Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION

Every organization performs its task with the help of resources as men, machine, materials
and money. Except manpower other resources are non-living but manpower is a live and
generating resource. Manpower utilizes other resources and gives output. If manpower is not
available then other resources are useless and cannot produce anything. Out of all the factors
of production manpower has the highest priority and is the most significant factor of
production and plays a pivotal role in areas of productivity and quality. In case, lack of
attention to the other factors those are non-living may result in reduction of profitability to
some extent. But ignoring the human resource can prove to be disastrous. In a country where
human resource is abundant, it is a pity that they remain under-utilized. In wording of Oliver
Sheldon No industry can be rendered efficient so long as the basic fact remains
unrecognized that is human. The people at work comprise a large number of individuals of
different sex, age, socio-religious group and different educational or literacy standards. These
individuals in the work place exhibit not only similar behaviour patterns and characteristics to
a certain degree but also they show much dissimilarity. Technology alone, however, cannot
bring about desired change in economic performance of the country unless human potential is
fully utilized for production. The management must therefore be aware not only organization
but also employees and their needs.
Performance is an ongoing, continuous process of communicating and clarifying job
responsibilities, priorities and performance expectations in order to ensure mutual
understanding between supervisor and employee. It is a philosophy which values and
encourages employee development through a style of management which provides frequent
feedback and fosters teamwork. It emphasizes communication and focuses on adding value to
the organization by promoting improved job performance and encouraging skill development.
Performance involves clarifying the job duties, defining performance standards, and
documenting, evaluating and discussing performance with each employee. An organization
that fosters high employee job satisfaction is also more capable of retaining and attracting
employees which contributes to employees better performance. Training and development is
very crucial to the employees, the organization and their effectiveness. Training holds the key
to unlock the potential growth and development opportunities to achieve a competitive edge.
In this context, organizations train and develop their employees to the fullest advantage in
order to enhance their effectiveness. Performance of an employee is a dependent factor on
variables like knowledge, skill and abilities. Training and development provides employees
1 | Page

required knowledge, skills and abilities to do a job. Training is a tool to fill the gap and the
firms should use it wisely to improve employee productivity. The employees feel motivated
and accountable for their performance and strive to achieve/exceed the targets set for them.
The only thing that pleases the managers and leadership is higher achievements and
performance delivery. Employees at grass root level take self-initiatives to improve their
individual and team performance and are often engaged in a die-hard competition with their
peers; and raise the performance bars on a regular basis unless they have reached or exceeded
the industry bench-mark.
The main objectives behind this research were to find out relationship between various
factors which affects individual performance. This is an exploratory research based solely on
insights drawn from the analysis of the existing literature of different studies, reports,
periodicals and books related to the topic of study in order to investigate the relationships
between the various factors which determine performance and how an employee perform.
The results of the study helped the researchers to know about the factors like motivation,
personal traits, training and development programs, organizational culture which directly
affects ones performance.

2 | Page

Chapter 2: Related Literature Review

According to the research done by Sageer, A. et al., employee attitudes typically reflect the
moral of the company. In areas of customer service and sales, happy employees are extremely
important because they represent the company to the public. So, every organization should
develop strategies that strengthen the work environment and increase the employee morale
and employee satisfaction to enhance employee performance and productivity, which
ultimately results in high profits, customer satisfaction as well as customer retention.

The study done by Tiwari, P. (2012) provided the knowledge that the organizations which
implements HRM practices with dedication, remains ahead of their competitors because such
practices affects other variables such as competitive advantage, job satisfaction, financial
performance, employee turnover, service quality, employee commitment etc. in a positive
manner and leads to overall corporate performance. While designing and implementing such
practices, one important thing is to be kept in mind that the HRM practices should be
analysed from time to time and it should be updated accordingly.

According to Fort& Voltero (2004), there are a number of factors that may be affecting the
employees performance. Each employee may have a different impact from different things at
the workplace; clear goals and job expectations, suitable repertoire, immediate feedback,
skills to perform, knowledge of the organizational structure, functional feedback system,
sound metal models, sufficient motivation through self-satisfaction and incentives.

According to Valleet (2000).Effective training is beneficial for the firm in variety of ways,
such as, it plays a vital role in building and maintaining capabilities, both on individual and
organizational level, and thus participates in the process of organizational change.

3 | Page

Table 2.1 Important findings of Literature review

Author, Year

Important findings

Performance means both behaviour and result. Behaviour

emanates from the performer and transforms performance
from abstraction into action. Not just a means to an end,

Michael Armstrong(2006)

the behaviour is also an outcome in itself, the product of

mental and physical effort applied to the task, which can be
judged apart from the result

Effective HRM practices affects variables such as

Pankaj Tiwari (2012)

competitive

advantage,

job

satisfaction

,financial

performance, employee turnover, service quality etc.

Nickols (2003) and Fort& Voltero

(2004)

Knowledge of the organizational structure, functional

feedback

system,

sounds

metal

models,

sufficient

motivation through self-satisfaction and incentives has a

positive impact on employees performance.

Alam Sageer, Dr. Sameena Rafat, Employee attitudes typically reflect the moral of the
company and the organizational culture is one of the main
& Ms. Puja Agarwal
determinates of employee attitude.

Mohammad

Salim

&

Nimalathasan

The

Balasundaram(2011)

individual factors to achieve satisfactory performance.

Source: Literature Review

4 | Page

garment

industries

cannot

ignore

employees

Variables Identified
Table 2.2 Independent and dependent variables
Independent Variable

Dependent Variable

Attitude & Moral

Organizations Culture
Motivation,

Individual performance

Knowledge,

Training

Development.

Personal Trait

Behaviour, Job satisfaction

Source: Literature Review

Chapter 3: Research Methodology

This is an exploratory research based solely on insights drawn from the analysis of the
existing literature of different studies, reports, periodicals and books related to the topic of
study in order to investigate the relationships between the various factors which determine
performance and how an employee perform. This research work will serves as a means to
help acquire useful information or knowledge about the subject area. By drawing on the
existing literature, not only topic under consideration is theorize, but also formulates and
discusses the proposition that will help illuminate and discuss some ways for the firms to
understand the effect of training on employees performance.

Reasoning:
The study primarily concentrates on the evidences gathered on the basis of secondary data
and interpretations are done based on the data and findings of the secondary source. The final
conclusion is drawn using the discussion carried out relating to the variables that are found in
the review of the literature, which makes the study inductive.
5 | Page

and

Conceptual Framework:

Culture
Motivation
Traing and
development
Personal Traits

Productivity
Effective HR
Employee
Motivation
Job Satisfaction
Skill Development

INDIVIDUAL
PERFORMANCE

Figure:3.1 Conceptual Framework

LIMITATIONS:
1. The study is done purely based on the secondary data.
2. The study is not eligible to make a generalization on the compensation standards of
the organization.

Chapter 4: DISCUSSION
4.1: Effect of Motivational Factors on Performance
Employees are highly motivated with good working conditions as they provide a feeling of
safety, comfort and motivation. On contrary, poor working condition brings out a fear of bad
health in employees. The more comfortable the working environment is more productive will
be the employees. Fallowing these points come under this category:

Feeling safe and comfort in working environment.

Tools and equipment.
Working methods.
Security guards and parking facility.
Well ventilated with good light fans and air- conditioning.
Neat and clean office place, rest area and washrooms

6 | Page

Source: Sageer, Alam et al., Identification of Variables Affecting Employee Satisfaction and
Their Impact on the Organization.
Figure 4.1: Various Motivational Factors
According to a research done by Kiruja, E.K., Mukuru. E., on Effect of Motivation on
Employee Performance In Public Middle Level Technical Training Institutions In Kenya,
which was based on two content theories that explain the specific factors that motivate people
and two process theories which are concerned about the psychological and behavioural
processes that motivate an individual. The study was showed that Individual needs and goals
are some factors that motivate people and they expect suitable rewards based on their
performance.
The study was based on motivation factors given by Herzberg who gave few dimensions
which directly or indirectly motivates employee. The dimensions are as follows:

Achievement
Recognition
Work itself
Advancement
Possibility of Growth

7 | Page

The following are the hygiene factors, which work in the same way with positive or negative
attributes. However, these factors can only have an effect on the dissatisfaction one feels

Personal or Working Relationships

Working conditions
Salary
Personal Life
Feeling a Job Security

Analysis
Kiruja, E.K., Mukuru. E., prepared questionnaires based on the factors taken from the content
theories. The population for their study was concentrated on administrators, heads of
department, teaching staff and non-teaching staff. From 315 respondents, 287 replied. They
also intervied administrators and heads of department. The idea was to find out the effect of
motivation on employee performance in public middle level technical training institutions in
Kenya.
The researchers used Correlation analysis to determine the effect of motivation on employee
performance. There was a weak positive correlation between motivation and employee
performance which was statistically significant,
r(285)=.205, p<0.05.
The positive coefficient means that there is a direct relationship: when motivation increases,
employee performance increases and therefore motivation is an important predictor of
employee performance in public middle level technical institutions in Kenya.

8 | Page

4.2: TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

Employee is a blood stream of any business. The accomplishment or disaster of the firm
depends on its employee performance. Hence, top management realized the importance of
investing in training and development for the sake of improving employee performance.
Improved capabilities, knowledge and skills of the talented workforce proved to be a major
source of competitive advantage in a global market. To develop the desired knowledge, skills
and abilities of the employees, to perform well on the job, requires effective training
programs that may also effect employee motivation and commitment. In order to prepare
their workers to do their job as desired, organizations provides training as to optimize their
employees potential. Most of the firms, by applying long term planning, invest in the
building new skills by their workforce, enabling them to cope with the uncertain conditions
that they may face in future, thus, improving the employee performance through superior
level of motivation and commitment. When an employee recognizes their organization
interest in them through offering training programs, they in turn apply their best efforts to
achieve organizational goals, and show high performance on job.
Employees are the most valuable asset of every company as they can make or break a
companys reputation and can adversely affect profitability. Employees often are responsible
for the great bulk of necessary work to be done as well as customer satisfaction and the
quality of products and events. Without proper training, employees both new and current do
not receive the information and develop the skill sets necessary for accomplishing their tasks
at their maximum potential. Employees who undergo proper training tend to keep their jobs
longer than those who do not.
Training is a necessity in the workplace. Without it, employees don't have a firm grasp on
their responsibilities or duties .Employee training refers to programs that provide workers
with information, new skills, or professional development opportunities
Past researches provides the evidence regarding the positive affect of training programs on
both employee and organizational performance. On one hand previous work in the field
proved that effective training programs leads to superior return on investment while the other
researches mentioned the positive role of training in attaining the supreme levels of employee
retention.

9 | Page

Due to fast pace global and technological development the firms are now facing new changes
as well as challenges. Technological advancements have moulded the need of capabilities and
competencies required to perform a particular tasks. Thus, to cope with these challenges,
more improved and effective training programs are required by all corporates.
Amongst the important function of human resource management, one of the crucial functions
is employee development through proper training and development programs. More the
developed employees, more they are satisfied with their job, hence increasing the firm
productivity and profitability.

The Importance of Training and Development

Effective training and development programs aimed at improving the employees
performance. Training refers to bridging the gap between the current performance and the
standard desired performance. Training could be given through different methods such as on
the coaching and mentoring, peers cooperation and participation by the subordinates. This
team work enable employees to actively participate on the job and produces better
performance, hence improving organizational performance.
Training programs not only develops employees but also help an organization to make best
use of their human resources in favour of gaining competitive advantage. Therefore, it seems
mandatory by the firm to plan for such training programs for its employees to enhance their
abilities and competencies that are needed at the workplace. Training not only develops the
capabilities of the employee but sharpen their thinking ability and creativity in order to take
better decision in time and in more productive manner. Moreover it also enables employees to
deal with the customer in an effective manner and respond to their complaints in timely
manner.
It is all about improving the skills that seems to be necessary for the achievement of
organizational goals. Training programs may also help the workforce to decrease their anxiety
or frustration, originated by the work on job. Those workers who feel they are unable to
perform a task with the desired level of performance often decide to leave the firm; otherwise
their stay at firm will not do to productivity. The greater the gap between the skills necessary
and those possessed by the workforce, the higher the job dissatisfaction of the workers.
Training may also be an efficient tool for improving ones job satisfaction, as employee better
10 | P a g e

performance leads to appreciation by the top management, hence employee feel more
adjusted with his job. Trained employees are more able to satisfy the customers, employees
who learn as a result of training program shows a greater level of job satisfaction along with
superior performance.
It is beneficial to both employers and employees of an organization. An employee will
become more efficient and productive if he is trained well. Firms can develop and enhance
the quality of the current employees by providing comprehensive training and development.
Training is essential not only to increase productivity but also to motivate and inspire workers
by letting them know how important their jobs are and giving them all the information they
need to perform those jobs. The general benefits received from employee training are:
increased job satisfaction and morale, increased motivation, increased efficiencies in
processes, resulting in financial gain, increased capacity to adopt new technologies and
methods, increased innovation in strategies and products and reduced employee turnover.

Employee performance
According to Hawthorne studies and much other research work on productivity of worker
highlighted the fact that employees who are satisfied with their job will have higher job
performance, and thus supreme job retention, than those who are not happy with their jobs
.Moreover, it is stated that employees are more likely to turnover if they are not satisfied and
hence demotivated to show good performance. The employee could be only satisfied when
they feel themselves competent to perform their jobs, which is achieved through better
training programs.
According to Leonard-Barton, (1992), an organization that gives worth to knowledge as a
source of gaining competitive edge than competitors, should build up system that ensure
constant learning, and on the effective way of doing so is training. Pfeffer (1994) highlights
that well-trained workforce is more capable of achieving performance targets and gaining
competitive advantage in the market. Training is determined as the process of enabling
employee to complete the task with greater efficiency, thus considered to be vital element of
managing the human resource performance strategically (Lawler, 1993; Delaney and Huselid,
1996).

11 | P a g e

Kamoche and Mueller (1998) mentioned that training should leads to the culture of
enhancing learning, to raise employee performance and ultimately higher return on
investment (in training) for the firm.
Employee's performance is important for the company to make every effort to help low
performers. Performance is classified into five elements: Planning, monitoring, developing,
rating and rewarding. In the planning stage, Planning means setting goals, developing
strategies, and outlining tasks and schedules to accomplish the goals. Monitoring is the phase
in which the goals are looked at to see how well one is doing to meet them .Monitoring
means continuously measuring performance and providing ongoing feedback to employees
and work groups on their progress toward reaching their goals. Ongoing monitoring provides
the opportunity to check how well employees are meeting predetermined standards and to
make changes to unrealistic or problematic standards. During the developing stage an
employee is supposed to improve any poor performance that has been seen during the time
frame one has been working at the company. During planning and monitoring of work,
deficiencies in performance become evident and can be addressed.
The rating is to summarize the employee performance. This can be beneficial for looking at
and comparing performance over time or among various employees. Organizations need to
know who their best performers are at the end of the cycle is rewarding stage. This stage is
designed to reward and recognize outstanding behaviour such as the relationship between
Training and employees performance
According to Swart et al., (2005), bridging the performance gap refers to implementing a
relevant training intervention for the sake of developing particular skills and abilities of the
workers and enhancing employee performance. He further elaborate the concept by stating
that training facilitate organization to recognize that its workers are not performing well and a
thus their knowledge, skills and attitudes needs to be moulded according to the firm needs.
There might be various reasons for poor performance of the employees such as workers may
not feel motivated anymore to use their competencies, or may be not confident enough on
their capabilities, or they may be facing work- life conflict. All the above aspects must be
considered by the firm while selecting most appropriate training intervention that helps
organization to solve all problems and enhance employee motivational level to participate
and meet firm expectations by showing desired performance. Employee superior performance
occurs only because of good quality training program that leads to employee motivation and
their needs fulfilment.
12 | P a g e

However, employee performance is also affected by some environmental factors such as

corporate culture, organizational structure, job design, performance appraisal systems, power
and politics prevailing in the firm and the group dynamics. If the above mentioned problems
exist in the firm, employee performance decreases not due to lack of relevant knowledge,
skills and attitude, but because of above mentioned hurdles. To make training effective and to
ensure positive effect of training on employee performance these elements should be taken
into consideration stated that workers feel more committed to the firm, when they feel
organizational commitment towards them and thus show higher performance.
Generally, it can be debated that the effect of training program on employee outcomes such as
motivation, job satisfaction and organizational commitment, did not received much attention
so far.. According to Lang (1992) training should be planned in such a way that it results in
organizational commitment. On the other hand Gaertner and Nollen (1989) proposed that
employees commitment is a result of some human resource practices, that is, succession
planning and promotions, career development and training opportunities. All these practices,
when achieved results in greater employee performance.
Although the above literature provides the evidences regarding the benefits of training and its
positive influence on employee performance, Sometime, in spite of receiving effective and
timely training programs, employee are intended to cash it for the sake of their own market
value and employment opportunity, or willing to change job just because of higher salaries,
and thus, firm investment in training results as a cost rather than profit. It is also observed
that due to the resistance of the organization towards offering training, propels individuals to
invest themselves for their career development and greater performance.
Training sessions accelerate the initiative ability and creativity of the workforce and facilitate
to avoid human resource obsolescence that may occur because of demographic factors such
as age, attitude or the inability to cope with the technological changes. Obisi (2001), reported
that training is a systematic process of enhancing the knowledge, skills and attitude, hence
leads to satisfactory performance by the employees at job. He further mentioned that the need
and objectives of the training program should be identified before offering it to the
employees.

4.3: Effect of Culture

13 | P a g e

Ramalu, S. et al., Studied the effects of cultural intelligence (CQ) and its dimensions on
cross-cultural adjustment (CCA) and job performance in a sample of 332 expatriates working
in Malaysia. The findings of the study revealed that CQ is a vital cross-cultural competency
that facilitates expatriates CCA and job performance in international assignment. Specifically,
the expatriates in Malaysia with greater meta-cognitive and motivational CQ fared better in
their general adjustment.
However, there was no support for the relationship between CQ and task performance.
The concept of CQ represents an individuals capability for successful adaptation to new and
unfamiliar cultural settings and ability to function easily and effectively in situations
characterized by cultural diversity (Earley & Ang, 2003; Ang et al., 2007). Grounded in the
established stream of intelligence research, CQ is a theoretical extension of existing facet
models anchored on the theory of multiple intelligences (Gardner, 1993). CQ is a
multidimensional construct consist of meta-cognitive, cognitive, motivational, and behavioral
component (Earley & Ang, 2003). The meta-cognitive CQ is defined as ones knowledge or
control over cognitions that leads to deep information processing relating to culture (Ang et
al., 2004). It consists of the cognitive strategies that are used to acquire and generate coping
strategies (Ng & Earley, 2006).
Performance is a function of knowledge, skills, abilities, and motivation directed at roleprescribed behaviour, such as formal job responsibilities (Campbell, 1999). In this regard,
only the behaviour or actions that are relevant to organizations goals are considered as
individual job performance (Campbell, McCloy, Oppler, & Sager, 1993). Theory of job
performance has indicated that job performance is a multidimensional construct consist of
task dimension (often production or deadline driven and sometimes referred to as in-role)
and contextual dimension (sometimes considered discretionary and often termed extrarole)
(Borman & Motowidlo, 1993). However, there is an argument among the scholars in the
expatriate management literature that expatriates are not only expected to perform in their
task and contextual performance dimensions but also to accomplish certain assignment
specific tasks (e.g., transferring knowledge and technology). Responding to this need,
Caligiuri (1997) and Caligiuri and Day (2000) proposed the third dimension of expatriate job
performance, expatriate assignment specific performance dimension which starts gain the
attention in the expatriate management literature. A review of literature indicates that
personal factors have attracted considerable attention (Caligiuri, 2000a). Specifically,
individual factors such as Big Five personality, self-monitoring, self-efficacy, goal
14 | P a g e

orientation, task and people orientation, ethnocentrism, communicational ability, stress

tolerance, relational ability, and international experience have been related to expatriate job
performance (e.g., Black, 1990; Black & Mendenhall, 1990; Parker & McEvoy, 1993; Ones
& Viswesvaran, 1999; Shaffer, Harrison, & Gilley, 1999; Caligiuri, 2000a; Hechanova et al.,
2003; Holopainen & Bjrkman, 2005; Shaffer et al., 2006; Wang & Takeuchi, 2007).
In proposing the relationship between CQ and job performance, we expect only the
motivational and behavioral component of CQ is related to expatriate job performance. As for
meta-cognitive and cognitive CQ, we do not predict relationships with job performance
because cognitive capabilities do not necessarily translate into actions and behaviors (Hall,
1993).
The research studies done by Reddy, A., suggests that there are limited effects of performance
management of the employees in MNC subsidiaries where the majority of the work force is
of host-country nationality, and where the host-country's culture may differ substantially from
that of the MNC's home country. This issue is not as simple as there can be number of other
aspects like attitude problem of people sitting at higher posts in owner countries with the
country of and especially of non-managerial employees in MNC subsidiaries (Malcolm G
Patterson, Michael A West, Rebecca Lawthom and Stephen Nickell, 1997). In such
circumstances, employees with negative attitudes do not perform to full extent, at times they
will cause disruptions in operations which can jeopardize the viability of the organization
After analysis of wide literature, it is found that organizational culture has deep impact on the
variety of organizations process, employees and its performance. This also describes the
different dimensions of the culture. Research shows that if employee are committed and
having the same norms and value as per organizations have, can increase the performance
toward achieving the overall organization goals. Balance Scorecard is suggested tool to
measure the performance in the performance management system. More research can be done
in this area to understand the nature and ability of the culture in manipulating performance of
the organization. Managers and leaders are recommended to develop the strong culture in the
organization to improve the overall performance of the employees and organization.
First, relationship between culture and performance established in their research is forceful.
Second, the writer gives an important combination of theoretical point of view regarding the
nature & scope of culture. Third, they sketch strong associations between culture,
management practices and performance. The claim that organizational culture is attached to
15 | P a g e

performance is initiated on the apparent role that culture can play in caused competitive
advantage. Rousseau (1990) studied to overcome some of the limitations in measuring the
culture of organization (Shazad et al). At the end the results shows that there is no positive
correlations between culture and employees performance. After critically reviewed the
methodologies and findings of recent researches, it is assumed that there is a link between
culture and performance (Lim, 1995). Theorists also argue that sustainable competitive
advantage arises from the formation of organizational competencies which are both superior
and incorrectly imitable by competitors (Saa-Pere and Garcia-Falcon, 2002). Practitioners
and academics suggested that the performance of an organization is dependent on the degree
to which the values of the culture are comprehensively shared (Denison, 1990).
Strategic performance measurement system (SPMS):
It is very important for organizations to make performance measurement system to evaluate
the performance of the employees, which is very helpful to evaluating the achievement of
organizational goals and in developing strategic plans for the organizations.
(Ittner and Larcker, 1998). Nowadays organizations are more focusing on the management of
non-financial or intangible assets like customers link, services, quality and performance, not
on the assets which are financial in nature (Kaplan and Norton, 2001). So there is a need for
proper performance measurement system to measure and evaluate the performance of
employee either financial or nonfinancial. Strategic performance measurement system
(SPMS) is a new approach to measure the performance rather than traditionally. Chenhall
(2005), said that the SPMS provide a way to translate and measure the both financial and
non-financial performance. He also suggests that it is the incorporative nature of this
measurement technique; provide the potential to increase the strategic competitiveness of the
organization. As similar with Chenhall (2005), Vein, Burns and McKinnon (1993), was
agreed that the use of multiple performance measures consist on financial and non-financial
is generally most good for owner and management, which is helpful to enhance protection
towards the uncontrollable events outside the organizations. Kaplan and Norton (1992),
suggested that Balance Scorecard (BSC) is the one of most important SPMS tool. Balance
Scorecard provides help or frame work to ensure that the strategy is interpreted into rational
set of performance measurement. Linked together on causal relationship it covers four main
viewpoints, like as, financial, internal business process, customer, and learning & growth.
The modal Balance Scorecard is cooperative tool to focus on the organization,
16 | P a g e

improvement of communication, setting organizational goal and giving feedback on strategy

(Anthony & Govindarajan, 2003).
Types of Culture
Counter Culture: The values and beliefs of organization culture which were shared among
different management Departments and managers were forced to gain advantage from them
come under countercultures. (Kerr, J.,& Slocum, J. W., Jr. 2005) The organization
performance based upon contribution of strong culture leads to strong association between
performance and management.

Sub Culture: Subcultures have been defined as organization segments with different sets of
norms, values and beliefs on basis of geographical areas, job requirements and department
goals.(Schein,1995) The commitment of employees towards organization basis upon
employee perception that affects upon culture . (Lok,Westwood and Crawford, 2005) The
social interaction of workplace outside organization considers well for some groups.

Strong Culture: The same type of values and beliefs which an employee holds in culture must
be considered strong. The beliefs and values of organization were considered strong when
employee embraces greater part of culture.
Weak Culture: The loosely knit organization cultures that helps in pushing thought, attitudes
and beliefs of individuals to be more innovative. The valuable asset contributes to growing
needs and wants of culture management.

17 | P a g e

Source: Organizational Culture Analysis:

The importance of Organizational Culture,

Holistic Management pty, ltd.

Figure 4.3.1: The Onion Model of Organizational Culture

4.4 Personality assessment in personnel selection

Personality has been defined by N. Brody and H. Ehrlichman as those thoughts, feelings,
desires, intentions, and action tendencies that contribute to important aspects of
individuality. Personality comprises the psychological preferences, temperaments, and
predispositions that, in part, motivates and govern peoples behaviour. Indeed, other factors
influence behaviour (e.g., social setting, mood, recent events) as well, but personality is a
major force behind individual differences in behavioural tendencies.
Personality assessments can be a strong predictor of job performance and oftentimes are
superior to job interviews. They can also demonstrate less potential for adverse impact than
cognitive ability tests. Therefore, it is not surprising that the use of personality assessment for
personnel selection is becoming increasingly popular among organizations. In fact, 75 percent
of recently surveyed organizations are currently using, or have considered using, personality
assessments for executive selection and development. Appropriate validated personality
assessments are attractive selection tools because they provide a data-based, non-subjective
method for identifying high-potential employees who will also fit well within a particular
work environment. It is critically important to note that while the term personality assessment
is used generically, not all personality assessments are suited for personnel selection.
18 | P a g e

Personality assessments that measure traits are appropriate for selection purposes; measures
of psychological type are not designed for, and should not be used in, selection applications.
Measuring Personality:
A vast assortment of personality assessments measures an equally vast collection of
personality characteristics. Each assessment, because it is developed according to the authors
unique theory/ perspective, offers a different approach to personality measurement. Some
common elements, however, exist across almost all approaches. Personality is a combination
of internal, intangible characteristics and therefore cannot be measured directly. Instead,
psychologists rely on self reports of a persons thoughts, feelings, preferences, and/or
behaviours to assess personalitythat is, they ask people questions about themselves, assign
numerical values to their responses, and use these values to generate a portrait of the person
taking the assessment.
Each question included in a validated personality assessment will have been carefully crafted
to tap a specific personality characteristic. For example, I enjoy being the centre of
attention may be one indicator of sociability or the extent to which a person is gregarious
and outgoing. Single Items, however, are not sufficient to assess broad personality
characteristics; instead, psychologists look at the pattern of responses across several items.
The goal of personality measurement is to describe individuals as they are seen by others.
Responses to personality assessments help Classify and differentiate individuals, providing a
basis for understanding prior actions and predicting Future behaviour.
It is important to note that not all personality assessments are created equal. Any personality
assessment used in selection applications must, at a minimum, demonstrate adequate
reliability and validity. An assessment is considered reliable if scores remain consistent over
timethat is, when an individual completes the assessment on multiple occasions, his or her
score should be approximately the same each time. An assessment is considered valid if it is
related to other important constructs (e.g., job performance). If a test is used to select
individuals for employment, there must be validity evidence to support the accuracy and job
relatedness of inferences made on the basis of scores on that assessment.
Personality and Job Performance Relation:
How would you describe a typical accountant? Most people think of accountants as
conventional and reserved. How about a typical salesperson? Usually, we think of salespeople
19 | P a g e

as outgoing and ambitious. Both occupations seem to be filled, in general, with people
possessing decidedly different personality characteristics. These differences are clearly
illustrated by the data presented in Figure below, in which the CPI 260 scale scores of a
sample of accountants and of a sample of sales professionals are compared. The scores
represent each samples mean percentile ranking based on a normative sample of the U.S.
working population. A score of 72 on a particular scale, for instance, would indicate that the
sample, on average, scored higher than 72 percent of the U.S. workforce on that scale
Figure: 4.4.1: Accountant and Sales CPI 260 Assessment Normative Percentile Profile

Note: Accounting n = 168; Sales n = 386; Do = Dominance; Cs = Capacity for Status; Sy =

Sociability; Sp = Social Pressure; Sa = Self-acceptance; In = Independence; Em = Empathy;
Re = Responsibility; So = Social Conformity; Sc = Self-control; Gi = Good Impression; Cm
= Communality; Wb =Well-being; To = Tolerance; Ac = Achievement via Conformance; Ai =
Achievement via Independence; Cf = Conceptual Fluency; Is = Insightfulness; Fx =
Flexibility; Sn = Sensitivity; V1 = vector 1 (Orientation Toward Others); V2 = vector 2
(Orientation Toward Societal Values); V3 = vector 3 (Orientation Toward Self); Mp =
Managerial Potential;
Wo =Work Orientation; Ct = Creative Temperament; Lp = Leadership; Ami = Amicability;
Leo = Law Enforcement Orientation.
As the figure shows, significant differences exist between the accountant and sales
professionals on several personality characteristics as measured by the respective scales. The
20 | P a g e

duties and responsibilities of each occupation (i.e., accountant vs. salesperson) require people
in those roles to behave in specific ways for successful performance. Because personality
helps determine preferences, temperaments, and behavior, personality influences job
performance by determining whether an individual has a natural inclination for job duties
and/or will enjoy the job. Certainly, other personal characteristics (e.g., cognitive ability,
education, experience) also influence job performance, but personality plays an important
role.
Personality also helps determine who will enjoy a job. People find the ability to express their
personality intrinsically rewarding; that is, people enjoy being themselves. Therefore, people
enjoy work environments that allow them to be themselves.9 People who are quiet and
reserved may be able to work in sales, but they would probably not find the work intrinsically
rewarding and enjoyable.Over time, these individuals are more likely to leave in favour of a
position more suited to their preferences. Personality assessment can help ensure success by
identifying the right individual for each work environment.
In summary, different jobs require different types of behaviours for successful performance.
Personality, in part, determines who has a natural inclination for certain jobs and certain work
environments .Peoples differing personality characteristics help determine whether they will
be a good fit for a certain position. The goal of personality assessment in personnel selection
is to identify which individuals, in general, will be successful performers and remain on the
job.
Accuracy of Personality Assessments in Predicting Job Performance:
Personality assessment is based on statistics and probabilities. Therefore, we cannot infer,
with 100 percent certainty, whether an applicant will be successful based solely on
assessment scores. We can, however, make inferences about who is more likely to become a
successful performer. These inferences are based, in part, on the results of validity studies.
The purpose of validity studies is to demonstrate the accuracy and job relevance of
assessment scores.
A common method of validating psychological assessments is to calculate correlation
coefficients between assessment scale scores (e.g., Dominance, Sociability) and job
performance measures (e.g., job performance ratings, sales quota achievement, etc.).
Correlation coefficients are standardized continuous values that indicate the strength and
direction of the relationship between two variables (e.g., assessment scale scores and job
21 | P a g e

performance ratings) and range from 1.0 (strong negative relationship) to 0 (no relationship)
to 1.0 (strong positive relationship).
Correlation coefficients are relatively easy to interpret. To determine how much variance in
job performance is explained by scores on the CPI 260 scales, simply square the correlation
coefficient. Take, for instance, the correlation between the accounting manager profile and
overall job performance of 0 .45. This means that approximately 20 percent (.45 x .45 = .
2025) of the difference in job performance ratings for this job is due to personality
characteristics measured by the CPI 260 scales. In this validity study, further analysis
revealed that sales executives and accounting managers who matched their respective
personality profiles were 3.64 and 4.56 times, respectively, more likely to be a topperforming employee. Considering these results, the initial validity evidence provides strong
support for the accuracy and job relatedness of inferences made from CPI 260 assessment
scores for these job types.

Advantages of Using Personality Assessments:

Beyond predictive validity, personality assessments offer several advantages over other types
of selection tools. Perhaps most important is that, unlike other types of assessments (e.g.,
cognitive ability), personality assessments demonstrate little or no adverse impact; that is,
they generally do not discriminate against members of protected groups or classes.17
Cognitive ability tests, for example, have generally resulted in adverse impact on certain
demographic groups.18 This is especially troublesome given the Uniform Guidelines on
Employee Selection Procedures requirement that alternative selection methods must be
investigated in order to reduce adverse impact as long as the accompanying reduction in
validity is not too large.19 Personality and integrity tests, however, typically demonstrate
only slight differences between important demographic groups (e.g., age, ethnicity, gender).
Therefore, personality assessments can be implemented into selection procedures as a way to
increase predictive validity and reduce the potential for adverse impact.
So, It can be seen that personality assessments are not to be used as the sole source of
information in personnel decisions. Adding other sources of information (e.g., interviews,
simulations) will increase the likelihood of hiring a successful candidate. Following the steps
outlined in this paper, personality assessments can be a valuable part of a legally and ethically
sound selection process that can help determine whether an applicant can perform the job
22 | P a g e

and/or will enjoy the jobincreasing predictive validity and reducing the potential for
adverse impact.

Chapter 5 :: Conclusion
Employee is a blood stream of any business. The accomplishment or disaster of the firm
depends on its employee performance. Hence, top management realized the importance of
investing

in

training

and

development

for

the

sake

of

improving

employee

performance.Performance is a function of knowledge, skills, abilities, and motivation directed

at role-prescribed behaviour, such as formal job responsibilities. Thus, only the behaviour or
actions that are relevant to an organizations goals are considered as individual job
performance. Theory of job performance has indicated that job performance is a
multidimensional construct consist of task dimension (often production or deadline driven
and sometimes referred to as in-role) and contextual dimension (sometimes considered
discretionary and often termed extra role). However, there is an argument among the
scholars in the expatriate management literature that expatriates are not only expected to
perform in their task and contextual performance dimensions but also to accomplish certain
assignment specific tasks (e.g., transferring knowledge and technology). It is proposed that
the third dimension of expatriate job performance, expatriate assignment specific
performance dimension which starts gain the attention in the expatriate management
literature. However, there was no support for the relationship between CQ (Cultural
intelligence) and task performance.
One of the most important functions of managers and supervisors is to effectively manage
resources, and one of the most important resources they have is the staff they supervise.
Meanwhile Training has a huge impact on employees performance. Quality of training is
what matters with proper modules with clear objectives is vital in providing training.
Motivation techniques used are wide and appropriate tools and the motivating factors are
important. Management of performance is important to being a good supervisor and
clarification of expectations and performance feedback is also important to those they
supervise. The system should also allow constant re-evaluation of goals, progress and
performance.

23 | P a g e