I felt like Chapter 16 was a review of everything that we have read and talked about this whole semester, for the most part at least. It discussed the elements of a high performance work system, what this is, and things that can be done to try to achieve it, such as compensation, training and development, performance management, etc. The whole semester as we have discussed the different methods that a company can take to improve their work system, I have wondered why it is that more companies don't invest a little more time and/or money into trying to make things work a little smoother. I have also wondered why it is that some of the companies that I have worked for have struggled so much as they try to do so.

How can an employee help his or her employer improve this when there isn't an HR department? Or even when there is?