BackCover

Back Cover

Performance Technology is the systematic process of linking business goals and strategies with the workforce responsible for achieving goals. Performance Technology practitioners use a common methodology to understand, inspire , and improve people ”they study and design processes that bring about increased performance in the workplace. Performance Technology systematically analyzes performance problems and their underlying causes and describes exemplary performance and success indicators.

Fundamentals of Performance Technology: A Guide to Improving People, Process, and Performance is an easy-to-read, easy-to-apply, and comprehensive explanation of the factors affecting workplace behavior. Using a commonsense approach and consistent structure, the authors explain how to:

• Diagnose workplace situations
• Identify causes
• Select doable, adequate interventions
• Implement changes, and
• Evaluate results.

Fundamentals of Performance Technology describes each component of the HPT Model in a practical manner, including Performance Analysis, Cause Analysis, Intervention Selection and Design, and Evaluation. Using a handbook format, this book is designed to make the theory and the practice understandable and achievable by the practitioner.

Each chapter includes:

• A brief narrative elucidating each major component of the HPT Model and its theoretical underpinnings
• An illustrative real-life Case Study showing practical applications from a variety of workplace environments; and
• A Job Aid ”or performance support tool ”to help the reader bring about real workplace performance improvement.

The book is designed to comprehensively explain an established, systematic and reproducible method of improving organizational and individual performance that is understandable, instructional, and attainable.

About the Authors

Darlene M. Van Tiem is an associate professor in the School of Education, University of Michigan “ Dearborn. From 1992 to 1996, Darlene was the training director in the Human Resource Department at Ameritech advertising services (yellow pages business unit). She was responsible for HR training for four states (Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Wisconsin). From 1986 to 1992, Darlene was with General Physics Corporation. She was curriculum manager for General Motors Technical Curriculum and program manager for materials management curriculum, which included training GM suppliers. She also was project manager for Ford Motor Company s failure mode effects analysis curriculum development. From 1978 to 1986, Darlene was on the faculty of Marygrove College as director of the Learning Skills Center.

Darlene is a member of the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) and is active in the Michigan chapter. In the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD), she is a past-president of the Greater Detroit chapter and a former national director of the Technical and Professional Skills Practice Area. She received the ASTD National Technical Trainer of the Year Award for 1992, and the National Excellence in Leadership Award for her work with the automotive industry. Currently, Darlene is the field editor for human performance improvement for ASTD s electronic newsletter, ASTD Links .

James L. Moseley is an associate professor of Community Medicine in the School of Medicine, Wayne State University, Detroit. He returned to his faculty position after 22 years of administrative experience in medical education. Jim is a specialist in educational gerontology and teaches Gerontological Care Management and Community/Public Health. He also enjoys full faculty graduate status in Wayne State s College of Education. Jim teaches Human Performance Technology, Performance Consulting, and Program Evaluation there, and he directs and serves on dissertation committees . Jim has received teaching and service awards from the university and from professional organizations. Before his university affiliation , he was a successful high school English teacher, guidance director, and principal of two different high schools . He served as president of the International Society of WORKSHOP WAY Educators and as president of the Michigan Society of Gerontology.

Jim is a member of the local and international chapters of ISPI, and he has published in that organization s journals and monographs. He is also a member of ASTD. He has conducted workshops at the conferences of both organizations and has consulted in a variety of settings.

Joan Conway Dessinger is a senior consultant with The Lake Group, Inc., a performance improvement company that she founded in 1989. She specializes in performance analysis, program and product evaluation, and distance learning design. Her clients include national and international organizations such as Ford, GM, Procter and Gamble, Control Data Corporation, PioneerHi-Bred, and National Steel. Prior to becoming a performance consultant, Joan designed, implemented, and evaluated reading and writing workshop programs for adult learners at the adult basic education, high school completion, and college levels. She continues her interest in adult education by designing and teaching a graduate course needs analysis for the Instructional Technology Department at Wayne State University. She also designed and teaches a course on health care education program administration for the University of Detroit-Mercy and Madonna University.

In addition to Confirmative Evaluation: Practical Strategies for Valuing Continuous Improvement (Pfeiffer, 2004), Joan and Jim have co-authored several articles on the adult learner and evaluation. In 1998, they co- authored a chapter on the Dessinger-Moseley Evaluation Model for ISPI s Performance Improvement Series . Joan also co-authored a chapter on evaluating satellite training in Distance Training (1998), publishes by Jossey-Bass, and on the Ford Motor Company Distance Training program for dealerships ( Sustaining Distance Learning , Jossey-Bass, 2001).