Page 27 - Psychological Management of Individual Performance

definition of performance 5
psychology. Interestingly, individual performance is mainly treated as a dependent
variable—which makes perfect sense from a practical point of view: individual per-
formance is something organizations want to enhance and optimize.

DEFINITION OF PERFORMANCE

Despite the great relevance of individual performance and the widespread use of job
performance as an outcome measure in empirical research, relatively little effort has
been spent on clarifying the performance concept. Still, in 1990, Campbell described the
literatureonthestructureandcontentofperformance“avirtualdesert”(p.704).However,
during the past 10 to 15 years, one can witness an increasing interest in developing a
definition of performance and specifying the performance concept.
Authors agree that when conceptualizing performance one has to differentiate between
an action (i.e., behavioral) aspect and an outcome aspect of performance (Campbell,
1990; Campbell, McCloy, Oppler, & Sager, 1993; Kanfer, 1990; Roe, 1999). The be-
havioral aspect refers to what an individual does in the work situation. It encompasses
behaviors such as assembling parts of a car engine, selling personal computers, teach-
ing basic reading skills to elementary school children, or performing heart surgery. Not
every behavior is subsumed under the performance concept, but only behavior which is
relevant for the organizational goals: “Performance is what the organization hires one to
do, and do well” (Campbell et al., 1993, p. 40). Thus, performance is not defined by the
action itself but by judgemental and evaluative processes (cf. Ilgen & Schneider, 1991;
Motowidlo, Borman, & Schmit, 1997). Moreover, only actions which can be scaled, i.e.,
measured, are considered to constitute performance (Campbell et al., 1993).
Theoutcomeaspectreferstotheconsequenceorresultoftheindividual’sbehavior.The
abovedescribedbehaviorsmayresultinoutcomessuchasnumbersofenginesassembled,
sales figures, pupils’ reading proficiency, or number of successful heart operations. In
many situations, the behavioral and outcome aspects are related empirically, but they
do not overlap completely. Outcome aspects of performance depend also on factors
other than the individual’s behavior. For example, imagine a teacher who delivers a
perfect reading lesson (behavioral aspect of performance), but one or two of his pupils
nevertheless do not improve their reading skills because of their intellectual deficits
(outcome aspect of performance). Or imagine a sales employee in the telecommunication
business who shows only mediocre performance in the direct interaction with potential
clients (behavioral aspect of performance), but nevertheless achieves high sales figure
for mobile phones (outcome aspect of performance) because of a general high demand
for mobile phone equipment.
In practice, it might be difficult to describe the action aspect of performance without
any reference to the outcome aspect. Because not any action but only actions relevant
for organizational goals constitute performance, one needs criteria for evaluating the
degree to which an individual’s performance meets the organizational goals. It is difficult
to imagine how to conceptualize such criteria without simultaneously considering the
outcome aspect of performance at the same time. Thus, the emphasis on performance
being an action does not really solve all the problems.
Moreover, despite the general agreement that the behavioral and the outcome aspect
of performance have to be differentiated, authors do not completely agree about which