When employees know how to apply their strengths they can focus on meeting their goals. And their personal goal attainment should contribute to success for the whole department and organization. Human resource management can create work systems that contribute to high performance.

The challenge facing managers today is how to make their organizations into high-performance work systems. According to research, organizations that introduce integrated high-performance work practices usually experience increases in productivity and long-term financial performance. In the past, decisions about technology, structure, and human resources were treated as if they were unrelated. More recently, managers have realized that success depends on how well all the elements work together.

In a high-performance work system, the elements that must work together include organizational structure, task design, people, reward systems, and information systems. Human resource management plays an important role. Organizational structure is the way people are grouped into useful divisions, departments, and reporting relationships. Decisions about structure affect how well employees coordinate their activities and respond to change. Task design determines how the details of the organization’s necessary activities will be grouped, whether into jobs or team responsibilities.

In a high-performance work system, task design makes jobs efficient while encouraging high quality. HRM has a significant role in providing people who are well suited to and well prepared for their jobs. Training, development, and career management ensure that these people are able to perform their current and future jobs with the organization. Reward systems contribute to high performance by encouraging people to strive for objectives that support the organization’s overall goals.