WORK SYSTEMS IN MANUFACTURINGPROJECT

Work Systems in Manufacturing Project

Work Systems in Manufacturing Project

Introduction

Recent research suggests that high-involvement work practices can develop the positive beliefs and attitudes associated with employee engagement, and that these practices can generate the kinds of discretionary behaviors that lead to enhanced performance. Simply put, employees who conceive design and implement workplace and process changes are engaged employees. This report focuses on what managers can do to achieve a high level of employee engagement. (Brown, 2011, 68)

Employee Engagement and Firm Performance

Employee engagement can be critically important to competitiveness in the contemporary business environment. The Gallop Organization, which studied employee engagement in 7,939 business units in 36 companies, found that employee engagement was positively associated with performance in a variety of areas, including increased customer satisfaction, profitability and productivity, and reduced employee turnover. The breadth of employee engagement was substantial. About 2/3 of the business units scoring above the median on employee engagement also scored above the median on performance, while only about 1/3 of companies below the median on employee engagement scored above the median on performance. (Brown, 2011, 68)

Employee engagement has three related components: a cognitive, an emotional, and a behavioral aspect. The cognitive aspect of employee engagement concerns employees' beliefs about the organization, its leaders, and working conditions. The emotional aspect concerns how employees feel about each of those three factors and whether they have positive or negative attitudes toward the organization and its leaders. The behavioral aspect of employee engagement is the value-added component for the organization and consists of the discretionary effort engaged employees bring to their work in the form of extra time, brainpower and energy devoted to the task and the firm. This report focuses on what managers can do to achieve a high level of employee engagement. (Brown, 2011, 68)

What are high-involvement work practices?

Numerous authors have developed a long list of management practices for generating high involvement and high performance among employees. These range from selecting the right people for the organization to a commitment to training and skill development, team based work organization, job security, and incentive-based pay. In each of these general categories, a variety of specific practices have been developed. For example, incentive-based pay can take the form of a gain-sharing program, performance-contingent pay to individuals, team-based pay, (Brown, 2002, 41) or employee ownership. Training programs can be developed for current and future skills, technical and interpersonal skills, new hires and experienced employees. With all of the choices, developing a coherent set of high-involvement work practices that are consistent across the organization and reinforce each other is a nontrivial challenge for all managers.

Organizational effectiveness scholar Edward Lawler and his colleagues identified four interlocking principles for building a high-involvement work system that help to ensure that the system will be effective and that the various practices will work together to have a positive impact on employee engagement. These principles can be summed up as providing employees with power, information, knowledge and ...