The HPWS concept refers to a combination of HR policies and work organisation
practices which if sufficiently coherent supports high levels of motivation and innovation
in the workforce. The construction of HPWS variables follows the reasoning
of Appelbaum
et al.
(2000), having four components: participation, group organisation
(team-working), skills and incentives, each represented by three items as shown
in the second panel of Table 1.
HP-B (‘B’ for ‘bundling’) takes the positive value if the workplace implements at
least two items within at least three of the four components. This definition recognises
that workplaces may have particular circumstances which render one or other of the
components irrelevant.
7
Nonetheless, it insists on HPWS taking a bundled form
because a positive score depends on a wide range of practices being adopted. An
alternative measure, HP-8, counts the number of practices which are in application at
the workplace, and takes the positive value only if eight or more are present.