Leadership in Action: What is a High Performance Work Organization?

Existing HIPO Definitions

In our reading of the 168 works, we have identified five statements that we believe are representative of all the current definitions of a HIPO:

• “Creating flexible, high-performing, learning organizations is the secret to gaining competitive advantage in a world that won't stand still” (William Pasmore).
• HIPOs are “flexible or lean manufacturing methods and associated employment-relation practices” (Jeffrey Pfeffer).
• “Self-managed teams and decentralization of decision making are the basic principles of organizational design” (Jeffrey Pfeffer).
• HIPO characteristics are “employee involvement, participative management, democratic management, and total quality management” (Edward Lawler, Susan Mohrman, and Gerald Ledford ...