A Practical Approach to Performance Interventions and Analysis: 50 Models for Building a High-Performance Culture

Citation

(2013), "A Practical Approach to Performance Interventions and Analysis: 50 Models for Building a High-Performance Culture", Human Resource Management International Digest, Vol. 21 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/HRMID-10-2013-0092

A Practical Approach to Performance Interventions and Analysis: 50 Models for Building a High-Performance Culture

Article Type: Suggested reading From: Human Resource Management International Digest, Volume 21, Issue 7

Gene E. Fusch and Richard C. Gillespie,
FT Press, 2012, ISBN: 9780133040500

Performance is the root of success or failure. It stands at the heart of management operations. A Practical Approach to Performance Interventions and Analysis: 50 Models for Building a High-Performance Culture is a practical text. It is based on two main performance dimensions – environmental factors and worker behavior.

The environmental factors are areas that can be influenced by management decisions and alterations to the working environment. They are the hard side of management. Worker behavior is under the control of the workers. This is the soft side of management.

Both environmental factors and worker behavior possess three sub-categories – information, instrumentation and motivation. For environmental factors, information includes the communication and data needed by the worker to optimize performance. Instrumentation refers to the necessity of ergonomic work conditions and equipment. Motivation refers to the fact that the worker requires incentives in order to perform.

For worker behavior, information involves the worker’s knowledge and ability to absorb useful information and effectively perform tasks. Instrumentation concerns the worker’s need for psycho-motor capabilities and skills to perform the tasks. Motivation is totally within the worker’s control.

Gene Fusch and Richard Gillespie possess a wealth of experience regarding organizational performance. This gives authority to their writing. They consider themselves cultural anthropologists who explore and describe the operations of organizations.

The authors consider vision, mission, strategy and external factors. They also incorporate real-time measures of performance so that swift changes in practice can be implemented. These are all then systematically applied to all operational areas in the various chapters in the book.

The authors suggest that there should be a clear specification of the desired results, which enables everything to be worked out progressively. They use a 21-point inventory to decide on a specific intervention to address performance gaps.

The book is divided into 10 chapters all of which are written so that they can be explored independently. The prose is sometimes a little staccato which may be because of the commendable enthusiasm of the authors to get out the information as briefly and accurately as possible.

This book takes the reader through the necessary considerations for improving performance. It will almost certainly provide more than a return on the investment of its purchase.

Reviewed by John P. Wilson

A longer version of this review was originally published in Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 45 No. 3, 2013.