Dimensions and location of high-involvement management: fresh evidence from the UK Commission's 2011 Employer Skills Survey

High-involvement management is typically seen as having three components: worker involvement, skill and knowledge acquisition and motivational supports. The prescriptive literature implies the elements should be used together; but using data from the UK Commission's Employer Skills Survey of 2011 we find that these dimensions of high-involvement management are in reality separate. Two types of involvement, role and organisational, are not strongly related, and motivational supports are not strongly correlated with other practices or each other. Size of workplace and the sector in which it operates are associated with the dimensions of high-involvement management. However, there is variety in their other predictors. For example, organisational involvement and skill acquisition are positively related to workplace size while role involvement is negatively associated with it. The research illustrates the value of scaling methods over blanket indexes to measure high involvement management and highlights the independent effects of quality and operational management methods.