High performance work practices: work intensification or 'win-win'?

Research in the 1990s on high performance work practices (HPWPs) provided a wide range of positive results for organisational performance. Adding to these early studies in the US are similar findings from other countries. However, recent research evidence, especially that coming from the labour process tradition and research projects that look specifically at the impact of lean production on workers, appears to suggest that HPWPs are likely to lead to work intensification and not performance. This current paper examines the relative strengths of the opposing claims. There appears to be evidence of both positive and negative impact on workers. Through the use of two case studies, this paper argues that, when attention is paid to workers' intrinsic job satisfaction, there are positive outcomes from HPWPs for employees as well as organisations.

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