Job Performance 1991
Job Performance
Sabine Sonnentag, Judith Volmer and
Anne Spychala
Individual performance is of high relevance for organizations and individuals alike. Showing high performance when accomplishing tasks results in satisfaction, feelings of selfefficacy and mastery (Bandura, 1997; Kanfer et aL, 2005). Moreover, high performing individuals get promoted, awarded and honored. Career opportunities for individuals who perform well are much better than those of moderate or low performing individuals (Van
Scotter et aI., 2000).
This chapter summarizes research on individual performance and addresses performance as a multi-dimensional and dynamic concept. First, we define the concept of performance, next we discuss antecedents of between-individual variation of performance, and describe intraindividual change and variability in performance, and finally, we present a research agenda for future research.
JOB PERFORMANCE AS A
MULTI-DIMENSIONAL CONCEPT
The concept and definition of individual performance has received considerable scholarly research attention over the past 15 to 20 years.
Researchers agree that performance has to be considered as a multi-dimensional concept.
On the most basic level one can distinguish between a process aspect (i.e., behavioral) and an outcome aspect of performance (Borman and Motowidlo, 1993; C ampb ell, McCloy,
Oppler, and Sager, 1993; Roe, 1999).
The behavioral aspect refers to what people do while at work, the action itself
(Campbell, 1990). Performance encompasses specific behavior (e.g., sales conversations with customers, teaching statistics to undergraduate students, programming computer software, assembling parts of a product). This conceptualization implies that only actions that can be scaled (i.e., counted) are regarded as performance (Campbell et al., 1993). Moreover, this performance concept explicitly only describes behavior which is goal-oriented,
i.e.
Sabine Sonnentag, Judith Volmer and
Anne Spychala
Individual performance is of high relevance for organizations and individuals alike. Showing high performance when accomplishing tasks results in satisfaction, feelings of selfefficacy and mastery (Bandura, 1997; Kanfer et aL, 2005). Moreover, high performing individuals get promoted, awarded and honored. Career opportunities for individuals who perform well are much better than those of moderate or low performing individuals (Van
Scotter et aI., 2000).
This chapter summarizes research on individual performance and addresses performance as a multi-dimensional and dynamic concept. First, we define the concept of performance, next we discuss antecedents of between-individual variation of performance, and describe intraindividual change and variability in performance, and finally, we present a research agenda for future research.
JOB PERFORMANCE AS A
MULTI-DIMENSIONAL CONCEPT
The concept and definition of individual performance has received considerable scholarly research attention over the past 15 to 20 years.
Researchers agree that performance has to be considered as a multi-dimensional concept.
On the most basic level one can distinguish between a process aspect (i.e., behavioral) and an outcome aspect of performance (Borman and Motowidlo, 1993; C ampb ell, McCloy,
Oppler, and Sager, 1993; Roe, 1999).
The behavioral aspect refers to what people do while at work, the action itself
(Campbell, 1990). Performance encompasses specific behavior (e.g., sales conversations with customers, teaching statistics to undergraduate students, programming computer software, assembling parts of a product). This conceptualization implies that only actions that can be scaled (i.e., counted) are regarded as performance (Campbell et al., 1993). Moreover, this performance concept explicitly only describes behavior which is goal-oriented,
i.e.
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