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Using a second-order latent variable approach with 3,570 participants across 49 organizations, the current study examined the impact of high involvement work processes upon organizational effectiveness. Using a structural model of higher order influences, and taking into consideration mixed-level effects, the analyses supported a model in which a collection of organizational practices positively influenced high involvement work processes. In turn, the high involvement processes influenced organizational effectiveness (defined through return on equity [ROE] and turnover) both directly and indirectly through positive influence on employee morale. The implications of these findings for expanding this perspective of high involvement are presented as well as issues needing immediate attention in the research literature.
Increased global and domestic competition and the perception that success partially stems from an emphasis on employee involvement practices, has led to continued interest among managers and researchers in various forms of inclusionary practices and processes. This interest is driven primarily from the view that employee involvement has a positive effect on organizational performance. In fact, this view has become the foundation for many contemporary managerial practices, such as participative decision making, quality circles, and gainsharing. Once implemented, these practices are expected to lead to increased product or service quality, greater innovation, stronger employee motivation, lower cost but higher speed production, and lower employee absenteeism and turnover (Lawler,1986,1992,1996; Lawler, Ledford, & Mohrman,1989; Leana & Florkowski, 1992).
Correspondingly, many views and perspectives regarding the definition of involvement, how to create involvement, and how to operationalize involvement in research have emerged over the past several years (e.g., Cotton, Vollrath, Froggatt, Lengnick-Hall, & Jennings,1988; Lawler,1986, 1992,1996; Leana, Locke, & Schweiger, 1990; Locke & Schweiger, 1979; Miller & Monge, 1986; Wagner, 1994). However, no single approach to creating involvement has emerged as the definitive approach (Glew, O'Leary-Kelly, Griffin, & Van Fleet, 1995; Klein, Major, & Ralls, 1998). The approach to employee involvement applied in the current study is referred to as high involvement work processes (HIWP) (Lawler, 1986,1992, 1996). Descriptive studies aside, not much rigorous research has been directed specifically toward HIWP and its key premises. Yet, the concepts encompassed by HIWP are frequently cited in the academic and practitioner literature. The general purpose of the current study was to strengthen our confidence in HIWP as a framework...