The practices included in a high involvement system have sometimes
expanded beyond this original concept and included high performance
practices. For example, as defined by Benson et al (2006: 519): ‘Highinvolvement
work practices are a specific set of human resource practices that focus on employee decision-making, power, access to information,
training and incentives’. As noted above, high performance practices usually
include relevant training and incentive pay systems. Sung and Ashton (2005)
include high involvement practices as one of the three broad areas of a high
performance work system (the other two being human resource practices
and reward and commitment practices).
The way in which high involvement made an impact was explained by
Guest (1997). He suggested that the commitment and flexibility provided by
highly involving action led to behaviour changes among employees. Because
they show high levels of motivation, commitment and organizational citizenship,
they adopt better-performing behaviours, leading to lower absenteeism
and turnover rates, increased productivity and higher levels of quality