High-performance-work-practices (HPWP) have been well documented within private organisations in developed country economies. Such practices, however, remain under-investigated in the public sector and in emerging economies. This paper aims to work towards filling this void, by empirically evaluating HPWP within an Indian public-sector undertaking (PSU), also the world’s largest commercial public sector employer: The Indian Railways

Arora, Bimal

Budhwar, Pawan S

Fontinha, R.

Pereira, Vijay

English

PurposeHigh-performance work practices (HPWPs) have been well documented within private organisations in developed country economies. Such practices, however, remain under-investigated in the public sector and in emerging economies. The purpose of this paper is to work towards filling this void, by empirically evaluating HPWP within an Indian public sector undertaking (PSU), also the world’s largest commercial public sector employer: the Indian Railways (IR).Design/methodology/approachThe authors investigate whether the practices implemented in this organisation are consistent with the idea of HPWPs, and analyse how they are influenced by different stakeholders and ultimately associated with different indicators of organisational performance. The authors focused on six railway zones and interviewed a total of 62 HR practitioners.FindingsThe results show that most practices implemented are aligned with the idea of HPWPs, despite the existence of context-specific unique practices. Furthermore, the authors identify the influence of multiple stakeholders in decision making concerning different practices. The authors additionally found that the measurement of performance goes beyond financial indicators and several context-specific non-financial indicators are identified and their social importance is reiterated.Originality/valueTheoretically, this paper utilises and contributes to the resource-based view of firms by identifying a distinctive bundle of competencies in human resources through HPWS in the IR.</jats:sec

Vijay Edward Pereira

Rita Fontinha

Pawan Budhwar

Bimal Arora

Crossref

Journal of Organizational Change Management

Human resource management and performance at the Indian Railways

Purpose: High-performance work practices (HPWPs) have been well documented within private organisations in developed country economies. Such practices, however, remain under-investigated in the public sector and in emerging economies. The purpose of this paper is to work towards filling this void, by empirically evaluating HPWP within an Indian public sector undertaking (PSU), also the world’s largest commercial public sector employer: the Indian Railways (IR). Design/methodology/approach: The authors investigate whether the practices implemented in this organisation are consistent with the idea of HPWPs, and analyse how they are influenced by different stakeholders and ultimately associated with different indicators of organisational performance. The authors focused on six railway zones and interviewed a total of 62 HR practitioners. Findings: The results show that most practices implemented are aligned with the idea of HPWPs, despite the existence of context-specific unique practices. Furthermore, the authors identify the influence of multiple stakeholders in decision making concerning different practices. The authors additionally found that the measurement of performance goes beyond financial indicators and several context-specific non-financial indicators are identified and their social importance is reiterated. Originality/value: Theoretically, this paper utilises and contributes to the resource-based view of firms by identifying a distinctive bundle of competencies in human resources through HPWS in the IR.</p

Pereira, Vijay Edward

Fontinha, Rita

Budhwar, Pawan

The University of Manchester - Institutional Repository

Aston Publications Explorer

Human resource management and performance at the Indian railway

Purpose: High-performance work practices (HPWPs) have been well documented within private organisations in developed country economies. Such practices, however, remain under-investigated in the public sector and in emerging economies. The purpose of this paper is to work towards filling this void, by empirically evaluating HPWP within an Indian public sector undertaking (PSU), also the world\u27s largest commercial public sector employer: the Indian Railways (IR). Design/methodology/approach: The authors investigate whether the practices implemented in this organisation are consistent with the idea of HPWPs, and analyse how they are influenced by different stakeholders and ultimately associated with different indicators of organisational performance. The authors focused on six railway zones and interviewed a total of 62 HR practitioners. Findings: The results show that most practices implemented are aligned with the idea of HPWPs, despite the existence of context-specific unique practices. Furthermore, the authors identify the influence of multiple stakeholders in decision making concerning different practices. The authors additionally found that the measurement of performance goes beyond financial indicators and several context-specific non-financial indicators are identified and their social importance is reiterated. Originality/value: Theoretically, this paper utilises and contributes to the resource-based view of firms by identifying a distinctive bundle of competencies in human resources through HPWS in the IR

Research Online

Purpose: High-performance-work-practices (HPWP) have been well documented within

private organisations in developed country economies. Such practices, however, remain

under-investigated in the public sector and in emerging economies. This paper aims to work

towards filling this void, by empirically evaluating HPWP within an Indian public-sector undertaking (PSU), also the world’s largest commercial public sector employer: The Indian

Railways.

Design/methodology/approach: We investigate whether the practices implemented in this

organisation are consistent with the idea of HPWP, and analyse how they are influenced by

different stakeholders and ultimately associated with different indicators of organisational

performance. We focused on six railway zones and interviewed a total of 62 HR practitioners.

Findings: Our results show that most practices implemented are aligned with the idea of

HPWP, despite the existence of context-specific unique practices. Furthermore, we identify

the influence of multiple stakeholders in decision making concerning different practices. We

additionally found that the measurement of performance goes beyond financial indicators and

several context-specific non-financial indicators are identified and their social importance is

reiterated.

Originality/value: Theoretically, this paper utilises and contributes to the resource-based

view of firms by identifying a distinctive bundle of competencies in human resources through

HPWS in the Indian Railways

Pawan, Budhwar

Central Archive at the University of Reading

https://publications.aston.ac.uk/id/eprint/31788/1/HRM_and_Performance_at_the_Indian_Railways.pdf

Human resource management and performance at the Indian railway

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The University of Manchester - Institutional Repository

Aston Publications Explorer

Research Online

Central Archive at the University of Reading