The validity of five broad generic dimensions of performance in South Africa

SA Journal of Human Resource Management

 
 
Field Value
 
Title The validity of five broad generic dimensions of performance in South Africa
 
Creator van Lill, Xander Taylor, Nicola
 
Subject human resource management; industrial psychology individual work performance; generic performance; performance measurement; hierarchical factor analysis; five-factor model
Description Orientation: Disconnected scholarly work on the theoretical and empirical structure of individual work performance negatively impacts predictive studies in human resource management. Greater standardisation in the conceptualisation and measurement of performance is required to enhance the scientific rigour with which research is conducted in human resource management in South Africa.Research purpose: The present study aimed to conceptualise and empirically validate the structural validity of five broad generic dimensions of individual work performance, based on 20 narrow dimensions of performance.Motivation for the study: A generic model and standardised measurement of individual work performance, measuring performance at the appropriate level of breadth and depth, may help human resource professionals to make accurate decisions about important work-based criteria and their related predictors. A validated generic model of performance could further increase the replicability of science around performance measurement in South Africa.Research approach/design and method: A cross-sectional design was implemented by asking 448 managers across several organisations to rate the performance of their subordinates on the Individual Work Performance Review (IWPR). The quantitative data were analysed by means of hierarchical confirmatory factor analyses.Main findings: An inspection of the discriminant validity of the 20 narrow performance dimensions supported the multidimensionality of performance to a fair degree. The bifactor statistical indices, in turn, suggested that the five broad factors explained a significant amount of common variance amongst the manifest variables and could therefore be interpreted as more unidimensional.Practical/managerial implications: Practitioners can interpret the broader performance dimensions in the IWPR as total scores, especially when high-stakes decisions are made about promoting or rewarding employees. The interpretation of the narrow performance dimensions might be more useful in low-stakes development situations. Cross-scale interpretations are encouraged to enable a holistic understanding of employees’ performance, as the narrow performance dimensions covary.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2022-06-15
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Cross-sectional, quantitative research design
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajhrm.v20i0.1844
 
Source SA Journal of Human Resource Management; Vol 20 (2022); 15 pages 2071-078X 1683-7584
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://sajhrm.co.za/index.php/sajhrm/article/view/1844/2928 https://sajhrm.co.za/index.php/sajhrm/article/view/1844/2929 https://sajhrm.co.za/index.php/sajhrm/article/view/1844/2930 https://sajhrm.co.za/index.php/sajhrm/article/view/1844/2931
 
Coverage — — Mean age 38.77 years; White (n = 201; 48%), black African (n = 136; 30%), Indian (81; 18%), Coloured (mixed ancestry; n = 27; 6%), and Asian (3; 1%); women (n = 249; 56%) and men (n = 199; 44%)
Rights Copyright (c) 2022 Xander van Lill, Nicola Taylor https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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