The performance architect's essential guide to the performance technology landscape

The first two editions of the Handbook of Human Performance Technology helped define the rapidly growing and vibrant field of human performance technology—a systematic approach to improving individual and organizational performance. Exhaustively researched and edited by Dr. James A. Pershing, CPT, this third edition not only updates key foundational chapters on organizational change, evaluation, instructional design, and motivation, but features breakthrough chapters on “performance technology in action” and addresses many new topics in the field, such as certification, Six Sigma, and communities of practice. In this chapter, reprinted with permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (copyright 2006), Roger Addison and Carol Haig take you on a journey through the key elements of a full performance process with its pitfalls and how to avoid them.     

How are Teachers Managing Performance Management?

This study reports the findings of a 2-year longitudinal study that examines the stance taken by a group of Western Australian teachers to the introduction of compulsory performance management in 1997. It shows that during the first year of implementation (1997), teachers responded to the new programme with significant levels of scepticism, mistrust and anxiety. By the second year (1998), despite continued reservations, the teachers found they could take charge of the process, maintain a sense of autonomy and control over their work, and capitalise on the limited opportunities for professional growth provided by annual appraisal cycles. A concluding theme emerging from the teachers' reported experiences and reflections is that management-inspired programmes of performance review have little impact on authentic teacher learning compared with active teacher participation in strong, accountable professional learning communities developed within and across schools.     

Yes,Classroom Sales Training Can Enhance Performance

Organizations today face competitive conditions unlike those experienced in the past. Managers and team leaders must learn ways to get the highest level of performance from a team of people, work with a variety of individuals diverse projects, communicate with a wide audience clearly and effectively, and be able to provide performance feedback and elevate performance levels for people they hardly know. While few will argue that learning in organizations is critical to meeting these challenges, an increasing number of decision-makers are raising questions about the value of classroom training. The questions are especially difficult to address in sales training where results are observable (i.e., sales) but difficult to trace to performance events and interventions. The current study was conducted to address two questions: 1) Is it possible to link sales production to participation in classroom sales training? 2) If so, what are the elements of the training that seem to be most useful in enhancing employee performance and sales performance?     

Are Artificially Intelligent Conversational Chatbots Uniformly Effective in Reducing Summer Melt? Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial

Research in Higher Education - Our field experiment extends prior work on college matriculation by testing the extent to which an artificially intelligent (AI) chatbot’s outreach and support...