Psychology of High Performance Work Systems: Special Issue Call for Papers

The dynamic business environment has forced organizations to act in a more global context and adopt better practices to gain the competitive advantage. Greater competition among organizations, particularly for labor/employees, led to the transformation of management practices across WEIRD countries to improve organizational performance by generating positive employee attitudes. In this context, High-Performance Work System (HPWS) is an umbrella term that can help to solve the problems of uncertainty in the business environment. It refers to a set of interrelated unique HRM practices intended to enhance employee skills, participation, and effort. These generate synergistic effects along with other organizational processes for sustaining the employees’ development. Furthermore, evidence has recently emerged about the universality of the HPWS framework in a VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity). Research on HPWS has demonstrated various organizational benefits. Researchers have found that HPWS significantly affects firm performance, by positively affecting firm-level turnover and productivity.

Although there is evidence of a positive relationship between HPWS and employees' proactive behavior and skill development, opinions differ on the actual impact of HPWS. For example, research has found that HPWS has a higher impact on employee-related outcomes than organizational- (and financial)-related outcomes.

This Research Topic aims to identify less explored employee-related attitudes and behavioral outcomes combining HPWS and AMO (Ability, Motivation, and Opportunity) model/theory. We believe that the study of HPWS from an AMO perspective will help the organizations to improve employees’ performance and aid in developing employees’ skills, capabilities, motivation, and work environment. We further believe that it will motivate employees to depict discretionary behaviors that are regulated (and not being controlled by) rules and regulations of organizations resulting in high commitment and strong psychological bonds between the employees and the firm. In this perspective, the HPWS needs to create a balance between sources of expertise and greater mutual dependence. In addition, it needs to be based on synergetic complementarities for developing a new power balance between various stakeholders.

Furthermore, we believe that, given the current COVID-19 pandemic, there is a dire need to study business strategies that would lead to better performance, increased creativity, innovation, and greater organizational commitment at the employee level. Keeping in mind the on-going pandemic, there is scarcity of research, offering theoretical and empirical analysis of HPWS and its effects on employees’ attitudes and organizational performance. Also, there is a need to focus on the neglected area of behaviour of employees as the primary recipient of HPWS. This article collection aims to explore how and why and how HPWS affects the employees’ psychological and behavioral outcomes.

In this Research Topic, we encourage empirical contributions focusing on the following themes:

- HPWS and job performance
- HPWS and Job satisfaction
- PWS and Creativity & Self-efficacy
- Role of Leadership/Mentoring/Supervisory support between HPWS
and employee attitudes
- Paradoxes of HPWS
- HPWS and Social identity
- Impact of COVID 19 on working of HPWS


Keywords: High Performance Work System, Employee attitudes, Employee Behavior, Organizational Performance, Employee performance, AMO model, Hybrid HR Models, Career management in HPWS, COVID19 and employee attitudes & behavior