Performance of Individuals and Groups

Performance of Individuals and Groups



LEARNING OBJECTIVES


1. Understand the key dimensions of individual-level performance.
2. Understand the key dimensions of group-level performance.
3. Know why individual- and group-level performance goals need to be compatible.



Principles of management are concerned with organization-level outcomes such as economic, social, or environmental performance, innovation, or ability to change and adapt. However, for something to happen at the level of an organization, something must typically also be happening within the organization at the individual or team level. Obviously, if you are an entrepreneur and the only person employed by your company, the organization will accomplish what you do and reap the benefits of what you create. Normally though, organizations have more than
one person, which is why we introduce to you concepts of individual and group performance.


Individual-Level Performance


Individual-level performance draws upon those things you have to do in your job, or in-role performance21, and those things that add value but which aren’t part of your formal job description. These “extras” are called extra-role performance or organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs)22. At this point, it is probably simplest to consider an in-role performance as having productivity and quality dimensions associated with certain standards that you must meet to do your job. In contrast, OCBs can be understood as individual behaviors that are beneficial to the organization and are discretionary, not directly or explicitly recognized by the formal reward system.D. W. Organ, Organizational Citizenship Behavior: The Good Soldier Syndrome (Lexington, M Lexington Books, 1988).




In comparison to in-role performance, the spectrum of what constitutes extra-role performance, or OCBs, seems be great and growing. In a recent review, for example, management researchers identified 30 potentially different forms of OCB, which they conveniently collapsed into seven common themes: (1) Helping Behavior, (2) Sportsmanship, (3) Organizational Loyalty, (4) Organizational Compliance, (5) Individual Initiative, (6) Civic Virtue, and (7) Self-Development.P. M. Podsakoff, S. B. MacKenzie, J. B. Paine, and D. G. Bachrach, “Organizational Citizenship Behaviors: A



Critical Review of the Theoretical and Empirical Literature and Suggestions for Future Research,” Journal of Management 26 (2000): 513–63. Definitions and examples for these seven themes are summarized in Table 1.2 "A current survey of organization citizenship behaviors".These definitions and examples are adapted from D. W. Organ, “The Motivational Basis of Organizational Citizenship Behavior,” in Research in Organizational Behavior 12 (1990): 43–72; J. Graham, “An Essay on Organizational Citizenship Behavior,” Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal 4 (1991): 225, 249–70; J. M. George, and G. R. Jones, “Experiencing work: Values, attitudes, and moods,” Human Relations 50 (1997): 393–416; J. M. George, and G. R. Jones, “Organizational Spontaneity in Context,” Human Performance 10 (1997):
153–70; J. W. Graham, “An Essay on Organizational Citizenship Behavior,” Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal 4 (1991): 249–70; D. W. Organ, “Personality and Organizational Citizenship Behavior,” Journal of Management 20 (1994): 465–78; R. H. Moorman, and G. L. Blakely, “Individualism-Collectivism as An Individual Difference Predictor of Organizational Citizenship Behavior,” Journal of Organizational Behavior,
16 (1995): 127–42.