A literature survey established that a substantial amount of research has been conducted on the relationship between productivity and the following specific high performance work practices: employee involvement in decision making, compensation linked to firm or worker performance, and training. According to these studies, high performance work practices are most effective when implemented together as a system. Positive associations between high performance work practices and firms' long-term financial performance and between high performance work practices and higher wages and benefits paid to workers were documented in several studies, including a survey of 700 firms. Although interest in using new workplace practices appeared to be widespread, some firms and workers were still reluctant to adopt such practices. Most of that reluctance was found to stem from a lack of understanding of or information about high performance work systems. Further research about new workplace practices was called for. (An appendix contains summaries of 18 selected research projects dealing with high performance work practices and firm performance. Each summary includes the following: bibliographic citation, sample size/composition, type of data collected/analyzed, results, and comments.) (MN)