Human Performance Improvement
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (modified)

Human performance improvement is the concept of measuring the output of a particular process or procedure, then modifying the process or procedure in order to increase the output, increase efficiency, or increase the effectiveness of the process or procedure. The concept of performance improvement can be applied to either individual performance such as an athlete or organizational performance such as a racing team or a commercial enterprise.

In Organizational development, performance improvement is the concept of organizational change in which the managers and governing body of an organization put into place and manage a program which measures the current level of performance of the organization and then generates ideas for modifying organizational behavior and infrastructure which are put into place in order to achieve a better level of output. The primary goals of organizational improvement are to improve organizational effectiveness and organizational efficiency in order to improve the ability of the organization to deliver its goods and/or services and prosper in the marketplaces in which the organization competes. A third area of improvement which is sometimes targeted for improvement is organizational efficacy which involves the process of setting organizational goals and objectives.

Human performance improvement at the operational or individual employee level usually involves processes such as statistical quality control. At the organizational level, human performance improvement usually involves softer forms of measurement such as customer satisfaction surveys which are used to obtain qualitative information about performance from the viewpoint of customers.

Performance defined

Performance is a measure of results achieved. Performance efficiency is the ratio between effort expended and results achieved. The difference between current performance and the theoretical performance limit is the performance improvement zone.

Another way to think of human performance improvement is to see it as improvement in four potential areas. First, is the resource INPUT requirements (e.g., reduced working capital, material, replacement/reorder time,and set-up requirements). Second, is the THROUGHPUT requirements, often viewed as process efficiency; this is measured in terms of time, waste, and resource utilization. Third, OUTPUT requirements, often viewed from a cost/price, quality, functionality perspective. Fourth, OUTCOME requirements, did it end up making a difference.

Human performance is an abstract concept and it must be represented by concrete, measurable phenomena or events in order to be measured. Baseball athlete performance is abstract covering many different types of activities. Batting average is a concrete measure of a particular performance attribute for a particular game role, batting, for the game of baseball.

Performance assumes an actor of some kind but the actor could be an individual person or a group of people acting in concert. The performance platform is the infrastructure or devices used in the performance act.

There are two main ways to improve performance: improving the measured attribute by using the performance platform more effectively, or by improving the measured attribute by modifying the performance platform, which in turn allows a given level of use to be more effective in producing the desired output.

For instance, in several sports such as tennis and golf, there have been technological improvements in the apparatuses used in these sports. The improved apparatus in turn allows players to achieve better performance with no improvement in skill by purchasing new equipment. The apparatus, the golf club and golf ball or the tennis racket, provide the player with a higher theoretical performance limit.

Performance improvement can occur at different levels:

* an individual performer
* a team
* an organizational unit
* the organization itself

Business performance management and human performance improvement can be thought of as a cycle:

1. Performance Planning where goals and objectives are established
2. Performance Coaching where a manager intervenes to give feedback and adjust performance
3. Performance appraisal where individual performance is formally documented and feedback delivered

Links

• Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute CMMI
• Office of Personnel Management
• Creating a Performance Improvement Culture
  

Human Performance management

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (modified)

Human performance measurement is the process of assessing progress toward achieving predetermined goals. Human performance management is building on that process, adding the relevant communication and action on the progress achieved against these predetermined goals.

• In network performance management, (a) a set of functions that evaluate and report the behavior of telecommunications equipment and the effectiveness of the network or network element and (b) a set of various subfunctions, such as gathering statistical information, maintaining and examining historical logs, determining system performance under natural and artificial conditions, and altering system modes of operation.

•In organizational development (OD), human performance can be thought of as Actual Results vs Desired Results. Any discrepancy, where Actual is less than Desired, could constitute the performance improvement zone. Human erformance management and improvement can be thought of as a cycle:

A performance problem is any gap between Desired Results and Actual Results. Human performance improvement is any effort targeted at closing the gap between Actual Results and Desired Results.

•Application Performance Management (APM) refers to the discipline within systems management that focuses on monitoring and managing the performance and availability of software applications. APM can be defined as workflow and related IT tools deployed to detect, diagnose, remedy and report on application performance issues to ensure that application performance meets or exceeds end-users’ and businesses’ expectations.

•Business performance management (BPM) is a set of processes that help businesses discover efficient use of their business units, financial, human and material resources.

•Operational performance management (OPM) focus is on creating methodical and predictable ways to improve business results, or human performance, across organizations.

Simply put, human performance management helps organizations achieve their strategic goals. Rather than discarding the data accessibility previous systems fostered, human performance management harnesses it to help ensure that an organization’s data works in service to organizational goals to provide information that is actually useful in achieving them. and focus on the Operational Networking Processes between that performance level. The main purpose of human performance management is to link individual objectives and organisational objectives and bring about that individuals obey important worth for enterprise. Additionally, human performance management tries to develop skills of people to achieve their capability to satisfy their ambitiousness and also increase profit of a firm.

The above Wikipedia articles are used under a GNU Free Documentation License.

The following article is excerpted and modified from a publication of the U.S. Navy HPC Spider

Human Performance Technology

What Is Human Performance Improvement?

"Human performance improvement is the systematic process of discovering and analyzing important human performance gaps, planning for future improvements in human performance, designing and developing cost-effective and ethically justifiable interventions to close performance gaps, implementing the interventions, and evaluating the financial and nonfinancial results." from ASTD Models for Human Performance Improvement, Second Edition William J. Rothwell, ed.

There are several ways that the field of instructional design has been changing in recent years, including the ways to describe the field and its practitioners. For example, Boise State University offers a Master of Science in Instructional & Performance Technology (IPT). They say this degree is intended to prepare students for careers in the areas of:

Boise State University also notes that human performance improvement in organizations requires more than just education and/or training. IPT students learn the skills and knowledge, as well as explore the factors, that affect job performance:

According to the University of Minnesota, the human performance improvement (HPI) process is a way to solve problems. It provides you with a systematic process to follow on what can often be a not-so-systematic path. The HPI process involves:

Human Performance Measurement
Cannon-Bowers & Salas developed a detailed and systematic approach for evaluating human performance, both the individuals and the teams.

Table 1 presents four quadrants that depicts human performance in terms of unit of analysis and level of analysis. The unit of analysis distinguishes between individual behaviors and team behaviors. The level of analysis distinguishes between behaviors that represent processes and behaviors that represent outcomes. Specifically, process measures determine how the task was accomplished, while outcome measures describe what happened as a result of the processes. For example, individual performance processes are represented by information seeking, task strategies, and cognitive decision making processes, whereas individual performance outcomes are represented by latency, accuracy, and decision biases. Team performance processes are represented by communication flow, coordination behaviors, and team strategies, whereas, team performance outcomes are represented by aggregates of latency and accuracy.

By dividing performance evaluation among the four quadrants, performance measurement strategies can be specified for individual processes, individual outcomes, team processes, and finally team outcomes. Specific tools for developing measures of performance processes include decision flow analyses, protocol analyses, observation analyses, and event analyses (refer to Table 2). Tools for evaluating performance outcomes include critical incidents, automated performance recording, expert opinion, behavior rating scales, and after action reviews.

Research efforts by Johnston, Cannon-Bowers and Smith-Jentsch are exploring the use of an event-based performance measurement system to assess shipboard command teams. This methodology provides the means to assess training effectiveness, record complex individual and team processes and outcomes during a scenario, and as a means to provide specific feedback to shipboard teams. The tools have demonstrated adequate reliability; instructors have been found to be extremely useful and to have face validity.

Cannon-Bowers, J.A., & Salas, E. (in press). Team performance measurement in training: Aconceptual approach to dynamic assessment. To appear in M.T. Brannick, E. Salas, & C. Prince(Eds.), Assessment and measurement of team performance: Theory, research & applications.Hillsdale, NJ: LEA.

Developmental Issues:

• A performance technology glossary

• The Autonomous Performer: Implications for Performance Technology Fred Nickols, updated Feb, 2002.

• This author provides a number of other articles on human performance technology issues.

• Moving from Instructional Technology to Human Performance Technology in the Nuclear Power Industry , William H. Lowthert 1996