Purpose: The objective of the research is to assess the degree of adoption of high-involvement nursing work practices in long-term care organizations. It seeks to determine the organizational and workplace factors that are associated with the uptake/adoption of ten selected human resource high-involvement employee work practices.
Design/methodology/approach: A survey questionnaire was sent to 300 long-term care organizations (nursing homes) in western Canada. Results from 125 nursing home establishments (43 percent response rate) are reported herein.
Findings: Of the ten high-involvement nursing work practices examined, employee suggestion and recognition systems are the most widely adopted by homes in the sample, while shared governance and incentive/merit-base pay are used by a small minority of establishments.
Practical implications: The uptake of high-involvement nursing work practices is not adopted in a haphazard fashion. Their uptake is variously associated with a number of establishment and workplace factors, including the presence of a supportive and enabling workplace culture.
Originality/value: The objective of this research is to examine the extent and degree of adoption of high involvement work practices in a sample of long-term care establishments operating in the four provinces of western Canada.