What is performance improvement

If what gets measured gets done, what are we measuring when we measure performance From a systems standpoint, performance means output. In the context of psychology, performance means behavior or output from a human system. We cannot discuss measurement and evaluation without an operational definition of performance. Let us examine different definitions more closely. 

Deming asked for 10 volxmteers from the more than 600 attendees. He assigned six volunteers the job of willing worker, two other volunteers became inspectors of each worker s output, another volxmteer played the role of quality control supervisor or inspector of the inspectors work, and the tenth volunteer was the recorder.  

After assigning work duties, Deming mixed 800 small red beads with 3200 white beads—all the same size—in a box. He showed the willing workers how to scoop out beads from this box using a beveled paddle that had indentahons for 50 beads. Each scoop of the paddle was considered a day s production. The inspectors counted the numbers of red and white beads on each worker s paddle, and after a reliability check by the bead inspector, the number of red beads (considered mistakes or defects) was recorded and displayed publicly on an overhead projector by the recorder. 

This demonstration has profoxmd lessons for achieving a Total Safety Culture. As I have discussed earlier, the typical evaluation procedure used by both the government and private sector to judge the safety record of companies is based on organizational or system performance— fhe fofal recordable injury rate or number of OSHA recordables — xmconfrollable by mosf individual workers. 

Individuals are nof only held accoxmtable, perhaps even disciplined, for their own injuries but also for fhe injuries of others, even employees outside their immediate work group. They are often blamed for injuries caused by a number of factors outside their control, such as at-risk environmental conditions or equipment, excessive workloads, system contingencies causing a fast work pace, and a culture that supports rugged individualism and thwarts group cohesion and a brothers/sisters keepers perspective. 

---