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Research is presented describing the study of standards of performance by employees when negotiating bonus contracts through the use of enhanced incentive management.

Research is presented describing the development of a framework to effectively design systems intended to measure performance in manufacturing operations.

Four-hundred eighty-eight undergraduate business students participated in a study to determine the validity of five hypotheses related to the construct of Equity Sensitivity (ES) and its implications for worker performance. Equity theory suggest that people assess their interpersonal relationships with others by evaluating the ratio of their inputs to and outcomes from relationships and comparing the results to efforts made by others. If efforts are not equal, distress leads to attempts to establish equity in relationships. However, the ES construct suggests that everyone is not bound by the norm of equity, and that there are three ES groups: Benevolents, ESs, and Entitleds. Related to work performance, people in the Benevolent group may be inclined to work more for less pay than the other groups. This finding may have practical implications for organizational behavior research.

The criteria for successful managerial performance include intellectual abilities, personality attributes, and behavioral characteristics, and while these attributes have been the source of much controversy in managerial research, they are used as the basis for this study on how to predict these qualities in employees through improvements in traditional methods. The insufficiency of using intelligence tests exclusively to measure intellectual ability, the increased reliability of the holistic approach to personality measurement as opposed to the single-trait approach, and the dangers of relying on peer nominations in behavioral measurements are discussed. The methods used in collecting and combining the predictive measures are also described and contrasted.

Research studying absenteeism patterns of 202 mental health organization employees over a four-year period reveals that there are indirect costs associated with absenteeism. Research results show that prior absenteeism can be a good indication of subsequent absenteeism. Research results also show that certain attitudinal elements, such as work satisfaction, can contribute to variations in absenteeism rates. Additionally, research results lead to the recommendation that managers should create attendance control procedures when they do not already exist to reduce unexcused absences, and that they should also consider implementing flexible time schedules in the workplace.

Two weaknesses in previous job design research were examined: the overuse of self-report measurements and the questionable use of Growth Need Strength as a moderator between job characteristics and employee performance. Job orientation was hypothesized to moderate the relationship between job characteristics and employee performance. Results indicated that job orientation moderated the relationship between job characteristics and quality of performance but not between job characteristics and quantity of performance, job involvement and satisfaction with work. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Human resources executives discuss their experiences in designing and implementing a performance appraisal and pay-for-performance system. The executives concentrated on five main areas when revamping their performance-reward system: ensuring that ratings were distributed more realistically in order to counteract managers' tendency to overuse the highest ratings; establishing a consistent relationship between rating categories and pay increases given; using comparisons of employees in the same job to form performance ratings; redesigning forms used in the evaluation process to improve the quality of performance feedback given to employees; implementing the program effectively by giving formal, explicit instructions to managers, and clearly describing the program to employees.

Financial reports alone cannot explain the overall performance of any business organization. Such reports, which are traditionally used as economic indicators by companies, cannot anticipate future business performance and results since they are based on short-term performance analysis. To achieve an accurate assessment of the organization or the team's performance, non-financial performance measures are required. These measures will be based on strategic information systems capable of correcting the reasons for poor performance and monitoring the trends that will forecast future oganizational performance., Once upon a time, the past was a good predictor of the present and could even help to foretell the future. Those were the days when traditional accounting reports were [...]

Lost workdays occur especially frequently among people with bipolar disorder, even more so than among workers with major depression, a national survey finds. Major depression consists of recurrent bouts of [...]

A new study argues that the application and success of performance management systems is directly linked to the ways in which line managers apply such processes.

Research investigating the relationships between work performance and job values is presented. Particular attention is given to ways in which the relationship is affected by situational constraints. It is emphasized that sales promotions increase performance levels.

Research investigating the factors determining self-report measures with respect to work commitment is presented. Particular attention is given to applying three rater sources in surveying 79 administrative staff, namely self, supervisor and peer perspectives.

Research into dynamic performance measurement systems is presented. The concept of closed loop control systems for assessing the performance of a firm is well understood, but it is not widely used.

It is vital for firms to have a structure technique or framework for assessing existing performance measurement systems. A new framework has identified the validity of existing measurement systems.