.Ishak explained the concept of employee belongingness with the help of the
attitude of an employee, according to him. This piece of literature gives us an idea that the
well-being of an employee is a subject to the job satisfaction levels in regular setups. It
should be kept at the best levels. However, in the case of HPWS, the same levels should be
kept at the optimum levels for the best results in the terms of employee wellbeing.
Another issue is related to the social environment and the economic security of an employee.
Policymakers should keep an eye on this equation and they should come up with adequate
employee welfare plans to create a security net around them.
The basic framework of HPW defines the objective of profit and consumer satisfaction,
however, in the case of an HPWO based organization, the things change drastically. Here the
attitude of an employee plays a crucial role. Employees play an active part in the achievement
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Running Head: REPORT TO ADD HPW AND HPWO PRACTICES IN AN ORGANIZATION
of the HPW goals. As a manager sometimes they are required to come out of their comfort
zones and work extra hard in order to finish the job in hands. 3.
Competitive advantage
McGurk, J. (2010). Shaping the Future: Exploring the drivers and derailers of sustainable.
Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, https://www.ufhrd.co.uk/wordpress/wp-
content/uploads/2010/08/6_7.pdf.
According to the author of this source, employee engagement is an important aspect of the
exercise of the settlement of a unit into an HPWO. Employee involvement in the main
processor the subsidiary processes certainly gives a competitive advantage to any
organization. Active involvement of an employee directly affects the processes like customer
satisfaction and customer retention. This ends up in a domain where a company can make
more profit while spending less energy. This equation creates an ideal interface for HPWO to
make more money and adds sustainability in the organization which is a primary requisite.
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Running Head: REPORT TO ADD HPW AND HPWO PRACTICES IN AN ORGANIZATION
Image 1: Defining the ladders of success because of employee engagement and competitive
advantage. Retrieved from: https://quality-consultants.com/employee-engagement-and-
competitive-advantage/
The above-mentioned diagram clearly connects the process of employee engagement with the
process of customer retention and this customer retention can be considered as a competitive
advantage because it reduces the efforts of an HPWO quite considerably. This source of
literature also defines the role of HR machinery in maintaining employee engagement. Here
we need to understand a simple fact, HR machinery is duty bound to retain an employee, it
has been observed that better performers of an organization often get a better opportunity in
the market and they move in the direction of a greener pasture.
Q 3
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Running Head: REPORT TO ADD HPW AND HPWO PRACTICES IN AN ORGANIZATION
The link between HPW systems, processes and cultural changes
An HPW system demands a consistent up gradation of the components that are associated
with various operations. Ideally, most of the HPWO should hire a change management
company to meet out various such junctures. In general, there are two types of changes that
can take place in an HPWO.
1. Process-based changes
2. Cultural changes
In general, every process based change also inflicts cultural changes in the working of
HPWO. In order to understand this relationship, we need to first conceive a hypothesis.
Under this hypothesis, we need first lock the ends of the performance. The first end is the end
of the unorganized performance, where all the fraction of the organization works
independently and the gap between their offerings remains high. The second end is the end of
the standardization where all the fractions of the organization stay in constant touch with each
other and quality check departments keep an eye on the delivery of the standard goods.
The hypothesis that we wish to propagate here says that “standardization of the delivered
goods and the procedures can minimize the impact of the cultural changes. In order to prove
this hypothesis, we can take the example of Toyota from Japan. Under the capacity of
automobile manufacturer, Toyota works under the arrangements of a "Just in Time"
inventory model. "Just in Time" inventory model demands a different kind of culture where
the parameters of the reporting and quality control may change drastically. In order to
mitigate this condition, Toyota works under strict norms of standardization. Sometimes their
assembly life faces certain problems like a delay in the supply of the raw materials; however,
they can manage it very easily by applying the tactics of the standardization. Toyota has a
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Running Head: REPORT TO ADD HPW AND HPWO PRACTICES IN AN ORGANIZATION
parallel provision for a change management team, this team quickly reworks the goals with a
mechanical dexterity and apply them on the assembly.
The moral of the story clearly indicates that the standardization of the outputs at various
levels is an effective exercise. In normal organizations, the authorities enjoy a different kind
of locus of control where they have ample time to figure out the impacts of the cultural
changes. They have time to implement certain ice-breaking sessions and other seminars to
bring every employee on the same page. It is true that HPWO can also facilitate this type of
an exercise in their premises; however, time is a luxury for them this is why a mechanical
standardization of the output emerges as a healthy and impactful solution for them when they
want to face the challenges caused by a cultural change in the organization.
In order to create an HPWO, HR machinery sometimes hires employees on the merit of their
technical excellence. It can serve as a barrier for a healthy HPWS. The major problem that a
cultural based change can cause is related to communication barriers. Ideally, HR machinery
should try to take resort in the standardization of the practices. Sometimes this
standardization can kill the informal communication among the employees, however, the
same culture can also make it sure that cultural conflicts are not arising in an HPWS.
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A note on the main barriers
Unclear strategy and wrong priorities
The development of an average HPWS should be done in such a fashion where the
responsibilities associated with the tasks can be shared equally among various fractions of the
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Running Head: REPORT TO ADD HPW AND HPWO PRACTICES IN AN ORGANIZATION
organization. An unclear strategy can instigate a fall of the system under the “Domino
Impact.” For a better understanding we can take the example of Toyota’s assembly line, as a
guiding principle they prefer to go for a flatter and less hierarchical organizations. Now let’s
imagine that they drift from this fundamental and start a strong hierarchy based reporting
culture then it will show that they are following an unclear strategy where the command line
can create potential blockages in the delivery pipeline.
The thumb rule related to the development of the HPWS for an HPWO clearly says that
minimal reporting should be introduced in an assembly line and reporting should be
introduced to energies the organizational texture. It should work as an additional layer for
quality control. It is a common practice that sometimes this reporting becomes a hindrance
for the speedy delivery of the goods. While creating an HPWS based system, one should
never forget the fact that systems are secondary and performance is primary. One such
example can be seen in the case of HR management, in general, any organization going to
generate an HPWS prefers to take the services of the creamy layer, and however, while hiring
the creamy layer they often forget to maintain a balance in the teams. Many leaders in a
single team can sometimes create a situation of conflict. This is why the formation of a clear
strategy and fixation of the priorities is important for the creation of an HPWS to form an
ideal HPWO.
Leadership style Choices
In general, an HPWS demands a laissez –fair style of leadership more prominently because
here the effectiveness of an employee matters more. A top-down leadership approach should
restrict its scope to the levels of the objectives and guidelines only. Sometimes top-down
approach can act as a hindrance for the employees and bring down its impact on the
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