Characteristics of high performance organisations

Abstract

Because of the recent recession, interest into the factors that determine sustainable organisational success has increased. Managers all over the world are trying out various improvement concepts, seeing mixed results. One likely reason for this is the lack of consensus on the organisational characteristics that lead to high performance. The research study described in this article aimed at identifying the factors which have a positive relation with organisational performance, through a literature review of 290 research studies into high performance and subsequent testing of possible high performance factors in 1470 organisations worldwide. The research yielded 35 characteristics -grouped into five factorsthat have a significant correlation with high performance and seem to be generic for all types of organisations, industries and countries. The research results provide managers with a framework that adds focus to their continuous improvement efforts in order to achieve better performance. The framework will also support academics in their pursuit of ever more specific improvement factors.

The Relation Between Servant Leadership, Organizational Performance, and the High-Performance Organization Framework

“…To identify the elements that make up a HPO, a 5-year study was undertaken. This study started with a descriptive literature review of 290 studies into high performance and excellence (de Waal, 2012). A large number of characteristics were extracted from each of the 290 publications that the authors of these studies regarded as essential for high performance.…”

“…Table 2 gives the average scores for the HPO factors, calculated from the individual scores of the 116 respondents, and compares these with the average scores of all health care organizations and the top 3 of best performing health care organizations in the Netherlands, as collected in the HPO database (de Waal, 2006(de Waal, , 2012. The HPO scores have been graphically depicted in Figure 2.…”

“…An HPO is defined as an organization that achieves financial and nonfinancial results that are better than those of its peer group over a period of time of at least 5 to 10 years (de Waal, 2006, 2012). de Waal (2008) argues that “it pays to be an HPO” as HPOs achieve better financial and nonfinancial results than nonHPOs, year after year.…”

“…A questionnaire was used to evaluate the HPO status and the SL status of VUmc. As explained above, the HPO part of the questionnaire was based on the 35 characteristics identified in a large-scale worldwide study by de Waal (2008, 2012) executed at more than 2,500 profit, nonprofit, and governmental organizations. The SL part of the questionnaire was based on the item scale developed and validated by Nuijten (2009) and van Dierendonck and Nuijten (2011), after conducting an exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis approach.…”

“…This last finding in particular reflects the results of research into the factors that make and sustain high-performance organizations (HPOs). One of the results of the research into HPOs is the HPO framework, which has been developed on the basis of extensive empirical work, and which provides five factors that directly influence organizational performance (de Waal, 2006(de Waal, , 2008(de Waal, , 2012. One of the factors in the HPO framework is Management Quality: Management Quality turns out to be paramount to creating and sustaining an HPO and the more an organization works on improving the quality of its management, the better the organizational results will become (de Waal & Bukaza, 2011;de Waal & Frijns, 2011).…”