Adoption and correlates of Western concepts of high performance work system in the IT industry in India

Purpose An interesting conundrum exists in India with its rise as an economic powerhouse. On one front, there is tremendous pride in asserting its Indian identity. On another front, it seeks to embrace Western practices to announce its entry into the world economy. This paper aims to examine the extent to which Indian information technology (IT) firms adopt Western concepts of a high performance work system (HPWS) and the correlates of such a system (pro-social organizational behavior and employee attitude). Data from 211 IT employees in India show widespread adoption of a HPWS, and more importantly several approaches to assessment indicate that a HPWS positively correlates to pro-social organizational behavior and employee attitude. Design/methodology/approach The sample consisted of IT professionals in India having a minimum of three years of work experience. The study has used a snowball strategy to generate the sample. Eight HPWS practices were included in the survey questionnaire to assess three dimensions of HPWS. Analysis was conducted to examine differences between the highest (i.e. top 10 per cent) and the lowest (i.e. bottom 10 per cent) and bivariate correlations of the surveyed employees regarding pro-social organizational behaviors related to altruism, job involvement and work involvement, and regarding employees attitudes related to job satisfaction, intention to stay in organization, level of morale and optimism. Findings HPWS is positively associated with employee attitudes and pro-social organizational behavior. It reflects the reality that HPWSs, at least as conceived by researchers from the West, have penetrated organizations in India. Moreover, they seem to complement each other and together they seem to have a positive association with employee attitudes and pro-social organizational behavior. As organizations in India continue with the march toward servicing the world in the IT sector, the present study suggests that they have a potent tool in a HPWS to keep employee attitudes and pro-social organizational behaviors high. Research limitations/implications The criticism of survey methodology approach adopted in the present study is that it has common method bias. That is, in the survey, respondents tend to score along a path with a common response. As a validation, the study has performed a treatment-by-subjects analysis of variance with matched participant scores on the three pro-social behaviors to determine whether the means of altruism, job involvement and work involvement were significantly different. As to convergence, much more causal data would be needed to make a definitive conclusion on the findings of the present study. Originality/value This is the first study of its kind to examine the adoption of Western concepts of a HPWS in Indian IT Industry.

[1]  Nicole Nedd.  Perceptions of empowerment and intent to stay. , 2006, Nursing economic$.

[2]  Sean A. Way.  High Performance Work Systems and Intermediate Indicators of Firm Performance Within the US Small Business Sector , 2002 .

[3]  James R. Beatty,et al.  The quality journey: historical and workforce perspectives and the assessment of commitment to quality , 2006 .

[4]  Charles E. Lance,et al.  Examining the Causal Order of Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment , 1992 .

[5]  Pawan Budhwar,et al.  Doing Business in India , 2001 .

[6]  Aamir Ali Chughtai,et al.  Impact of Job Involvement on In-Role Job Performance and Organizational Citizenship Behaviour , 2008 .

[7]  John E. Delery,et al.  Modes of theorizing in strategic human resource management: Tests of universalistic, contingency, and configurational performance predictions , 1996 .

[8]  Sandra G. Leggat,et al.  The effects of high-performance work systems on hospital employees' work attitudes and intention to leave: a multi-level and occupational group analysis , 2013 .

[9]  James K. Harter,et al.  Business-unit-level relationship between employee satisfaction, employee engagement, and business outcomes: a meta-analysis. , 2002, The Journal of applied psychology.

[10]  A. Danford,et al.  Editorial: union strategies and worker engagement with new forms of work and employment , 2008 .

[11]  David F. Elloy,et al.  An empirical distinction between job involvement and work involvement: Some additional evidence. , 1992 .

[12]  S. Cavanagh,et al.  Staff turnover among hospital nurses. , 1992, Journal of advanced nursing.

[13]  C. Lance.  Evaluation of a Structural Model Relating Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment, and Precursors to Voluntary Turnover. , 1991, Multivariate behavioral research.

[14]  T. M. Lodahl,et al.  THE DEFINITION AND MEASUREMENT OF JOB INVOLVEMENT. , 1965, The Journal of applied psychology.

[15]  Martin G. Evans,et al.  Job satisfaction and turnover among nurses: integrating research findings across studies. , 1995 .

[16]  Wim van Breukelen,et al.  Voluntary employee turnover: combining variables from the ‘traditional’ turnover literature with the theory of planned behavior , 2004 .

[17]  Gerald R. Ferris,et al.  THE ROLE OF UPWARD INFLUENCE TACTICS IN HUMAN RESOURCE DECISIONS , 1997 .

[18]  Mark E. Van Buren,et al.  Is bigger better? Explaining the relationship between organization size and job rewards , 1996 .

[19]  T. Judge,et al.  Employee attitudes and job satisfaction , 2004 .

[20]  I. Peña.  Interpreneurial strategic behaviour and business performance , 2009 .

[21]  Mark A. Huselid.  The Impact of Human Resource Management Practices on Turnover, Productivity, and Corporate Financial Performance , 1995 .

[22]  Julian Barling,et al.  High-performance work systems and occupational safety. , 2005, The Journal of applied psychology.

[23]  P. Budhwar,et al.  HRM systems of Indian call centres: an exploratory study , 2006 .

[24]  G. Blau.  Job Involvement and Organizational Commitment as Interactive Predictors of Tardiness and Absenteeism , 1986 .

[25]  J. S. Adams,et al.  Inequity In Social Exchange , 1965 .

[26]  K. Macky,et al.  The relationship between ‘high-performance work practices’ and employee attitudes: an investigation of additive and interaction effects , 2007 .

[27]  Edward E. Lawler,et al.  Creating high performance organizations , 2005 .

[28]  Xiaoyun Wang,et al.  High-performance work systems, organizational commitment, and the role of demographic features in the People's Republic of China , 2009 .

[29]  B. Schneider,et al.  Employee and customer perceptions of service in banks: Replication and extension. , 1985 .

[30]  Romina García-Chas,et al.  High-performance work system and intention to leave: a mediation model , 2014 .

[31]  R. Baron,et al.  Entrepreneurs' Optimism And New Venture Performance: A Social Cognitive Perspective , 2009 .

[32]  L. Palich,et al.  AN EXPLORATORY INVESTIGATION INTO THEORETICAL MECHANISMS UNDERLYING REALISTIC JOB PREVIEWS , 1998 .

[33]  John Paul Macduffie.  Human Resource Bundles and Manufacturing Performance: Organizational Logic and Flexible Production Systems in the World Auto Industry , 1995 .

[34]  Deborah E. Rupp,et al.  The mediating effects of social exchange relationships in predicting workplace outcomes from multifoci organizational justice , 2002 .

[35]  J. Guthrie,et al.  High performance work systems and export performance , 2009 .

[36]  D. Allen,et al.  Test of a mediated performance-turnover relationship highlighting the moderating roles of visibility and reward contingency. , 2001, The Journal of applied psychology.

[37]  Kyle Lewis,et al.  Integrating Justice and Social Exchange: The Differing Effects of Fair Procedures and Treatment on Work Relationships , 2000 .

[38]  George M. Alliger,et al.  Construct validation of two instruments designed to measure job involvement and work centrality. , 1994 .

[39]  Dennis W. Organ,et al.  A Restatement of the Satisfaction-Performance Hypothesis , 1988 .

[40]  S. Gyekye,et al.  Organizational Citizenship Behaviour: A Cross-Cultural Comparative Study on Ghanaian and Finnish Industrial Workers , 2015 .

[41]  Suresh Gopalan,et al.  GAINING A PERSPECTIVE ON INDIAN VALUE ORIENTATIONS: IMPLICATIONS FOR EXPATRIATE MANAGERS , 1997 .

[42]  P. Osterman.  How Common is Workplace Transformation and Who Adopts it? , 1994 .

[43]  R. Kanungo,et al.  Measurement of job and work involvement. , 1982 .

[44]  C W Mueller,et al.  A causal model for turnover for nurses. , 1981, Academy of Management journal. Academy of Management.

[45]  J. P. Wanous,et al.  Overall job satisfaction: how good are single-item measures? , 1997, The Journal of applied psychology.

[46]  P. Blau.  Exchange and Power in Social Life , 1964 .

[47]  U. Bamel,et al.  Organizational climate and managerial effectiveness: an Indian perspective , 2013 .

[48]  J. Mathieu,et al.  A review and meta-analysis of the antecedents, correlates, and consequences of organizational commitment , 1990 .

[49]  Serge-Christophe Kolm,et al.  Altruism and Efficiency , 1983, Ethics.

[50]  S. J. Motowidlo,et al.  Prosocial Organizational Behaviors , 1986 .

[51]  G. Wagstaff.  Equity, justice, and altruism , 1998 .

[52]  James Guthrie,et al.  HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AND LABOR PRODUCTIVITY: DOES INDUSTRY MATTER? , 2005 .

[53]  G. Caprara,et al.  The Utility of Positive Orientation in Predicting Job Performance and Organisational Citizenship Behaviors , 2012 .

[54]  Kerr,et al.  Industrialism and Industrial Man. The Problems of Labor and Management in Economic Growth. Clark Kerr J.T. Dunlop, F.H. Harbison, and Ch.A. Myers. Heinemann Books on Sociology. London, Heinemann, 1962, 317 p., 30/–. , 1961, Recherches économiques de Louvain.

[55]  P. Wright,et al.  Desegregating HRM: A Review and Synthesis of Micro and Macro Human Resource Management Research , 2002 .