High-Performance Management Practices and Productivity

In this literature review, we identify factors leading to the adoption of high-performance workplace practices, and analyse the impact of these factors on labour productivity. We focus on studies using large-scale survey or census data in order for the findings to be more easily generalized, and thus more useful for policy makers. Many characteristics of the firm or its environment have a clear impact on the probability of adopting high-performance workplace practices. This is the case for labor market legislation and the manager’s level of education, which have a negative and positive impact respectively. It is harder to identify the impact of high-performance workplace practices on productivity. When investigating specific workplace practices, results are ambiguous overall. When studies use high-performance workplace practices indices, the impact on productivity is usually found to be significant and positive, but it is then harder to make specific recommendations about which practice to adopt.