T4 MAP™: A Scholar‐Practitioner Model for Performance Improvement

The world of work is changing and we must adapt how we apply human performance technology (HPT) expertise to address our 21st century challenges. This is a formidable challenge. The scholar‐practitioner model seems ideally suited to this high‐speed world by combining the ability to apply theory and rigorous processes to solve practical problems. The T⁴ MAP (T⁴) models a new action research process grounded in human and organizational development (HOD) theory. It incorporates quantitative and qualitative data and so equips scholar‐practitioners and practitioners to address workplace problems and advance theory by enabling a deeper contextual understanding of people in the organization. A T⁴ pilot demonstrated the ability to generate salient data that helped teams identify performance improvement opportunities and enabled participants to take accountability for implementation. It offered a basis for grounded theory and presented opportunities for future research.     

Innovation and Performance Improvement Integration

G2000's HR Execution Excellence—Retail Attendance System was one of the innovative projects to receive the ISPI Award of Excellence in 2016. It is a continuous improvement project that applies the concept of holistic human performance improvement using an ISPI human performance technology (HPT) model (ISPI, 2012) to streamline the front‐end and back‐end processes of our Retail Attendance System. As a result, it leads us to achieve one of our business goals: employment regulatory compliance. In our case, the project team was tasked with seeking solutions to ensure that the payroll process for retail staff could be performed accurately and in a timely manner. After applying the HPT model to conduct the gap analysis and identify the causes or factors that were limiting our performance, we integrated the concept of human‐centered design approach at the solution‐design phase of the project, to lead us to innovative solutions.     

Driving performance improvements by integrating competencies with human resource practices

This study explores the issues in the development and application of a competency model and provides implications for more precise integration of competencies into human resource (HR) functions driving performance improvement. This research is based on a case study from a Korean consumer corporation. This study employed document reviews, observation, and interviews. Although competency modeling is time‐consuming work, this study's results found that it can be a helpful intervention tool for improving HR performance in several ways. Furthermore, the results identified critical issues for success in each aspect of competency modeling. This article offers practical and useful insights into the relationship between competency modeling and HR performance improvement.     

Better Solutions Through Better Requirements: The Link Between HPT and Business Analysis

G2000's HR Execution Excellence was one of the innovative projects to receive the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) Award of Excellence 2016. It is a continuous‐improvement project that applies holistic human performance improvement using an ISPI human performance technology model (ISPI, 2012) to streamline the front‐end and back‐end processes of a retail attendance system (RAS). Thus, it improved one of G2000's strategic capabilities: regulatory and social practices. During the process of developing the strategic capabilities and assembling the right combination of processes, knowledge, skills, and organizational fabric, working group and its system of play become critical. The question is how to reshape the work environment to sustain high performance from the strategic change. One way to position a change agent for success is by managing holistic requirements and intensely promoting and developing the bridge to the future.     

Analyzing time‐critical team motor skill performance: A case study

The ability to improve team motor skill performance is predicated on the corresponding ability to accurately identify areas for improvement. Unfortunately, in many time‐critical, rapid‐paced environments, accurately identifying areas for improvement is often problematic. The technique described in this case study seeks to overcome these difficulties in a systematic manner by employing a video‐recorded, mapping‐and‐measurement‐based approach that can discern details normally missed by human observation.     

Toward a Current,Comprehensive, Integrative,and Flexible Model of Motivation for Instructional Design

Workplace motivation historically has been an HR function, with ID as a training function. This division produces a split between motivation and training, leaving them isolated from one another. Intervention design needs to include motivation throughout its phases, to maximize motivating opportunities for performance improvement. The current models included in instructional design texts and resources are important, but tend to lack some characteristics that would make them more useful and productive for designers. The purpose of this paper is to present a theoretical and conceptual framework for the devel‐opment of a new model of motivation for intervention design that is current, comprehensive, integrative, and flex‐ible. To that end, we (1) review the key points of the call for such a model; (2) present a framework for such a model; (3) offer a conceptual prototype for a model to meet designer's needs and include perspectives from experts in instructional design and performance technology, including how it fills out an integrative theoretical base of motivation for the field; and (4) present future development implications for the field.     

Valuing the Gilbert Model

Leaders such as Thomas Gilbert, Geary Rummier, and Edward Deming have argued that the greatest leverage for solving performance problems lies with solutions targeted at system or environmental factors (those under the control of management) versus individual performer factors. A 12‐item research instrument titled Achieving Productive Performance (APP) was developed based on the six variables that make up Gilbert's human performance model. MBA candidates whoworkfull‐time primarily in middle management positions were asked to make value judgments on strategies for producing productive performance (where value for the performance exceeds the costs), Results support the concept of leverage espoused by Gilbert, Rummier, and Deming. Implications for workplace learning and performance professionals are discussed.     

Team Machine: A Decision Support System for Team Formation

This paper reports on the cross‐disciplinary research that resulted in a decision‐support tool, Team Machine (TM), which was designed to create maximally diverse student teams. TM was used at a large United States university between 2004 and 2012, and resulted in significant improvement in the performance of student teams, superior overall balance of the teams as well as overwhelmingly favorable reactions from stakeholders. An empirical study is conducted comparing the performance of teams created by TM compared to teams manually allocated by a subject matter expert. The findings show that optimally balanced teams perform better than those created manually. TM serves as a broad‐based example of how to integrate business analytics into interactive search by conflating human judgment with algorithmic efficiency in the context of team formation. The contribution of this research to the academic community is a model and solution method which can be easily implemented to solve a very important and recurring issue faced by many MBA programs and empirical evidence of its value. The outcomes of this study include empirical evidence of increased team performance, significant administrative time savings, improvement to team diversity, and increased satisfaction from students and administrators with the team formation process.     

关于“公共关系学”教学改革的思考与探索

公共关系学是一门新兴的涵盖面极广的综合性学科,也是一门实践性和操作性都很强的学科。但由于种种原因,教学效果不甚理想。因此,高校应从调整教学内容、加强师资建设、改革教学方法、拓展考核方式入手进行全方位的教学改革,以实现课程教学目标,培养符合社会需求的创新型公关人才。     

The Relationship of Learning and Performance Improvement at Different System Levels

The importance of learning for organizational effectiveness is no longer questioned. Research in the last decade has identified the central role of learning for enhancing individual development. team effectiveness, leadership. innovation, and competitive advantage. However, this acknowledgement of learning's importance has been accompanied by the lack of conceptual clarity when learning, change, innovation, and performance‐all desirable states and co‐variants of each other‐are necessarily studied together. Because learning and performance strongly influence each other, we are often left confused by which is the phenomenon of interest. This confusion is compounded when levels of analysis are considered. This paper examines learning and performance improvement first as separate constructs, then as complimentary elements in organization systems. Using a four‐level systems model, changes in the relationship between learning and performance improvement are examined at different levels of the model.     

The Mental Model Comparison of Expert and Novice Performance Improvement Practitioners

This study investigates the mental model comparison between expert and novice performance improvement practitioners. Nonexperimental survey research design was applied. Based on specific criteria, 11 critical concepts out of 30 were selected by 23 experts. Sixteen of those 23 experts provided data about the relatedness of 55 concept‐pairs generated from the 11 concepts to develop the common mental model of experts in the Knowledge Network Organizing Tool utilizing Pathfinder scaling. Two‐hundred‐forty‐two practitioners participated in the further phases of the study. Out of those practitioners, 33 novices, who have not met any of the criteria used for expert selection, are selected. Those novices also provide similar data for the common mental model of novices. The results of the study show that the expert model has more consistent and hierarchical structure than the novice model. Discussions and further research recommendations are provided.     

An Optimization of Human Performance Technology Intervention Selection Model: A 360‐Degree Approach to Support Performance

The human performance technology (HPT) model suggests various interventions to meet organizational challenges. While the original model includes a matrix to match an intervention according to a performance analysis, accumulated experience and recent research show that there are several parameters that will influence the validity and effectiveness of the solution. This article offers a 360‐degree approach to support the use of a performance model that helps practitioners to select the proper HPT intervention according to key attributes that influence the solution. Successful implementation, such as target audience characteristics and work processes that are at the heart of organizational needs, are examples of the benefits provided by this approach. The model is based on research conducted by Gal and Nachmias (2011, 2012) concerning performance support solutions success factors in corporate settings. In addition, experiences gained by both authors as they implemented HPT solutions in large organizations are considered.     

A model for helping people hit their performance targets

This article presents the target model of human behavior and performance. The model is a closed‐loop, feedback‐governed view of human behavior and performance, which is to say it acknowledges that the performer controls his or her performance. The model provides a useful diagnostic framework for examining problems of human performance in the workplace. An example of its application is included.     

Why Doers Do—Part 3: External‐Intangible Elements of Human Performance

The externality‐tangibility model of human performance is a human performance technology (HPT) model that categorizes nine all‐inclusive elements of HPT into families of elements that can be external or internal to a performer and tangible or intangible. This third of three installments looks at the two factors that are external to a performer and are intangible: management and leadership. Applying the externality‐tangibility model consistently entails a six‐step process. There are limits to the externality‐tangibility model because it is focused on human performance and not on other factors of organization performance.     

The HPT Model Applied to a Yoga Studio's Performance

This case study describes how the human performance technology model has been applied to enhance the performance of a small yoga studio—Salty Dog Yoga & Surf of Carolina Beach, North Carolina. An analysis of Salty Dog's organizational performance revealed several ongoing challenges, including issues with sales, strategic planning, and division of labor. An environmental analysis found that Carolina Beach's market is strong enough to support a full‐time local yoga studio, while an organizational analysis uncovered multiple issues with strategic vision, resource deployment, and training policies.     

Performance Analytics: The Missing Big Data Link Between Learning Analytics and Business Analytics

Big data analytics technology is changing the human capital development landscape. Global benchmarking trends reveal a gap between what executives expect from our profession and what we are currently capable of delivering. Emerging big data performance analytics technology offers our profession the capability to answer this growing executive expectation to diagnose the current and projected strengths and vulnerabilities of their workforce. It provides real‐time evidence that our performance improvement solutions optimize human and organizational performance.     

Theoretical Frameworks of Performance‐Based Models

The purpose of this article is to highlight theories that support the functions of performance‐based design models and to discuss the implications of integrating divergent models into the system‐oriented human performance technology (HPT) and performance improvement (PI) disciplines. HPT, PI, and instructional systems design (ISD) share a systems framework, along with the influence of common theories such as performance theory, learning theory, adult learning, cognitive psychology, and behavioral psychology (Foshay, Villachica, & Stepich, 2014). This article focuses on the role of theory as a tool in the practitioner's toolbox and as a connection point when working with teams and organizations that have different theoretical orientations. Performance‐based ISD models are discussed, including Robinson and Robinson's (1989) Training for Impact, Brethower and Smalley's (1998) Performance‐Based Instruction, and Bradford and Boler's (2015) Horizon Model. Allen and Sites's (2012) successive approximation model (SAM) retains elements of ADDIE as a process, but the model is iterative rather than systematic in design.     

The Role of Demographics as Predictors of Successful Performance of Sales Professionals in Business‐to‐Business Sales Organizations

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact demographic variables of gender and sales experience have on the performance of business‐to‐business (B2B) sales professionals. If a deeper understanding can be established of how gender and sales experience variables relate to B2B sales performance, human resource development (HRD) and human performance improvement (HPI) professionals can use these indicators during the hiring and selection process. This article reports findings of the study and offers implications to the field of HRD and HPI.     

A Metaphorical Model for Human Performance

Thermodynamics is a science that models the world by observing changes and makes assumptions based on this approach. The methodology that thermodynamics applies is to model abstract concepts that employ unique techniques for solving problems. Human performance technology (HPT) can be more of a science by bringing together in a similar way a set of fundamental principles, methods, and a model to form an integrated methodology. This article simulates a metaphorical model for human performance based upon the thermodynamic methodology.     

Partnering through training and practice to achieve performance improvement

This article presents a partnership effort among managers, trainers, and employees to spring to life performance improvement using the performance templates (P‐T) approach. P‐T represents a process model as well as a method of training leading to performance improvement. Not only does it add to our repertoire of training and performance management methods, it assists trainers and managers to promote change, achieve flexibility in performance, and enhance the fluency of skill application with regard to critical performance events.