The Effects of Mutual Trustworthiness between Labour and Management in Adopting High Performance Work Systems

Abstract

This study argues that mutual trustworthiness, i.e., ability, integrity, and benevolence, between employee representatives and management is an important antecedent for the adoption of high performance work systems (HPWS). Using dyadic survey data from 1,353 labour representatives and managers from union and non-union establishments in Korea, this study tested three hypotheses. It was found that mutual ability trustworthiness (MAT), mutual benevolence trustworthiness (MBT), and mutual integrity trustworthiness (MIT) between labour representatives and management had a positive relationship with the adoption of HPWS. These results add to the existing HPWS literature by adding mutual trustworthiness to the list of HPWS antecedents. The study implies that in Korean employment relations, there is a need to develop mutual trustworthiness to improve the adoption of HPWS and that this can be achieved by pursuing a differentiation strategy.