The adoption of high involvement work practices in Canadian nursing homes

PurposeThe 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/approachA 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.FindingsOf 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 implicationsThe 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/valueThe 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.