In five pages the HPWO concept is discussed in an examination as to why employees tend to resist them with such topics as team integration and its impact upon morale and the benefits they can represent considered. Five sources are cited in the bibliography.
Name of Research Paper File: D0_MThpwoem.rtf
Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
with the idea of the High Performance Work Organization, or HPWO. Developed as response to the Secretarys Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) report, issued in 1991, HPWOs were geared
to increase productivity while decreasing expenditures. More than 10 years after SCANS released its report, however, the efficiency of HPWOs remains under
question. Also under question has been the employee response to this change in work culture. The purpose of this paper is to
examine both issues - HPWO effectiveness and employee willingness (or in many cases, lack thereof) toward working in such an organization. Before launching
on an analysis of HPWO however, its helpful to examine what, precisely HPWOs are. To be honest, theorists and experts have had trouble defining what, exactly HPWOs are (which is
why, most likely, they havent been widely accepted in many corporations (Kerka, 2002). The most common characteristics within HPWOs are flat, horizontal
organizational structures, as opposed to the typical vertical hierarchy of many corporations; tasks performed by teams specifically performed around processes (rather than around job descriptions); teams that are empowered to
make decisions so that management becomes decentralized and more proactive; workers that have high skill levels and cross training; focus on quality and continuous improvement and flexible technologies (Kerka, 2002;
see also Byrne, 1993). Given the above definition (which is quite broad), there currently exist two models of HPWOs - so-called "lean production,"
which relies on centralized coordination and top-down total quality management; and "team production," in which workers make decisions and produce innovations (Kerka, 2002). The theory behind all of this is