The 'Talk' versus the 'Walk': High Performance Work Systems, Labour Market Flexibility and Lessons from Asian Workers

High commitment or high performance work systems (HPWS) are a managerialapproach aimed at facilitating high performance companies by transforming employees from merelybeing workers into partners with employers in realizing company goals. To achieve this HPWS usehuman resource practices that draw on employee commitment, involvement and empowerment. Thepursuit of HPWS with employees in export-oriented industries (EOI) in newly industrializingeconomies (NIEs) of Malaysia and Sri Lanka is explored here. The discussion confirms a number ofdifficulties in realizing the aims of an HPWS approach because employers simultaneously pursuelabour market flexibility (LMF) practices. As a result, this hybrid labour management modelfractures workers’ commitment thus leading to a mismatch between the ‘talk’ and ‘walk’ of HPWS inthese environments with significant implications for employers.