The Fundamental Roles of the Universal Model

This essay is intended to examine the fundamental roles of the universal model and assess its significance in creating a high performance workplace. Furthermore, it will evaluate the degree to which a relationship has been recognised between best practice human resource management and enhanced organisational performance. After regarding many academic sources and under going a thorough discussion of both the benefits and drawbacks of several best practices, I came to conclude that best practice ideologies are significant in increasing the output performance by an organisation, although only with a selective combination of universal model principles.

Best practice in regards to human resource management is the belief that there are certain procedures implemented within an organisation that will assist in achieving competitive advantage and high performance (Torrington et al. 2005). This universal model consists of various elements, in which vary from company to company. Therefore, this essay will address a select few and discuss their individual relevance to high achievement.

When instigating best practices, organisations often regard employee involvement as a predominant principle. Involvement from staff varies in a vast amount of ways, from further communication, information sharing and more responsibility been dispensed. Pare and Tremblay (2007) explain that higher employee involvement leads to feelings of mutual trust and recognition. As a result of this employees feel important to their employers and are empowered to work at a higher standard, thus creating a higher performing workplace. This is possible because with the higher levels of communication and the resources to obtain useful knowledge, employees can make high quality decisions regarding how best to complete their work and make required improvements. Further justification of this comes from a study carried out by Grugulis et al. (2000), where they discovered more involvement from employees in day-to-day decision-making and frequent communication across the workforce created more dedicated, loyal employees. Consequently, it is evident that devoted personnel allow for a higher performing workforce.

Jones and Kato (2005) suggest that there has been a vast amount of studies and empirical research concerning this debate. One of these studies was Sashkin (1976) who identifies and discusses the positive outcomes on performance when increasing employee involvement. This is because the increased participation from staff contributes to the overall efficiency of the company; enhancing the quality of decisions that are being made. However, there are limitations to this theory with regards to proving a link between performance and this type of human resource management. The study in question was carried out in Nigeria; it is difficult to then apply the same variables to organisations within the UK, as they are socially, environmentally and politically