Employee involvement in performance improvement : a consideration of tacit knowledge, commitment and trust

Presents summary findings from qualitative and quantitative research with six major British companies. The original intention was to look at the potential contribution of employee commitment to high quality performance, the difficulties of achieving that commitment and the relationship of the employee contribution to performance improvement. Three particular concepts emerged as pivotal: the distinctive focus on process improvement for generating new forms of interaction at work; the importance of employee tacit knowledge for contributing to process improvement; and a new form of trust based on mutual interest between employees and management as a crucial intermediary variable contributing to commitment.