High Performance Work Practices: One best-way or no best-way

Abstract

This paper explored the vast literature on high performance work practices and their impact on organizations’ performance. It aims to determine whether high performance work practices (or best practices) are indeed one best-way of ensuring employee productivity in organizations or not. Although, there is unanimity among authors that high performance work practices have significant impact on organizations’ performance but, the exact combination of these practices differs among authors. The findings revealed that “best practices” exist whereas; the Contingency and Configurational proponents believe that they are obtainable only in theory and definitely not in practice. The paper also showed the interplay of environmental factors in shaping authors’ viewpoints in the Universalist-Contingency/Configurational debate. Studies conducted in US gave credence to “best practices” while those conducted in Europe supported the Contingency and Configurational claims that any human resource practice can produce desired results if aligned correctly to the particular organization’s culture, context and structure. The paper argued that the debate on “best practices” is inconclusive thus; portraying the concept as another management fad.