High-Performance Work System : The Contemporary Route towards Leveraging Optimum Organizational Potential

This article is devised to understand the intricacies of a High-Performance Work System (HPWS) which is comparatively, a modern evolutionary resultant of Human Resource Development Metrics and its analysis. A High-Performance Work System is a specific combination of HR activities, workflow patterns and processes that anchors employees’ skills, knowledge, organizational commitment, performance and long-term association. The concept of a High-Performance Work System can be understood as a subset of the open and closed system theory of Management propounded by Chester Barnard which was further advanced by Kurt Lewin in his action research model of organizational development. The management function in this paradigm of action research is positioned at the system’s boundary, rather than in a more traditional organizational ‘pyramid.’ The multiple complicated systems at work in organizations are depicted using a series of simple diagrams. The principal task determines the ordering of different activities, which is problematic in human services because there may be contradictory perspectives on this from the inside and outside. Case studies show how insufficient task specification can cause problems, as well as how organizational architecture (where system boundaries are set) can help or hinder task completion