Defining Performance

and
Choosing a Measurement
Approach
 Overview
 Defining Performance
 Determinants of Performance

 Performance Dimensions

 Approaches to Measuring

Performance
 Defining Performance

Performance is:
 Behavior
 What employees do

Performance is NOT only:

 Results or Outcomes

 What employees produce

 Performance are:
1. Evaluative
• Negative
• Neutral
• Positive
2. Multidimensional
• Many different kinds of
behaviors
• Advance or hinder
organizational goals
Determinants of Performance

Performance =
Declarative Knowledge
X

Procedural Knowledge
X

Motivation
 A. Declarative Knowledge
 Information about
• Facts
• Labels
• Principles
• Goals
 Understanding of task
requirements
 B. Procedural Knowledge
 Knowing
• What to do
• How to do it
 Skills
• Cognitive
• Physical
• Perceptual
• Motor
• Interpersonal
 C. Motivation

 Choices
• Expenditure of effort
• Level of effort
• Persistence of effort
(Deliberate Practice leads to
excellence)
 Deliberate Practice
 Approach performance with goal of
getting better
 Focus on performance
• What is happening?
• Why?
 Seek feedback from expert sources
 Build mental models of job, situation,
organization
 Repeat first 4 steps on an ongoing basis
 Implications for Addressing
Performance Problems
 Managers need information to
accurately identify source(s) of
performance problems
 Performance management systems
must
• Measure performance
AND
• Provide information on SOURCE(s) of
problems
 Factors Influencing
Determinants of Performance:
 Individual characteristics
• Procedural knowledge
• Declarative knowledge
• Motivation
 HR practices
 Work environment
 Performance Dimensions:
Types of multi-dimensional
behaviors:
 Task performance
 Contextual performance
• Pro-social behaviors
• Organizational citizenship
 Task performance

Activities that
 transform raw materials
 help with the transformation
process
• Replenishing
• Distributing
• Supporting
 Contextual performance
Behaviors that
 contribute to organization’s
effectiveness
and
 provide a good environment in
which task performance can occur
 Differences Between
Task and Contextual Performance
 Task  Contextual
Performance
Performance
• Varies across jobs
• Fairly similar across
jobs
• Likely to be role
prescribed
• Not likely to be role
prescribed
• Influenced by
 Abilities
 Skills • Influenced by
 Personality
Why Include Task & Contextual
Performance Dimensions in PM
system?
1. Global competition
2. Customer service
3. Teamwork
4. Employee perceptions of
PM
5. Supervisor views
 Job Performance in Context

That
A performer Engages in
In a given produce
(individual or certain
situation various
team) behaviors
results

TRAIT BEHAVIOR RESULTS

 Approaches to Measuring
Performance
 Trait Approach
• Emphasizes individual traits of
employees
 Behavior Approach
• Emphasizes how employees do the job
 Results Approach
• Emphasizes what employees produce
 Trait Approach

 Emphasis on individual
• Evaluate stable traits
 Cognitive abilities
 Personality

• Based on relationship
between traits &
performance
 Trait Approach (continued)
 Appropriate if
• Structural changes planned for
organization
 Disadvantages
• Improvement not under individual’s
control
• Trait may not lead to
 Desired behaviors or
 Desired results
 Behavior Approach
Appropriate if
• Employees take a long time to
achieve desired outcomes
• Link between behaviors and
results is not obvious
• Outcomes occur in the distant
future
• Poor results are due to causes
beyond the performer’s control
Not appropriate if
 above conditions are not present
 Results Approach
Advantages:
• Less time
• Lower cost
• Data appear objective
Most appropriate when:
• Workers skilled in necessary behaviors
• Behaviors and results obviously related
• Consistent improvement in results over
time
• Many ways to do the job right
 Quick Review
 Defining Performance
 Determinants of Performance

 Performance Dimensions

 Approaches to Measuring

Performance