Performance of Individual's Group

Understand the key dimensions of individual-level performance. Understand the key dimensions of group-level performance. 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 draws upon those things you have to do in your job, or in-role performanceThe things that you have to do as part of your job and its job description., 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)Voluntary behaviors employees perform to help others and benefit the organization.. 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 .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. Helping Behavior (Taking on the forms of altruism, interpersonal helping, courtesy, peacemaking, and cheerleading.) Altruism Voluntary actions that help another person with a work problem. Instructing a new hire on how to use equipment, helping a coworker catch up with a backlog of work, fetching materials that a colleague needs and cannot procure on their own. Interpersonal helping Focuses on helping coworkers in their jobs when such help was needed. Courtesy Subsumes all of those foresightful gestures that help someone else prevent a problem. Touching base with people before committing to actions that will affect them, providing advance notice to someone who needs to know to schedule work. Peacemaking Actions that help to prevent, resolve, or mitigate unconstructive interpersonal conflict. Cheerleading The words and gestures of encouragement and reinforcement of coworkers. Accomplishments and professional development.

SportsmanshipA citizenlike posture of tolerating the inevitable inconveniences and impositions of work without whining and grievances. Organizational LoyaltyIdentification with and allegiance to organizational leaders and the organization as a whole, transcending the parochial interests of individuals, work groups, and departments. Representative behaviors include defending the organization against threats, contributing to its good reputation, and cooperating with others to serve the interests of the whole. Organizational Compliance (or Obedience)An orientation toward organizational structure, job descriptions, and personnel policies that recognizes and accepts the necessity and desirability of a rational structure of rules and regulations. Obedience may be demonstrated by a respect for rules and instructions, punctuality in attendance and task completion, and stewardship of organizational resources. Individual Initiative (or Conscientiousness)A pattern of going well beyond minimally required levels of attendance, punctuality, housekeeping, conserving resources, and related matters of internal maintenance. Civic VirtueResponsible, constructive involvement in the political process of the organization, including not just expressing opinions but reading one's mail, attending meetings, and keeping abreast of larger issues involving the organization. Self-DevelopmentIncludes all the steps that workers take to voluntarily improve their knowledge, skills, and abilities so as to be better able to contribute to their organizations. Seeking out and taking advantage of advanced training courses, keeping abreast of the latest developments in one's field and area, or even learning a new set of skills so as to expand the range of one's contributions to an organization. As you can imagine, principles of management are likely to be very concerned with individuals' in-role performance. At the same time, just a quick glance through should suggest that those principles should help you better manage OCBs as well.

A groupA collection of individuals who interact with each other such that one person's actions have an impact on the other informal groups. is a collection of individuals. Group-level performance focuses on both the outcomes and process