Using data on 250 Spanish firms, we examine the incidence of high-involvement practices and investigate what variables are associated with the adoption of these practices. Particularly, we analyse the influence of size, age, competitive advantage, activity sector, the existence of a recent crisis, culture, leadership style and the competitiveness of the environment on the adoption of high-involvement work practices. With all this, we try to offer an exploratory view of nature of the contexts that condition the adoption of such practices, with the aim of motivating future research more thoroughly.