DO HIGH PERFORMANCE WORK SYSTEMS PAY OFF IN ASIA?

Abstract

The human resource management (HRM) literature promotes the importance of people in achieving organizational performance (OP). In recent years, much of the debate about the HRM-OP linkage has been focused around the concept of high performance work systems (HPWS). There is rising interest in using HPWS practices, because evidence showed that organizations that implemented such systems recorded remarkable success, especially in organizations in the Western context. It will be interesting to find out whether the impressive results can be applied to nonwestern settings since work culture and management practices differ between the Western firms and Asian firms. This commentary paper explores the research findings of HPWS in the Western and Asian countries while emphasizing that the specific practices in such systems need to be customized to the context. The paper may be valuable to those who are interested in understanding the phenomenon of HPWS for research purposes.

Keywords: Human Resource Management, Organizational Performance, High Performance Work System, Western Firms, Asian Firms

For full Paper: fmscresearch@sjp.ac.lk