Adapting the high performance organization framework to the Thai context

Purpose – The purpose of this study is evaluate whether the high performance organization (HPO) framework can satisfy the recent urgent request of Thai business leaders to create a unique organization which is better able to deal with unpredictable circumstances and increased competition. To establish the suitability of the HPO Framework it first has to be made sure that this framework is applicable to the Thai business context as previous research has shown that management techniques originating from the Western world cannot be indiscriminately transferred into non-Western contexts. Design/methodology/approach – During several workshops and seminars in Bangkok, participants were asked to complete the HPO questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed using a second-order confirmatory factor analysis to evaluate whether the data on the 35 items in the HPO framework group into the five independent factors: continuous improvement, openness and action orientation, management quality, workforce quality and long-term orientation. Findings – The data yielded, with a high reliability, four of the five HPO factors as present in the original HPO framework. The dropped items were either confounded with other factors or items that may be another dimension in the data or a sub-dimension of other factors. The long-term orientation factor was dropped, as the accompanying items did not unidimensionally measure this construct. This did not mean that long-term orientation (LTO) is not relevant in the Thai context; there simply were no items included that measured LTO properly in the Thai context. Research implications – The HPO framework proved to be a validated and valuable technique for Thai organizations to improve in a sustainable way. Further research should focus on testing the HPO framework in practice by implementing the framework in Thai organizations and then tracking the performance of these organizations over time. In this way, it can be evaluated if the advantages experienced by organizations while applying the HPO framework can also be enjoyed by Thai organizations. Originality/value – This is the first research into the validity of the HPO framework in the specific Thai context.