Beyond Transfer of Training: Engaging Systems to Improve Performance / Edition 1

Beyond Transfer of Training

John Wiley & Sons

Chapter One

IN THIS CHAPTER we focus on stakeholders and their responsibilities in supporting effective performance, another foundation block for improving performance in today's complex organizational systems. Before we discuss stakeholders themselves, we must first set the context for effective performance. Next, we examine the primary stakeholders who are involved in most efforts to improve performance, as well as other stakeholders who may play a role, depending on the organizational setting and the particular performance involved. Then we consider the important factors that affect performance in organizations and the stakeholders who can provide those factors.

The major topics for this chapter are

Performance and performers

Stakeholders in performance

Organizational factors that support performance

Performance and Performers

Stakeholders are the important individuals, groups, units, and organizations that make up complex systems. Before discussing stakeholders and their support for performance, we must be clear on what we mean by performance and performers. The mission and goals of any complex organizational system are accomplished by the performance of the people who do the work.

Our focus in this book is primarily on the activities and interactions at the job/performer level where the work is done, as described by Rummler and Brache (1995). We do not focus in the same detail at the higher process level, how work is organized, or the even higher organizational level, the way the business is set up and managed. (However, many of the principles of stakeholder support apply at those levels as well.) Our attention is on the way that the organization's work is done and on the people who do that work.

Performance

Effective performance is the goal of every organizational system. Thomas Gilbert's Human Competence: Engineering Worthy Performance (1978) is credited by many with laying the groundwork for the critically essential analysis that underlies support for improvement of individual and organizational performance (Chevalier, 2003).

Performance is a combination of behaviors by individuals, groups, and teams and the accomplishments (products and services) that they produce (adapted from Dean, 1999, p. 6, & Gilbert, 1978, p. 17.). Thus, performance is a combination of the behaviors (decisions and actions) of those who do the work and the products and services that result from those decisions and actions.

For a successful restaurant, one very important performance consists of the decisions and actions by the chef and the food that the chef produces for the customers. Other examples of important performances (behaviors plus accomplishments) for that restaurant are managers' purchases of supplies and the wait staff 's services to customers.

Performers

The term performer refers to the individual-working alone or in groups and teams-who performs some work. This allows us to consider, as performers, those who work as volunteers or other contributors to an activity, as well as those who are more formally employed. In this book, the term performers is used to refer specifically to those whose performance is the focus of an intervention. At the restaurant, performers who are the focus of an intervention might include managers, the chef, all who assist her in the kitchen, the wait staff, the cleaning crew, and others.

Stakeholders in Performance

A stakeholder is an individual, group, organizational component, or organization with a share or interest-a "stake"-in the goals or outcomes of an activity, process, project, organization, or intervention in a complex system. Stakeholders provide the information, work, requirements, support, encouragement, oversight, and all the other resources that help shape the survival and success of organizations and communities in today's complex world.

All major stakeholders must recognize-and look for constructive ways to intervene in-our complex systems to provide useful support and encouragement for improved performance throughout the systems. The goal at the job/performer level is to make sure that performers, individuals as well as groups and teams, can perform effectively.

Individual stakeholders have many different roles in supporting performance -as managers at several levels, performers (employees and other community and group members), organizational change agents (such as learning specialists and quality control professionals), internal and external suppliers and customers, regulators, experts, and others. Units of an organization may be stakeholders in a moderately complex system that has a single organization as its major component. In highly complex systems made up of several organizations, more than one organization may be a major stakeholder. We must understand-and help individuals, groups, and organizations understand-who they are as stakeholders and what they can do to support and improve performance in these complex systems.

Stakeholders Who Support Performance

No matter how timely, ingenious, or creative the strategic goals of any organization or community may be, those goals can only be met through the competent, committed, and often collaborative performance of the people who do the work. Stakeholders, as individuals, groups, and organizations, can provide ongoing support for that performance in several ways: encouragement, recognition, resources, and so on. In this chapter, we concentrate on identifying key stakeholders and the important factors in the work environment that they can provide. Later, in Chapter 4, we explore specific strategies and best practices by stakeholders to support performance.

Stakeholder support clearly becomes very important when an intervention is planned or under way to develop or improve performance to reach a recognized goal. These interventions may be instructional (such as training, coaching, or e-learning) to improve or develop new knowledge and skills that performers then transfer to performance on the job. Interventions often are noninstructional (such as process improvement, organizational restructuring, changes in compensation, or performance management) that enhance the work environment to support improved performance. Interventions may be combinations of both instructional and noninstructional efforts; they are discussed in more detail in Chapter 3.

Stakeholder support for performance can be applied in both work and nonwork settings, such as civic groups and communities, voluntary creative activities, and performance challenges and opportunities of all kinds. Stakeholders in nonwork situations might not fit easily into some of the typical organizational categories described below, but they can still be identified as having a "stake" in the performance outcomes.

Table 2.1 shows typical stakeholders to support performance, their roles, and when they should be involved in planning or implementation of a performance improvement intervention. Research and best practices in interventions (addressed in Chapter 4) show that visible and demonstrable stakeholder support is essential to achieve full desired performance.

Primary Stakeholders Supporting Performance

Primary stakeholders are very important and must always be involved in an intervention to achieve full performance. As Table 2.1 indicates, primary stakeholders for any intervention may include executives and higher level managers of performers if the performance improvement intervention is focused on reaching strategic organizational goals (affecting the organization's attainment of its vision and mission). In all interventions, strategic or tactical (affecting operational effectiveness), supervisors and team leaders, performers, and-with increasing frequency-performance consultants (who often use other job titles, discussed below) are primary stakeholders.

Executives and Managers of Performers. When a performance intervention focuses on strategic organizational goals, executives and managers of performers make key decisions related to the intervention. They help determine the strategic goals, approve funding, often select consultants, help shape the intervention, approve evaluation metrics, and review progress and outcomes. They often make decisions that affect the work environment and how work is done. They should be involved as primary stakeholders for all strategically related interventions to improve performance that affects the organization's vision, mission, and goals. (Managers of other functions in an organizational system, not in the management chain for the performance improvement intervention itself, may fit in other stakeholder roles such as customer or supplier.)

Supervisors, Team Leaders. These primary stakeholders have responsibility for and oversee the performance that is the focus of the intervention. (Supervisors and team leaders of other workers who are not the focus of the intervention may fit in another stakeholder category, such as co-worker or subject matter expert.) For interventions affecting management performance, higher level managers function as supervisors. For front line employees and those in the organization who directly support them (finance, human resources, safety, and other functions), supervisors and team leaders are typical titles in the traditional chain of command; there may be other titles in nontraditional settings.

Often there are several levels in the management chain (executives, managers, supervisors) who serve as primary stakeholders for performance support for strategic interventions. They usually are formally in charge, although in unusual circumstances they may exercise informal authority. In the excavation and clearing of the World Trade Center site in 2001-2002, many people became accepted as supervisors and managers-through expertise or take-charge talents-who had no formal authority in the horrific and incredibly challenging days and months after September 11 (Langewiesche, 2002).

Performers. Those who perform the work that is the focus of the intervention are essential primary stakeholders. Their performance is the target for change or improvement through participation in an instructional intervention that results in enhanced job performance, some noninstructional intervention, or a combination of both. These are the individuals and groups (such as miners, physicians, teachers, managers, salespeople, brokers, and police officials) who produce or oversee the production of the accomplishments (products and services) that organizations provide to the community and society.

Performers also help provide and maintain the work environment that supports producers; examples are specialists in finance, safety, human resources, building maintenance, and information technology. Performers' accomplishments include an uncountable number of products and services from for-profit, not-for-profit, and government organizations and from other groups and individuals. The levels of motivation, commitment, and competence of all these performers make very significant differences in the value of the products and services to their ultimate users in the larger system.

There may be subsets of performers in some situations. For example, there may be several cohorts of performers: those who are currently involved in the intervention, those who have previously completed the intervention's activities, and those who have not yet become involved in the intervention. Frontline as well as higher level performers may be primary stakeholders. All performers may not share all characteristics, such as job titles, projects, or location in the organizational structure. What all performers do share is the task of enhancing their performance through involvement in the intervention.

Performance Consultants. The primary stakeholder group to which many readers of this book may belong is termed "performance consultants" here. Our working definition of a performance consultant (adapted from Robinson & Robinson, 1995, p. 10) is a professional who focuses on what people do (their performance) and then considers what it takes (in skills, knowledge, and a range of workplace resources) to do that well. (The performance consultant role is discussed in more detail in Chapters 3, 4, and 6.)

The performance consultant role is a quantum leap forward from the role of the traditional trainer. The trainer is engaged in developing and delivering learning experiences that result in new knowledge and skills for the participant. The performance consultant may well contribute to those learning experiences, but is ultimately focused on the effective application of new knowledge and skills to job performance. Thus, the performance consultant's attention is on the intervention, instructional or noninstructional, as well as on the workplace where the application of new learning to performance takes place.

For an instructional intervention to improve knowledge and skills that are then applied to job performance, actual job titles of performance consultants might include trainer, facilitator, instructional designer, or learning specialist. For noninstructional interventions to improve work processes or other work environment characteristics that support improved performance, their titles might include organizational development specialist, performance analyst, human resource specialist, or quality control expert. Managers of some of these specialists may be directly involved. As performance consultants, all of these professionals focus on helping performers-whatever their functions in the complex organizational system-to develop, improve, or maintain desired performance so that the organization's desired results are achieved effectively and efficiently.

Performance consultants have extremely important roles in the design and delivery of both instructional and noninstructional interventions. They contribute to the analysis that determines a performance gap, the content and approach of the intervention, its implementation, and the evaluation that measures impact on performance and results. An essential tool for the performance consultant is the practice of human performance technology (HPT), a systematic and systemic approach to attaining desired performance. (The HPT process is described at greater length in Chapter 3.)

Of course, many interventions are decided on and implemented by managers without direct involvement of other primary stakeholders, such as the performers who do the work or any of the specialists who are considered performance consultants here. An underlying theme of this book is to show the benefits, in terms of improved performance and organizational results, from involving performers and performance consultants as primary stakeholders in planning, implementing, and evaluating interventions to ensure that all available expertise contributes to important decisions.

Other Stakeholders Supporting Performance

Other stakeholders also may be important in supporting performance in many interventions. They can include individuals, groups, or communities of people at local, regional, national, or international levels who have concerns related to the complex system. Wise primary stakeholders (managers, performers, and performance consultants) should scrutinize the complex system's diagram and speak with other stakeholders to identify all the stakeholders who should be involved. It is not necessary to involve every possible stakeholder, but those who can significantly support or undermine the intervention should be included. Here, and in Table 2.1, are some of the "usual suspects" who may contribute as stakeholders. Also, primary stakeholders should always check for other important stakeholders in their interventions that are not listed here.

Evaluators. There has been a recent and rapid increase in management requests for evaluations of the outcomes of strategically important interventions (Phillips & Stone, 2002). Evaluators are important stakeholders (internal or external to an organizational system) who should be involved from the beginning of an intervention project whenever evaluation is planned. They can assist with selection of metrics and the design, implementation, and reporting of these assessments. Besides their basic measurement functions, evaluators can also develop assessment information that directly supports full performance following an intervention. (Chapter 5 gives a brief overview of recently developed evaluation approaches that directly support performance.) Occasionally, performance consultants and others take on the role of evaluators.

(Continues...)

---

Excerpted from Beyond Transfer of Training by Mary L. Broad Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

---