Human Performance

Performance Typology Map

Abilities
Arousal
Attitude
Behavior
Beliefs
Competencies
Engagement
Environment
EI
Experience (nurture)
Feelings
Intention
Motivation
Nature (genes)
Organizational Level
Performance
Performance Improvement
Performer Level
Process Level
Results
Skills
Social Pressure
Talent
Understanding
Values

What have you done today to enhance (or at least insure against the decline of) the relative overall useful-skill level of your work force vis-a-vis competitors? - Tom Peters in Thriving on Chaos

Performance is focused behavior or purposeful work (Rudman, 1998, p. 205). That is, jobs exist to achieve specific and defined results (outputs) and people are employed so that organizations can achieve those results. This is performed by accomplishing tasks.

Gilbert (1998) said that performance has two aspects -- behavior being the means and its consequence being the end.

Managing performance has the dual purpose of 1) arranging situations (environment) so that employees can do their best and 2) growing the employees by educating, enlightening, and appreciating them. Its purpose is to achieve specific and defined results from people so that the organization can achieve its goals and objectives.

It is much easier to fix situations by making structural changes to the organization, rather than trying to fix or change people. These include such means as changing reporting relationships, enlarging the job, improving a process, or opening lines of communication.

Once performance barriers have been removed, employees can be educated, enlightened, and appreciated. This assumption is based on the premise that most employees try to do their best. They prefer harmony over conflict, action over inaction, and productivity over delays (Farson, 1996). We often refuse to believe this as most studies on human behavior are performed on people when they are not at their best, such as in school, clinics, or prison. Thus, most studies on human behavior are performed in the process of trying to "reform" people.

The two most noted researchers on studying people when they are at their best are Carl Rogers and Abrahan Maslow.

Rogers described a healthy person as fully functioning. One of Rogers' theories is the Actualizing Tendency -- the built-in motivation present in every life form to develop its potentials to the fullest extent possible. It is not just about survival, but also that all creatures strive to make the very best of their existence. If they fail to do so, it is not due to lack of desire, but rather of other conflicts. Rogers also introduced Person Centered Therapy, in which all people have the potential to solve their own problems without direct intervention from a therapist (non-directive).

Abraham Maslow felt that the basic human needs were arranged in a hierarchical order.

He based his theory on healthy, creative people who use their capabilities to the fullest. First, our basic physiological, psychological, and self-esteem needs must be met. Once these are met, we strive for higher needs (meta needs or growth needs). These include justice, goodness, beauty, order, unity, etc.

Performance Typology Map

Reference

Gilbert, T. (1998). A Leisurely Look at Worthy Performance. The 1998 ASTD Training and Performance Yearbook. Woods, J. & Gortada, J. (editors). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Rummler, G. & Brache, A., (1990). Improving Performance: How to Manage the White Space on the Organization Chart. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.