Page 37 - Psychological Management of Individual Performance

performance in a changing world of work 15
RELATIONSHIPS AMONG THE VARIOUS PERSPECTIVES

The three perspectives represent different approaches to the performance phenomenon
and our description stresses the differences between these perspectives. However, re-
searchers often combine two or more approaches when explaining performance. For
example, there are combinations between the individual differences and the situational
perspective(e.g.,Barrick&Mount,1993;Colarelli,Dean,&Konstans,1987).Inessence,
the job characteristic model assumes that a combination of situational factors (i.e., job
characteristics) and individual differences factors (i.e., growth need strength) is crucial
for individual performance (Hackman & Oldham, 1976). Similarly, Waldman (1994)
suggested a model of performance in which he integrated the individual differences
perspective with the situational perspective. He assumes that both person factors (i.e.,
individual difference variables) and system factors (i.e., situational variables) have an
effect on job performance. In addition, he assumes that system factors moderate the
effects of the person factors.
Mitchell (1997) proposed a model on job performance in which he explicitly combined
the individual differences and situational perspective. He postulated that both ‘individual
inputs’ (i.e., individual difference variables) and ‘job context’ (i.e., situational variables)
have a direct effect on motivated behavior by providing necessary skills in the case of
individual inputs, and by enabling vs. limiting behavior in the case of the job context.
Motivated behavior in turn affects performance. Mitchell assumes that individual differ-
ences and job context additionally affect motivated behavior via motivational processes
such as arousal, attention, direction, intensity, and persistence.
Despite these efforts, a comprehensive model which integrates all the various perfor-
mance perspectives is still missing. Particularly, it is largely unclear how individual and
situational variables come into play within the performance process. We suggest that it
would be particularly helpful to develop a model which combines the individual differ-
ences and situational perspective with the performance regulation perspective. Such a
model should specify how cognitive ability and motivational factors—probably in inter-
action with situational variables—translate into the performance process, i.e., how they
effect the setting of goals, problem comprehension, planning and feedback processing,
as well as the ‘choice’ of the appropriate hierarchical level of action regulation.

PERFORMANCE IN A CHANGING WORLD OF WORK

At present, organizations and work as a whole are undergoing dramatic changes (Cooper
& Jackson, 1997; Howard, 1995) which have implications for conceptualizing and un-
derstanding performance (Ilgen & Pulakos, 1999). In this section we focus on five major
trends: the importance of continuous learning, the relevance of proactivity, increase in
teamwork, globalization, and technology. With the description of these trends we illus-
trate possible and necessary avenues for future research on individual performance.

CONTINUOUS LEARNING

Because of technological innovations and changes in organizational structures and pro-
cesses,individualworkrequirementsarequicklychanging.Asaconsequence,continuous