Customer Relationship as a Competitive Advantage in a High Performing Organization and the Impact of Change

This study examines the variations in the customer perspective and customer relationship (CR) of a High Performance Work System (HPWS) under the conditions of change resulting from a takeover. It investigates a recently acquired Australian telecommunication company that is characterized as having an HPWS environment. Using both qualitative and qualitative research method, findings demonstrate that the existence of an HPWS environment in the organization helped the employees to develop and build on firm-specific knowledge that significantly contributes towards improved CR (that could be seen as a competitive advantage) and high performance of the organization in both pre and post takeover. The acquisition seems to have had no negative impact on CR in the high performing environment.