mproving organizational performance is an essential leadership concern, so it is not surprising
there is a great deal of interest in what are termed high-pe@ormunce wo?ik organizations, or HIPOs. But what is a HIPO, and how can leaders help their organizations become one? Recently, we embarked on a study to answer these, and other, questions. We began by reviewing the literature, which is abundant. According to Barry Macy of the Center for Productivity and Q u a l i t y of Work Life at Texas Tech University, the center's library Despite the great interest in high performance, there is no widely accepted definition of what a highperformance work organization is.
contains over 300,oOa pages of books, articles, and cases written on HlPOs over the years, and he estimates that more than 80 percent of what has been written has not been published. Ultimateb, we chose to focus on 168 recent, highquality books, book chapters, and articles on HIP0 research and practice.
We found that despite the great interest in high performance, there is no widely accepted definition of what a HIP0 is. Without such a definition, leaders can refer only to their own experiences and are thus impeded in their efforts to evaluate and improve organizational performance. What is needed is a practical working definition, a definition drawn from the substantial experience of companies and their leaders. such a delinition by, first, offering a summary of how the literam defines a HIP0 and, second, suggesting our own, processoriented, view.