Elements of a High$-$Performance Work System

The challenge facing managers today is how to make their organizations into high$-$performance work systems, with the right combination of people, technology, and organizational structure to make full use of resources and opportunities in achieving their organizations' goals. To function as a high$-$performance work system, each of these elements must fit well with the others in a smoothly functioning whole.

Alan Boynton is vice president of human resources for a pharmaceutical company in Denver, Colorado. He has been charged with identifying and implementing organizational strategies to help transform the company into a high$-$performance work system. This activity is important because it will give you the opportunity to understand the work system elements HR professionals must use.

The goal of this activity is to identify the elements of high$-$performance work systems.

Read each strategy Alan wants to employ, then match it to the correct category it represents.

$1$

Reward Systems

$2$

Task Design

$3$

Training and

Development

$4$

Organizational

Structure

$5$

Information Systems

Match each of the options above to the items below.

Creating a company intranet that will give employees access to information about benefits, training, and job openings

$5$

Combining a large number of simple jobs into a smaller number of jobs with more complex tasks

$2$

Grouping employees into teams according to the customers they serve

$3$

Motivating employees to increase their skills sets and expand their knowledge base

$1$

Revising company policies regarding the "hardship bonus" paid to expatriates as the number of expatriates needed will double as part of the company's growth strategy

$4$