Do “High-Performance†Work Practices Improve Establishment-Level Outcomes?

Peter Cappelli and David Neumark

ILR Review, 2001, vol. 54, issue 4, 737-775

Abstract: Studies of how different work practices affect organizational performance have suffered from methodological problems. Especially intractable has been the difficulty of establishing whether observed links are causal or merely reflect pre-existing differences among firms. This analysis uses a national probability sample of establishments, measures of work practices and performance that are comparable across organizations, and, most important, a unique longitudinal design incorporating data from a period prior to the advent of high-performance work practices. The conclusion most strongly supported by the evidence is that work practices transferring power to employees, often described as “high-performance†practices, raise labor costs per employee, suggesting that they may raise employee compensation. Higher compensation is a cost to employers, although some statistically weak evidence points to these practices raising productivity. The authors find little effect of high-performance work practices on overall labor efficiency, which they measure as the output per dollar spent on labor.

Date: 2001
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (62)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/001979390105400401 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:54:y:2001:i:4:p:737-775

DOI: 10.1177/001979390105400401

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in ILR Review from Cornell University, ILR School
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().