Objective Performance Indicators Research Articles

Is managing the work–family interface worthwhile? Benefits for employee health and performance

AbstractPast work–family research has shown that employees' work–family conflict experiences relate to adverse self‐reported health and performance outcomes, whereas work–family facilitation experiences relate positively to these self‐reports. The present research extends these findings by relating experiences in the work–family interface to objective health and performance indicators. We conducted two studies within a multinational financial services organization. The results of Study 1, a large‐scale cross‐sectional study (N = 1134), supported our hypotheses that conflict experiences relate to objective indicators of poor health (cholesterol level, body mass index, physical stamina), whereas facilitation experiences indicated better health. Study 2 (N = 58) was designed to longitudinally examine the relationship between employees' facilitation experiences and their objective physical health (cholesterol level, body mass index), actual sickness absence, and objective job performance over time. Corroborating our hypotheses, facilitation at Time 1 reliably predicted better physical health (cholesterol level and BMI), lower absenteeism, and increased job performance one year later (after correction for base‐line indicators). This research makes an important and much needed contribution to the literature and indicates that supporting employees to combine work and family roles not only enhances subjective well‐being of individual employees but also objectively benefits the organizations they work in. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An Empirical Investigation of the Role of Subjective Performance Assessments Versus Objective Performance Indicators as Determinants of CEO Compensation

The empirical support for agency theory explanations for the great variance in CEO pay has been equivocal. Drawing from the performance appraisal literature, we hypothesize that boards of directors incorporate human judgment into the evaluation and reward of CEO performance in order to balance managerial risk with agency costs. We test Baysinger and Hoskisson’s (1990) proposition that insider‐dominated corporate boards rely on subjective performance evaluation to reward the CEO, and we argue that R&D intensity influences this relationship. Using a sample of Fortune firms, findings support our contention that human judgment is important in evaluating and rewarding CEO performance.

Contact Sports: Judgements of Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal Australian Football League Players' Performance

Professional sport is often cited as an arena in which members of racial minorities can achieve high status and public success. In Australia, Aboriginal players are over-represented among the ranks of players in the highest levels of the nation's premier football code, the Australian Football League, yet are conspicuously under-represented in the formal honours awarded in this league. This paper examines the votes awarded during the AFL's ‘best and fairest’ competition during the 2001 season, and investigates the extent to which the votes awarded to players are accounted for by objective indicators of performance (match statistics). We found that most of the variance in votes could be attributed to objective match statistics, and there was no evidence of any effect of players' race on voting after match statistics were controlled. However, there was some indication that the opportunities for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal players may not be equivalent; no Aboriginal player was named in a ‘key position’ for any club in the 2001 season. The results are discussed in terms of the structural barriers that may explain why, despite over 100 years of acclaim on the field, Aboriginal players are still largely excluded from the most senior roles and responsibilities in their football clubs.

Electronic performance self-monitoring and engineered labor standards for “man-up” drivers in a distribution center

Electronic Performance Monitoring (EPM) represents the future of performance feedback where supervisors can electronically monitor the amount and quality of work an employee is producing and have objective indicators of employee performance immediately available and visible. In this study, imme- diate performance feedback and self-monitoring was delivered to employees in the warehouse on wireless vehicle-mounted computers. Order picking perfor- mance for ''man-up'' drivers (N = 10) was improved by three cases per hour per person in an auto-parts after-market distribution center when an intervention package that included the depiction of goal times and immediate performance feedback on wireless vehicle-mounted computers and a newly developed engi- neered labor standard (ELS). The implications of these findings and limitations are discussed in terms of operational and ethical issues regarding EPM in large industrial settings.

Transformational and charismatic leadership: Assessing the convergent, divergent and criterion validity of the MLQ and the CKS

This study aimed at empirically clarifying the similarities and differences between transformational, transactional, and charismatic leadership. More specifically, the convergent, divergent, and criterion validity of two instruments, the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ-5X) and the Conger and Kanungo Scales (CKS), was explored. It was found that transformational and charismatic leadership showed a high convergent validity. Moreover, these leadership styles were divergent from transactional leadership. With regard to criterion validity, subjective (e.g. satisfaction) as well as objective (profit) performance indicators were assessed. Firstly, results indicated that transformational as well as charismatic leadership augmented the impact of transactional leadership on subjective performance. In addition, transformational and charismatic leadership both contribute unique variance to subjective performance, over and above the respective other leadership style. Secondly, transformational leadership had an impact on profit, over and above transactional leadership. This augmentation effect could not be confirmed for charismatic leadership. Furthermore, transformational leadership augmented the impact of both transactional and charismatic leadership on profit. Implications for leadership theory and practice are discussed.

Exploring how constraints created by other people influence intraindividual variation in objective performance measures.

Objective performance indicators have low test-retest reliability, particularly in complex jobs. Yet, little is actually known about the reasons why objective performance indicators lack temporal stability. The authors address this issue by using data from a sample of 106 professional football players to explore how the actions of other people influence intraindividual variation in performance. Results suggest that weekly measures of performance outcome exhibit substantial variability within individuals. A significant portion of this within-person variance is explained by environmental fluctuation created by the constraining actions of other people. Individuals with highly fluctuating past performance exhibit stronger relationships between the actions of competitors and subsequent performance outcomes. The intraindividual relationship between fluctuating constraints and performance outcomes is also stronger for individuals in more complex jobs.

Asset Management Strategy for Unsealed Low-Volume Roads in New Zealand

The majority of rural local roads in New Zealand are unsealed low-volume roads that require regular grading, and a contractor has developed an asset management strategy for unsealed roads. Key facets of this strategy included establishment of a companywide asset management team responsible for implementing the strategy, creation of a new senior management position dedicated to delivering this strategy, and integration of asset management principles and processes into normal business. This unsealed roads maintenance strategy identified the need for a low-cost, effective tool for roughness monitoring that quantitatively reflects the unsealed network condition and is not based on subjective perception, which is the current situation. After a review of all existing roughness measurement systems from around the world, the Opti-Grade system from Canada was acquired and is being used on unsealed road networks throughout New Zealand. An example of the benefits of outsourcing road maintenance to private contractors is the fact that it was the contractor that identified the need for a low-cost roughness measurement tool to provide an objective operational performance indicator for rural local roads, initiated the development described in this paper, and implemented its use. This paper explains the processes involved in developing and implementing this strategy and the benefits to both the road authority and the company.

Subjective Performance Indicators and Discretionary Bonus Pools

Key indicators of managerial performance are frequently subjective, that is, they are difficult to specify and/or verify for contracting purposes. When a principal must rely on subjective information to create incentives for a group of agents, discretionary bonus pools are shown to be optimal mechanisms. Despite their optimality, however, discretionary bonus pools entail an additional agency cost relative to the benchmark of optimal contracts based on objective and verifiable information. Our analysis identifies circumstances under which this additional agency cost is small, for example, the subjective information signals are precise, or the number of agents participating in the bonus pool increases. When incentive schemes can be based on both objective and subjective performance indicators, the relative weights to be placed on alternative signals are shown to differ from the ones predicted by models with objective signals only. We also demonstrate that correlation in measurement errors has a different impact on the structure of optimal incentive schemes when the performance indicators are merely subjective.

The moderating role of development stage in free/open source software project performance

AbstractThe main thesis developed and tested in this article is that development stage plays an important moderating role in determining both objective and subjective performance outcomes in free/open source software (F/OSS) projects. This contention is supported by an empirical study of 67 F/OSS projects, with results indicating that subjective performance assessments are calibrated to different objective performance indicators across early and later development stages. The role of team climate variables (trust and shared ideology) in determining both objective and subjective performance also varies across stages. The findings have implications for improving software development processes through appropriate human resource management interventions over the course of F/OSS software projects. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Physical Exercise in Cancer Patients During and After Medical Treatment: A Systematic Review of Randomized and Controlled Clinical Trials

To systematically review the methodologic quality of, and summarize the evidence from trials examining the effectiveness of physical exercise in improving the level of physical functioning and psychological well-being of cancer patients during and after medical treatment. Thirty-four randomized clinical trials (RCTs) and controlled clinical trials were identified, reviewed for substantive results, and assessed for methodologic quality. Four of 34 trials met all (seven of seven) methodologic criteria on the Delphi criteria list. Failure to conceal the sequencing of treatment allocation before patient recruitment, failure to blind the outcome assessor, and failure to employ an intention-to-treat analysis strategy were the most prevalent methodologic shortcomings. Various exercise modalities have been applied, differing in content, frequency, intensity, and duration. Positive results have been observed for a diverse set of outcomes, including physiologic measures, objective performance indicators, self-reported functioning and symptoms, psychological well-being, and overall health-related quality of life. The trials reviewed were of moderate methodologic quality. Together they suggest that cancer patients may benefit from physical exercise both during and after treatment. However, the specific beneficial effects of physical exercise may vary as a function of the stage of disease, the nature of the medical treatment, and the current lifestyle of the patient. Future RCTs should use larger samples, use appropriate comparison groups to rule out the possibility of an attention-placebo effect, use a comparable set of outcome measures, pay greater attention to issues of motivation and adherence of patients participating in exercise programs, and examine the effect of exercise on cancer survival.

Crisis Talks: Comments on McLaughlin's 'Canada's Impossible Science'

In two recent papers on question in English-Canadian sociology (Curtis and Weir 2002; Weir and Curtis 2003), we argued for advantages of reflexivity as a shared orientation for scholars engaged in investigations of social (also, Curtis 2004). The context of our argument is rapid aging of 800-odd people working in full-time positions in departments of sociology in Canada, ongoing transformations in university funding and university governance, and marked shifts in course-stream selections of undergraduates. We called attention to increased intervention into university sector, whose concomitant demands for accountability, objective performance indicators, and student retention lead to promotion of vocational training. We see transformation of university education into vocational training as something that would impoverish our intellectual and working lives and as something likely to narrow possibilities for a diverse, multi-disciplinary, independent and critical sociology. The period of succession is full of potential for configuration of many different sociologies. We argued for a reflexive sociology, and urged colleagues on hiring committees and on comprehensive examination boards to promote it. Our sense of reflexivity derives from work of Pierre Bourdieu (Bourdieu 2005). Here reflexivity means that one works consciously at once to operate concepts and to interrogate grounds of one's conceptual repertoire. As sociologists, we use concepts as instruments with which to grapple with social, while we seek to preserve an awareness of social determination of our own concepts. As well, this version of reflexivity attends to relation between sociologist's personal location in field of scholarly, professional, and political practice, and stances and tactics s/he adopts in debate and in career choices. Every science, in Bourdieu's analysis, is organized around an interest in disinterest (Bourdieu 1975). Disinterest is an orientation to more or less firmly established collective norms that regulate a science's truth claims. Interest refers to striving of those in scientific field for distinction for themselves, their research specialty, or their academic unit in relation to field's valued practices. One of stakes in play in any scientific field is nature of its regulatory norms. We suggest that sociology has (but does not monopolize) a common object of investigation: the social. The social is a surprisingly elusive object, which sociologists often define tautologically. (1) It was invented in eighteenth century Scotland and France. In works of Adam Ferguson and other members of Scottish Enlightenment, it appears as a realm of human bonds that shadowed invention of economic domain as it split off from ancient oikos (the patriarchal productive household) and faced political. The social was invented as a plane of thinking and acting which contrasts with economic and political reasoning. It has continuing utility in normative terms as claim to existence of a terrain outside and capitalist relations. Analytic heterogeneity marks study of social, positioned precariously as it is between natural sciences and humanities; both have striven consistently to annex social sciences. But we would agree with Habermas (1988 [1967]) in arguing that social science has three basic analytic divisions: interpretive study of human action, study of institutions that enable and constrain action, and historical narratives of practical action. It is concurrently subjective, structural and normative, with individual researchers tending for most part to specialize in one of these forms of knowledge production. The relations among these differing forms of social scientific knowledge have been, and continue to be, ones of rivalry. In addition to pointing to possible consequences of security state for sociology, our articles sought to defend integrity of sociological knowledge in midst of of faculties, strife which has worked to render it (in Canadian context at least) without a sense of purpose. …

Development of a housing performance evaluation model for multi-family residential buildings in Korea

This paper presents the development and application of a housing performance evaluation model for multi-family residential buildings in Korea. This model is intended to encourage initiatives toward achieving better housing performance and to support a homebuyer's decision-making on housing comparison and selection. Forty-one objective and feasible housing performance indicators, which were selected from the review of existing evaluation models and interviews with experts, are classified into a series of categories. The weights of each category and indicator are calculated by using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) analysis, and a weight is converted into credit. Next, the performance grades are divided into four levels, and evaluation criteria are suggested based on statutory performance value or the one frequently met in practice. Finally, the evaluation program and the application procedure are established through the field case study. This model can be used for objective and practical evaluation and comparison of residential housing alternatives.

The Social Psychology of Tokenism: Status and Homophily Processes on Wall Street

While conscious action may produce some inequality, most discrimination occurs through cognitive processes that are automatic and unconscious. I examine the role of two cognitive mechanisms that affect gender inequality in the securities industry: homophily preferences and status expectations. I argue that homophily preferences and status expectations are the general cognitive processes that produce the effects of “tokenism,” which were originally identified by Kanter for female tokens. These processes also lead to differences in the experiences of male and female tokens. I use qualitative data on 76 Wall Street professionals to illustrate how homophily and status processes maintain and reproduce stratification in securities firms. Moreover, the compensation system in this industry, which rewards employees based on performance evaluations, aggravates the effects of these cognitive processes. Strong mentors, the possession of specialized skills, and objective performance indicators seem to mitigate these effects for a minority of women.

Perceived Collective Efficacy, Subjective Well-Being And Task Performance Among Electronic Work Groups

This study investigates the effects of e-groups on well-being and performance, using a collective approach and an objective performance indicator. Furthermore, it includes collective efficacy as a moderator and negative (anxiety) as well as positive (engagement) well-being. A lab experiment with an interval of 3 weeks was performed among 140 students who were randomly distributed across 18 groups using a chat-internet program and 10 groups working face to face. Half the groups performed under time pressure. Results confirm the moderating role of perceived collective efficacy on well-being and task performance. All groups working under time pressure and low in collective efficacy show an increase in collective anxiety. Chat-internet groups under time pressure show an increase in collective engagement but only when they feel high in collective efficacy. Finally, task performance was poorer in chat groups, working under time pressure, and with low levels of collective efficacy than in the other groups.

Interorganizational Coordination, Administrative Consolidation, and Policy Performance

Although administrative and policy reformers often urge coordination as the key to more effective delivery of public services, there is little beyond anecdotal evidence to suggest that most approaches to coordination can actually improve public services in multiorganizational delivery systems. Indeed, critical accounts of bureaucratic behavior suggest that it is quite difficult to get organizations to cooperate with each other, much less to do so effectively. Extended scholarly analyses have pointed out the great difficulty of obtaining coordination in the absence of the consolidated administration of programs. For this reason, reformers would often prefer to see programmatic and administrative consolidation, hoping that the enhanced bureaucratic control they anticipate will improve program outcomes. This paper examines the effect of coordination patterns and administrative arrangements on the accomplishment of policy goals in the delivery of employment and training services under the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA). JTPA is carried out in an intergovernmental, multiorganizational setting in which state and local JTPA administrative entities must obtain the support of a variety of other administrative agencies if JTPA goals are to be achieved. The act requires that employment and training coordination plans be written at both the state and local levels to link the activities of these disparate organizations. The organizations themselves have primary missions that overlap, but are not identical. Requirements and written plans are no guarantee that coordination will occur; even if it does, there is no guarantee that it will improve performance. Jennings (1994) found that increasing coordination has positive effects on program outcomes, but his analysis relied strictly on a perceptual measure of performance as reported by state agency administrators. The current study combines Jennings's data with objective measures of program performance, such as placement rates and wages. This is a critically important step since subjective and objective measures of performance can be at variance with each other (Brudney and England, 1982; Brown and Coulter, 1983; Parks, 1984). This article seeks answers to several questions. First, what is the relationship between subjective and objective measures of JTPA performance? Second, how are the objective measures of performance routinely reported to the U.S. Department of Labor related to each other? Third, does the analysis of the effects of coordination and administrative consolidation on performance depend on whether objective or subjective measures are used? Fourth, do coordination and consolidation affect different dimensions of performance differently? As the article pursues answers to these important questions, it tests two central hypotheses: [H.sub.1] Increased levels of coordination lead to higher levels of performance. [H.sub.2] Administrative consolidation of the JTPA administrative agency and the state employment service increases JTPA performance outcomes. The article proceeds as follows. First, we discuss the theory of coordination as reflected in the literature of public administration. We discuss coordination as it relates to interprogram and interorganizational coordination. We then take note of the legal requirements and formal provisions for coordination under JTPA. A discussion of administrative organization follows. We then present a multivariate model of employment and training program outcomes and discuss the measures that are employed in the analysis. Sections analyzing the data follow the discussion of coordination. We examine correlations among the variables, looking in particular at the relationship between objective and subjective measures of performance. We examine the relationships among the different objective measures of performance. We then estimate multiple models of JTPA performance, using the objective indicators of performance as the dependent variables. …

Deinterlacing-an overview

The question or not to interlace divides the television and the personal computer communities. A proper answer requires a common understanding of what is possible nowadays in deinterlacing video signals. This paper outlines the most relevant proposals, ranging front simple linear methods to advanced motion-compensated algorithms, and provides a relative performance comparison for 12 of these methods. Next to objective performance indicators, screen photographs have been used to illustrate typical artifacts of individual deinterlacers. The overview provides no final answer in the debate, as such requires unavailable capabilities in balancing technical and nontechnical issues.

Performance contrasts between family and non‐family unquoted companies in the UK

Explores whether there are any significant performance and ambitions differences between independent family and non‐family unquoted companies in the UK. To detect “real” performance and ambitions differences, rather than demographic “sample” differences between family and non‐family companies, a “matched” sample methodology has been utilized. Concludes that there are strong similarities between the two groups of companies in terms of “hard” objective performance and ambition indicators. Such differences as do occur are reflected in the finding that family companies are markedly more likely to stress non‐financial objectives than non‐family companies. Discusses implications for future research exploring the characteristics and performance of family and non‐family companies.

A Comparison of Two Teaching Designs Using the Organization Game as a Measure of Outcome Performance

According to the model of managerial readiness to develop, the classroom simulation of an organization should occur in a systematic, planned fashion, moving from simple to complex simulations, because students need to practice with the former to succeed with the latter. To test this idea, an organizational psychology class was taught using two different formats: (a) lecture-discussion training with a low level of complexity and (b) training with increasingly complex experiential exercises. The performance of each class was compared by using the objective performance indicators of the Organization Game, a complex simulation used to measure the relative performance of each class. The mean performance indicator for the experiential training classes was 87.8, which was significantly higher than the lecture-discussion mean of 64.8. These results support the idea of a continuum of complexity that should be considered when planning the use of experiential exercises.

Applicability of Criteria for V̇O2max in Active Adolescents

This study examined the applicability of criteria for maximal oxygen consumption (V̇O2max) in adolescents. Active females (n=38) and males (n=196) who were students at a sports-technical junior high school performed a treadmill Bruce protocol to volitional fatigue. The criteria for V̇O2max were R ≥1.0, HR ≥95% of predicted maximal for age, and an increase in V̇O2 ≤2.1 ml·kg−1·min−1 with an increase in workload. The first criterion was met by 97% of the females and 93% of the males, while 81% of the females and 75% of the males met the second criterion. Only 8% of the females and 13% of the males met the third criterion. Those who achieved a plateau showed higher HR at peak exercise compared to those who did not (204 ±7.0 vs. 200.6 ±7.2, P≤0.05). Our data indicate that a high proportion of adolescents exhibit subjective and objective indicators of maximal performance without showing a plateau in V̇O2. Age-specific criteria for V̇O2max should be developed.

Effects of comparative performance information on the accuracy of self-ratings and agreement between self- and supervisor ratings.

The manner in which social comparison performance information affects the accuracy of self-ratings and the agreement between selfand supervisor ratings was investigated in a laboratory experiment using 163 undergraduates. Ss proofread a series of articles for 30 min and then made self-ratings of work performance. Half of the subjects received social comparison information prior to making self-ratings. Correlations between selfand supervisor evaluations and between self-evaluations and objective performance indicators were significantly larger when self-raters were presented with the same comparative performance information that was available to supervisors. Implications of the findings for future research on selfand supervisor evaluations are discussed.