The issue of increasing productivity was examined from an interdisciplinary perspective focusing on the impact of workplace practices on various productivity-related outcomes. First, the following methodological issues were discussed: defining workplace practices that affect productivity; linking employer behavior and organizational performance; dealing with the complexity of interrelated factors; reverse causality; bias from selection into the program; bias from the research and publication process; biases from reverting to normal; the Hawthorne effect; and short-run versus long-run effects. Next, the impacts of the following workplace practices on productivity were analyzed with consideration for those methodological issues: job design; employee involvement; compensation; alternative work time arrangements; training; diversity management; and workplace well-being programs. Most of those workplace practices had positive effects on employees, which in turn positively affected firm performance, productivity, and competitiveness. Success of the workplace practices was enhanced when they were combined in clusters, integrated to fit overall corporate strategy, and supported by managers, supervisors, and unions. The analysis identified 11 barriers to adoption and diffusion of "best" workplace practices, including the following: managerial resistance, employee resistance, union resistance, legislative barriers, short-term focus, workplace practices as a source of competitive advantage, barriers to cooperative actions, and externalities and the fact that trained employees may be lured away by other companies. (Contains 433 references.) (MN)