Abstract

                       Objective- Today business environments have changed dramatically from the past and to cope effectively with ‘cut throat competition’, it was recognized that ‘human resource’ and its alignment with business strategies is the only way to increase organizational effectiveness and competitiveness. As a survival strategy “High Performance Work System” (HPWS) has emerged as one of the most popular organization development strategies or interventions of organizations to maximize firms’ competitive advantages. The large number of companies, in particular in IT industry, is inclined towards designing and implementing High Performance Work Practices (HPWPs) in order to improve organizational performance and productivity. HPWPs may be introduced individually or in groups, called ‘bundles’ of practices, to ensure improved performance of individual employees and of the organizations employing them. At the same time, increasingly turbulent environments, heightened competition, and unpredictable technological changes have brought to the forefront of management cognition the recognition, development and sustenance of employee creativity. Thus, the objective of the paper is to provide an insight to the managers for developing and implementing the most effective HPWPs which complement and strengthen the empowerment of employees and in turn enhance creative and productive performance. Secondary objective is to analyze the impact of HPWPs on creativity of the employees by developing a link between these practices and employee creativity.

Design / Methodology/ Approach- The present research paper is an empirical study and is based on primary data. The sample of this study was 120 Indian IT employees. The data was collected by administering the questionnaire. Pearson correlation and Hierarchical regression method were employed for analysis.

Findings- The results of the study suggest that the implementation of HPWPs in IT companies have a strong positive link with creativity of employees. The result showed Empowerment has largest influence on employees’ creativity. Also, the correlation of HPWPs and creativity is found to be very significant. This research study analyzed the strength of impact of Empowerment on employees’ creativity vis-à-vis other HPWPs i.e., information sharing, training and skill development and flexible job designs.

Limitations- Present research is conducted on a very small sample and taken from IT sector only. This limits the generalization of the findings to large populations. Thus, further studies need to be conducted in different types of organizations.

Practical implications- This paper can inspire managers and experts of their fields for bringing certain changes in the way of execution of existing/modern HR practices. Employees are an integral part of organizations. Thus by empowering the employees, organizations can achieve results and can retain creative employees for long.

Originality/Value- The previous works have focused at the firm level performance and financial outcomes. Also, the impact of HPWPs on employee creativity has received scant attention from both academics and practitioners.  Thus, this study is an attempt to fill the void.

Keywords: High-Performance Work Practices; Employee Creativity; Empowerment; Information sharing; Training and skill development.