Lack of Repertory of Behavior
Lack of Repertory of Behavior
Another cause of performance problems is people's lack of repertory of behavior. [27] There are three factors that people bring to the performance picture. All three have an effect on performance in the workplace.
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Information (skills and knowledge)
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Instrumentation (individual capacity)
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Motivation (motivation and expectations)
If a gap exists between desired and actual performance, and the gap is not caused by environmental support problems, the question is, "Could they do it if their lives depended on it?" [28] There are two possible responses to this question ”yes or no. If the answer is "No," the PT practitioner should focus on determining the skills or knowledge deficiency that interferes with the accomplishment of the desired performance. If the answer is "Yes," the PT practitioner can rule out a skill or knowledge deficiency and focus on lack of individual capacity, motivation, or expectations (see Table 4-5).
| Information | Instrumentation | Motivation | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Environmental Support | Data Information Feedback | Work Environment Support Resources Tools | Consequences Incentives Rewards |
| Repertory of Behaviors | Skills Knowledge | Individual Capacity | Motivation Expectations |
Skills and Knowledge
If people "couldn't do it if their lives depended on it," [29] the PT practitioner should suspect a skill or knowledge deficiency. People cannot be expected to perform to standards if they lack the required skills or knowledge. "It is not possible for people with the right motivation, performance standards, resource tools, support, capacity, and motives to be successful performers if they don't know how to perform." [30]
Analyzing Skills and Knowledge
Identifying the cause of a performance gap as lack of skills and knowledge isn't as simple as it sounds. Cause analysis, like performance analysis, "occurs at both the macro- and microlevels so the PT practitioner may understand both what the gaps (or causes) are and why they came to be." [31] First, the PT practitioner needs to discover what skills and knowledge are required for the desired performance. Documentation (job or task analysis, performance standards, etc.) from the performance gap analysis should provide this information.
Then, the PT practitioner needs to consider the following: [32]
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Did the employee once know how to perform as desired?
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Has the employee forgotten how to perform as desired?
Perhaps the employee possessed the necessary skills and knowledge at an earlier time, but the nature of the job has changed and she or he needs to be updated. Another possibility to examine is whether or not the employee possesses the necessary skills and knowledge, but has not had the opportunity to use them for some time because the need for the performance has changed. It is easy to forget skills and knowledge when they are not used.
There is another perspective on lack of knowledge and skills that requires examination ”"(Maybe) there is just too much to know." [33] In today's information age employees are frequently inundated with documentation or updates until it may become "disinformation" [sic] or the employees just plain "tune it out."
Finally, the PT practitioner may want to look at the report from the environmental analysis. The workplace has to support the performer's knowledge and skills. "If you pit a trained employee against an environment that does not value the new skills and knowledge, the environment wins every time." [34]
Individual Capacity
Individual capacity is another component of people's repertory of behavior. Capacity "represents the individual's ability to perform the job. It is represented by a match or mismatch between the employee and the job requirement." [35] Individual capacity helps to match the right person to the right job. A mismatch, or employee selection error, can cause a performance gap.
Lack of ability means that a mistake was made during employee selection. An individual was hired , transferred, or promoted into a job that he or she lacked the ability to perform or to learn. In one organization, an employee was promoted to executive secretary. She was unable to type ”and was also unable to learn how to type. [36]
Employee selection processes may also help to avoid a potential performance gap. A young man was interviewing for a job as a shoe salesman . The final question was, "Based on everything you have heard about this job, are there any areas that may be problematic ?" Without delay, the young man replied, "I really despise people." Needless to say he was not hired. Even if he possessed the required skills and knowledge, the young man lacked the capacity or ability to accomplish the desired performance ”selling shoes to people.
Analyzing Individual Capacity
To determine whether or not a lack of individual capacity is causing a performance gap, the PT practitioner needs to look at capacity from two perspectives: [37]
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Does the individual lack the capacity (ultimate limits to which an individual develops any function given appropriate training and environment) or ability (physical, mental, or social powers, inherited or acquired by an individual) to perform or learn?
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Do the organizational, workplace, and work environments support the individual's capacity to perform or learn?
First, the PT practitioner needs to review the performance gap analysis to discover what individual capacity or ability is required to meet the desired performance requirements. The following questions may help to identify individual capacity requirements for a specific performance:
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Is it certain and proven that one must have special aptitudes, intelligence scores, verbal skills, manual dexterity, and so on, to perform in an acceptable, if not exemplary, manner?
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Is the proof so sound that there are virtually no exceptions? [38] The PT practitioner then looks at the employee to assess whether or not the individual's physical and mental capacity matches the performance requirements. A review of the gap analysis or personnel records, or an interview with the employee, may provide information on the performer's aptitude , intelligence, verbal skills, etc.
Finally, the PT practitioner may look at the organizational and environmental analyses to find out if the organization, workplace, and work environments support the individual's capacity or ability to perform and learn. For example, does either the organization or the environment:
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Offer flexible scheduling to accommodate people when they are at their sharpest?
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Consider the difficulty level and individual capacity when selecting someone to perform a task?
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Provide response aids, e.g., large-print job aids for older workers, to determine whether lack of individual capacity is causing a performance gap? [39]
Motivation and Expectations
Motivation comes from within. The performer encourages himself or herself to succeed. Expectation also comes from within the performer. The performer expects or believes that certain conditions or resources are required to accomplish a given task. If the employee is not motivated to perform, or feels that his or her expectations have not been met, there is a good chance that there will be a gap between desired and actual performance.
Using the model on the first page of this section, it is possible to make an important connection between the performer's motivation and expectations and environmental support factors:
It was Gilbert's contention that motivation, the third factor related to the individual, will be high if all the other five cells , especially those related to work environment, are provided. Thus he believed that evidence of low motivation is a red flag to look for deficiencies in information, resources, or incentives. In communicating this concept, he stressed that factors in the work environment will not directly motivate employees. Rather, by dealing with these work environment factors, the organization can create an environment within which the employees' own intrinsic motivation can flourish. [40]
Analyzing Motivation and Expectations
It is difficult at best to determine what motivates an individual to accomplish peak performance. It is almost as difficult to discover a performer's expectations. Perhaps the first step is to ask, "Is the performance system inherently so dull, unrewarding, or punishing that people must have special motives to succeed in it, even when the incentives provided are excellent ?" [41] The organizational, environmental, and gap analyses should shed some light on the nature of the performance system in which the performer is functioning. The same documents should uncover what expectations the performer might have given optimal work environment.
The PT practitioner may also want to interview the supervisor, manager, coworkers, and performer or observe the performer in action. However, these methods are less than scientific and rely on self-reporting (performer) or perceptions (supervisor, manager, coworkers).
There are some instruments on the market that deal with motivation and expectations. Major publishers of HRD resources usually list the instruments in their catalogs. Despite the fact that the instruments may or may not be valid and reliable, they can prove useful in uncovering intrinsic feelings or concerns that are not evident in overt performance.
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This case study features a manufacturer of plastic exterior trim parts for the automotive industry. The company is a multinational organization with sales of more than $1 billion and approximately 13,000 employees worldwide.
Situation
The company was experiencing a substantial turnover in its manufacturing facilities in North America and, to a lesser extent, in Europe. The work is semi-skilled, and there is a three-month learning curve before a new person is considered established and efficient. Due to extremely rapid growth, most of the manufacturing plants were in a hiring mode. However, with a tight labor market, the human resources professionals found it difficult to match positions with the right people.
Cause Analysis
Rather than focus on the tight market, corporate human resources chose to look at why people were leaving. One of the common answers was that the people just did not like the work, which at times was tedious and physically demanding. Corporate human resources met with the human resources managers from the North American plants to brainstorm possible solutions to the problem. It was suggested that perhaps the plant human resources staff was simply hiring the wrong people for the job, which required a certain capacity for repetitive motion in an uncomfortable environment.
The cause analysis for this situation was a two-step process. With the help of a physician and an occupational therapist, a study was done on the jobs performed on the floor. A physical profile was created for each job that highlighted the unique demands each placed on the human body. A battery of tests was developed that enabled HR staff to test prospective applicants' capacity for the physical demands of the job. After applicants passed the physical, they moved on to the simulations.
Designed and developed with the help of the physician and occupational therapist, simulations modeled real work conditions and took place on the plant floor. For a full shift, applicants would perform the tasks in the duplicated environment. If hired, they would spend the first week of their employment in this area for "job toughening." For that week they would perform the simulations to condition the muscles that their job would require. During this time they were also instructed on how to avoid injury , recognize the onset of fatigue or other physical problems, and cope with stress.
Results
The piloted program was housed at one of the company's plants for six months. In that time many applicants demonstrated diminished capacities for the jobs they originally sought. Many of them found employment in different positions, which better matched their capacity profile. Although measurable numbers are yet to be verified , not a single individual who went through the process has left the company. Of these people, none has missed time due to injury. Another sign of the pilot program's success has been the number of current employees requesting to go through the one-week job toughening program. The plan is to roll the program out in a few plants at a time while tracking turnover and injury costs. Projections are that if the other plants experience results similar to the pilot, within a year's time all costs associated with implementing the plan will be recouped and the program will begin generating measurable savings.
Lessons Learned
What does this example tell us about individual capacity? It reveals a few things:
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It appears that when a person's capacity and job are matched, they seem to be happier and stay with the company.
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The job-toughening experience seems to show that capacity can be extended or enhanced with exercises.
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There have been no injury claims from the employees who went through the program for capacity diagnoses, job toughening, and training about the management of fatigue.
The case study was developed by Douglas Swiatkowski, M.Ed, Tenneco Automotive. Used with permission.
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This job aid is an adaptation of Gilbert's PROBE Model. [42] , [43] Answers to the following questions help to establish the drivers or causes of performance gaps. Some of the answers may be found in documentation for the performance gap analysis. Other answers may require additional input from actual performer(s).
| Category | Questions | Yes | No |
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| Knowledge and Training |
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| Capacity |
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| Motives |
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| Dean, P.J. and Ripley, D.E. (Eds.), (1997) . Performance Improvement Pathfinders: Models for Organizational Learning Systems, pp. 57-58. Washington, D.C.: The International Society for Performance Improvement Used with permission . | |||
ISPI 2000 Permission granted for unlimited duplication for noncommercial use.
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[27] Gilbert, 1996, p. 31
[28] Mager and Pipe, 1984, p. 31
[29] Mager and Pipe, 1984, p. 31
[30] Rosenberg, 1996a, p. 375
[31] Hutchison and Stein, 1997, p. 29
[32] Mager and Pipe, 1984, p. 17
[33] Rossett, 1999, p. 45
[34] Rummler, 1983, pp. 75 “76
[35] Dean, 1997b, p. 48
[36] Rothwell, 1996b, p. 170
[37] Gilbert, 1996
[38] Dean, 1997b, p. 51
[39] Gilbert, 1996, pp. 87 “88
[40] Dean, 1998b, pp. 48 “49
[41] Dean, 1998b, p. 51
[42] Gilbert, 1982, pp. 21 “30
[43] Gilbert, 1982, pp. 85 “89
EAN: 2147483647
Pages: 98