Human Resources, High Involvement Work Processes and Work Outcomes: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

This research investigated the relationships between involvement-oriented human resource practices and work outcomes, mediated by high involvement work processes. The goal was to use an involvement framework - comprised of the elements of power, information, rewards, knowledge, and a fifth element developed for this thesis, integration - to select human resource practices that impact on work outcomes, and to develop an understanding of intervening

involvement processes. Data was collected from 200 work groups in a public sector organization of 4,300 employees, engaged in large infrastructure projects, including bridge and road construction and maintenance. Group-levels of human resource practice implementation were collected through surveying a sample of

employees from each work group. Data on work outcomes and high involvement work processes were collected three months later through an organizational survey of all 4,300 employees. This process was repeated 12 months later to

identify the unique effects of human resource practices and investigate causal relationships and lagged effects. Involvement-oriented human resource practices were found to impact significantly on work outcomes. High involvement work processes explained significant variance in outcomes and mediated the relationship between HR practices and outcomes. Longitudinal analyses

supported the existence of lagged effects of involvement-oriented human resource practices on high involvement work processes, and high involvement work processes on work outcomes. The research supports the utility of an involvement framework for practice selection and for explaining mediating processes on work outcomes.