This research critically analyses the multifaceted and sometimes conflicting phenomenon of hybridizing the traditional, indigenous, socio-cultural systems and the modern, imported management systems. In particular, it explores the adoption of Western-based High-Performance Work Systems (HPWS) in the peculiar socio-cultural environment of the Sri Lankan organizations, where the traditional conception of Seth Koodu, a Sinhalese word that describes mutuality, humane intervention, and social cohesion, is still a strong informal phenomenon. This study examines the dynamic relationship between the performance-focused, meritocratic logic of HPWS and the relationship-focused, compassionate logic of Seth Koodu through a qualitative, multi-case study design that involves interviewing and analyzing documents in the chosen Sri Lankan companies. The results show that the integration is not a smooth combination but a place of constant negotiation and tension. Although there were examples of positive synergy, in which the trust HPWS practices, such as teamwork, were encouraged by Seth Koodu, in more cases, there were core value contradictions. The tensions here are the managerial dilemmas between the use of performance measures and generous leave, friction between the universalistic reward regime and specific duty, and an overall dissociation between impersonal effectiveness of HPWS and the ethical concern of social embeddedness. The research concludes that the emerging hybrid system is by its very nature unstable, and puts both the manager and employee under a dual pressure of having to deal with competing logics of compassion and competition. The study is essential to the cross-cultural management debate because it questions the perceived universal nature of HPWS and the importance of deep-rooted, informal cultural establishments in determining the adjustment and eventual success of international management practices. It proposes the creation of a more culturally conscious model of high performance that respects and carefully intersects, instead of repressing, these indigenous values.
Hybridization, Traditional Seth Koodu, High-Performance, Sri Lankan.
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