High-Involvement Management, Economic Recession, Well-Being, and Organizational Performance

Stephen Wood; Chidiebere Ogbonnaya

doi:10.1177/0149206316659111

High-Involvement Management, Economic Recession, Well-Being, and Organizational Performance

Stephen Wood^*, Chidiebere Ogbonnaya

^*Corresponding author for this work

Human Resource Management

University of Leicester

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

70 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

High-involvement management was introduced as a means of overcoming economic crises, but it has been argued that the inevitability of cost-cutting measures when organizations face such crises would undermine its efficacy. This article first presents theories of why tensions may exist between high-involvement management and actions typically taken by management during recessions, such as wage and employment freezes. It then reports research aimed at testing whether the performance effects of high-involvement management were lower in organizations where management took such actions to combat the post-2008 recession, due to their adverse effects on employees’ job satisfaction and well-being—and even whether high-involvement management still had a performance premium after the recession. Using data from Britain’s Workplace Employment Relations Survey of 2011, the research shows that both dimensions of high-involvement management—role- and organizational-involvement management—continued to be positively associated with economic performance as the economy came out of recession. Recessionary actions were negatively related to both employee job satisfaction and well-being, while job satisfaction mediated the relationship between role-involvement management and economic performance, which is consistent with mutual-gains theory. However, recessionary action reduced the positive effect that role-involvement management had on job satisfaction and well-being and thus may have reduced its positive performance effects. In the case of organizational-involvement management, it reduced the level of job dissatisfaction and ill-being, suggesting that it may provide workers with more information and greater certainty about the future.

Original language	English
Journal	JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206316659111
Publication status	Published - 1 Nov 2018

Keywords

high-involvement management
job autonomy
job satisfaction
organizational performance
recessionary action
well-being

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10.1177/0149206316659111

Cite this

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abstract = "High-involvement management was introduced as a means of overcoming economic crises, but it has been argued that the inevitability of cost-cutting measures when organizations face such crises would undermine its efficacy. This article first presents theories of why tensions may exist between high-involvement management and actions typically taken by management during recessions, such as wage and employment freezes. It then reports research aimed at testing whether the performance effects of high-involvement management were lower in organizations where management took such actions to combat the post-2008 recession, due to their adverse effects on employees{\textquoteright} job satisfaction and well-being—and even whether high-involvement management still had a performance premium after the recession. Using data from Britain{\textquoteright}s Workplace Employment Relations Survey of 2011, the research shows that both dimensions of high-involvement management—role- and organizational-involvement management—continued to be positively associated with economic performance as the economy came out of recession. Recessionary actions were negatively related to both employee job satisfaction and well-being, while job satisfaction mediated the relationship between role-involvement management and economic performance, which is consistent with mutual-gains theory. However, recessionary action reduced the positive effect that role-involvement management had on job satisfaction and well-being and thus may have reduced its positive performance effects. In the case of organizational-involvement management, it reduced the level of job dissatisfaction and ill-being, suggesting that it may provide workers with more information and greater certainty about the future.",

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High-Involvement Management, Economic Recession, Well-Being, and Organizational Performance

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