Do employee attitudes in High Performing Companies in Ireland differ from non-High Performing Companies?

The aim of this research was to see if employee attitudes in High Performing Companies in Ireland differ from those of individuals employed in Non-High Performing Companies. The study was hypothesised from real-world based observations, from the researcher’s point of view. After reading numerous articles it was found that there was very little research on the Irish market on this topic and a number of variables influenced employee attitudes around the world and different results were found these variables were tested. Previous research found that gender and age had a significant difference on attitudes and the High Performance Work Systems (HPWS’) implemented by these companies positively and negatively influenced employee attitudes. 130 participant’s based in Ireland’s High Performing Companies across a range of industries and departments took part in the Likert-scale based study which measured their attitudes towards different variables e.g. stress, fatigue, training, rewards and work autonomy. Significant differences were found between the two types of companies in this study, however a limitation in this research was the grossly uneven distribution of participants working in the two groups and further research should focus on this. Other significant differences were found between males & females and also between different age bands. The differences across the age bands could be explained by the influx of millennials in the workplace and how their attitudes and requirements need to be considered by companies. However, there were no differences found between the different industries and departments examined in this study. Future research should take a qualitative approach to each of the different variables in this study to get a more in-depth insight into employee attitudes towards different HPWS’.