This chapter reviews the relevant prior literature pertaining to leadership, motivation, training, skill and knowledge that contribute to job performance amongst RMN personnel. The literature reviews are based on the jobs and organization which are related to the job performance in the RMN. The chapter ends with a summary.
2.2 Employee Performance
2.2.1 Job Performance
In this research, job performance is the dependent variable, which is the most frequently used variables in the organizational psychology. For many decades, the view focused on contributing factors that affected job performance has received much attention in the research. The general consensus from numerous studies was that employee performance is only mildly, but positively, linked to general measures of performance.
Sulaiman (2012) explained the six dimensions of job performance namely work duties, work skill, quality of work, work enthusiasm and innovative potential. Roa (2004) defined performance as the output delivered by an individual in relation to their given role during a particular period of a time under the set of circumstances operating at that point of time. An individual’s performance is a function of three sets of factors; the ability or competence to perform various tasks that lead to performance, motivation to carry on each of these tasks and work efforts to carry out. The performance can be measured firm the output and determinant factor on how well an individual has done a given role across the period time. Meanwhile, Dees (2009) in his study mentioned that job performance is the manner in which something fulfills its intended purpose.
The job performance of employees has metamorphosed into a topical issue in organizational management. This development could be attributed to the fact that organizational outcomes and successes are, to a large extent, determined by the performance of their human resources (Hedge, Borman & Lammelein 2006). At organizational level, the determining factors that are important in stimulating employee job performance are very crucial in that managers may be able to deal with policies and practices affecting employees more effectively and efficiently in the fast-paced workplace environment of today (Penny & Joanne 2013).
At both industry and national levels, the subject of job performance has significance to the economies of developing countries such as South Africa, whose productivity levels are partially determined by the aggregate job performance of individual employees in different industries throughout the entire country (Woratz 2012). This presents the need to develop an in-depth understanding of factors influencing job performance in organizations in the sense that, unless updated information on factors influencing job performance is known and understood, organizations will continue to be inundated with nagging employee performance problems that remain unresolved (Avalos 2007).
Motowidlo (2003) claimed that job performance is ‘the total expected value to the organization of discrete behavioral episodes that an individual carries out over a standard period of time’. Usually employees who are able to perform better (high performers) will have higher priority in being hired compared to those low performers. Highly performing employees are needed to attain organizational goals (high level of productivity) and to keep the company in achieving competitive advantages (Sonnentag and Frese, 2002).
Performance management, in study by Michael Armstrong (2005) was defined as a systematic management tool comprised of purposes, standards, objectives, feedback, reward and measurement that are agreed on to receive more effective results from the organizations, individuals and teams by motivating the individuals in a way to make them aware of their own potentials. Napoleon best sums it all when he said that, ‘the man who was armed with it, was worth three men who were not’ as stated in Eric (2011) study.
The theory of planned behavior Ajzen (2011) with its emphasis on the proximal antecedents of job effort and performance is offered as an alternative. According to the theory, intentions to exert effort and to attain certain performance level are determined by attitudes, subjective norms and perception of control in relation to these behavior; and these variables, in turn, are a function of readily accessible beliefs about the likely outcomes of effort and performance, about the normative expectations of important others, and about factors that facilitate or hinder effective performance.
Millet (2010) stated that an effective leader knows how to check, maintain and when necessary, improve staff morale. He listed that by monitoring staff morale, one will realize the ease in bringing in improvements when performance and efficiency begins to deteriorate.
In order to achieve high productivity in an organization, the organization firstly needs to discover methods that can be used to improve the employee’s performance. According to Pushpakumari (2008), a great effort is necessary for the employees to attain high performance in jobs. When the employees are satisfied with their jobs, they tend to be motivated and are willing to put more effort and committed more in their jobs.
Employee performance in the organization will be enhanced if they find that organization are more concerned to satisfy their employees as they perceived (Mohammad Rabiul Basher Rubel & Daisy Mui Hung Kee, 2014).
Organizational commitment will enhance the success of an organization by making employees dedicated to the achievement of its goals (Grawe et al., 2012). The success of any organization can be predicted by its success in raising and maintaining employees’ commitment. High levels of commitment contribute to positive attitudes and behaviors in organizations (Chughtai and Zafar, 2006; Sinclair et al., 2005; Srivastava, 2013).
Job performance also influenced by three principal factors (Farh, Seo & Tesluk 2012; Kacmar et al. 2009), namely: declarative knowledge (knowledge about facts, principles and objects), procedural knowledge and skill (ability to implement declarative knowledge), and motivation (choice to expend effort, level of effort and persistence).
Job performance has connections with a number of organizational outcomes that include customer service and product quality (Blignaut 2011), manager-employee relationships and employee turnover (Dalal & Hulin 2008).
Becker et al, (2011) stated that employee’s performance is measured against the performance standards set by the organization. Good performance means how well employees performed on the assigned tasks. In every organization there are some expectations from the employees with respect to their performance. When they perform up to the standards and meet organizational expectations they are believed to be good performers. From this literature, analysis can be made that job performance actually can be looked on various factors in investigating the element that affected job performance.
2.3 Factors Affecting Job Performance
2.3.1 Leadership
The definition of leadership used in the Malaysian Army Command, Leadership and Management Doctrine, (2007) is the art of influencing and directing people to achieve willingly the team or organizational goal.
Northouse’s (2001) defined leadership, ‘as a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal’ (Northouse, 2001, p.3). The definition supplies the key concepts of process, influence, groups and goals. Viewing leadership as a process suggests that leadership impacts leaders and followers in a situational environment, and is not adequately described as a characteristic or trait of the individual leader (Hughes, Ginnett & Curphy, 2006). The process is complex and multidimensional. It includes individuals, situations, groups, technical, function, emotions, feelings, relationships, internal environment and external environment just to name few. Influence involves how a leader affects followers; with or without influence, there is no leadership (Northouse, 2001)
The present study adds to the existing literature of finding the extent of relationship between leadership effectiveness and employee performance in the Indian context with the following objectives: To ascertain the various factors that affects the effectiveness of the existing leadership styles; To determine whether there is any difference in the leadership choice between public and private sector enterprises; To find out the relationship between effective leadership and employee performance as measured by extra effort, employee effectiveness, satisfaction and dependability.
Leaders take the necessary measures and establish human relationships to provide optimal use of human resources in their organization that we can refer to these measures take correct leadership style. Obviously, every leader in their organization uses a particular leadership style that is actually a set of his behavior patterns that frequently occurs during the constant organizational working and others know him by it and as the leader of the organization are in very close cooperation with the staff, the leadership style of these managers has a significant impact on staff morale. And consequently, the staff morale will have an effect on their performance (Shirzad & Kebriya & Zanganeh, 2011).
In fact, leadership is important for all organizations to achieve goals. Since leadership is a key factor for improving the performance of the organization, the success or failure of an organization depends on the effectiveness of leadership at all levels. Researchers have stated that leadership is an ability to influence attitudes, beliefs, and abilities of employees to achieve organizational goals. Over the years, leadership has been a major topic between the researchers but dramatic social changes that have occurred over the past two decades makes the issue of leadership and its relationship with other organizational factors more remarkable (Duckett & Macfarlane, 2003).
From the beginning of globalization, the primary challenge for a manager is to command different strategies to boost a firm’s performance (Habib, Khurram & Idress, 2010). Job satisfaction plays a vital role for the strength of an organization which has significant effect on employee performance. And the word performance we used to pass on the individual aptitude is to be inspired, stirring, pioneering and to be determined to achieve the goals of an organization (Walumbwa & Hartnell, 2011). Leadership is associated with employee performance (Ogbonna & Harris 2000). The relationship between leadership and performance has established a considerable attention (Gadot, 2006). The main theme of the every organization is to enhance employee performance.
According to Mehra et al. (2006), when some organizations seek efficient ways to enable them to outperform others, a longstanding approach is to focus on the effects of leadership. This is because team leaders are believed to play a pivotal role in shaping collective norms, helping teams cope with their environments, and coordinating collective action. This leader-centered perspective has provided valuable insights into the relationship between leadership and team performance. Therefore, summarizing past studies’ literature, there is a positive relationship between leadership and job performance.
2.3.2 Motivation
As performance of employees is significant for organizations, the management should consider improving performance of workers in their companies by encouraging them to do their tasks and duties as efficiently and effectively as possible. Therefore, motivation in firms is absolutely important and necessary because it could change the behavior of employees in positive ways. That is why many managers believe that when they establish motivated employees in the workplace, they can observe significant achievements in their organizations (Mohammad Saeid Aarabi, 2013)
Motivation is the most important matter for every organization, in the public or private sectors. For the success of any organization, motivation plays an important role. All organizations encountes the matter of motivation whether they are in the public or private sector (Chintallo & Mahadeo, 2013). According to Chaudhary & Sharma (2012), the word motivation is derived from ‘Motive’. The meaning of ‘motive’ is needs, wants, and the desire of the persons. Hence, ’employees motivation’ means the process in which an organization inspires its employees in the shape of rewards, bonus etc. for achieving the organization’s goals.
Today, there are many discussions about motivation and the relationship between employee’s efficiency and the organizational efficiencies. Motivation will lead to the fact that workers or employees of the organization will seriously do his duties and responsibilities (Azar and Shafighi, 2013).
Robbins (2001) defines motivation as the processes that account for an individual’s intensity, direction and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal. The three key elements in the definition are intensity, direction and persistence. Intensity is the concern with how hard a person tries. This is the element that most of us focus on when we talk about motivation. However, high intensity is unlikely to lead to favorable job performance outcome unless the effort is channeled in a direction that benefits the organization.
According to Iqbal et al. (2012), the purpose of employee’s motivation and their ability to collectively participate into employee’s performance and in their difficult tasks given by the manager are to achieve maximum productivity. This researcher is more concerned with increase in productivity, perfection and working ability. The needs and wants of employees having more important in research history. Motivation is the one of the most important term of psychology and most managers want maximum output and productivity. They tackle this with in a good manner and motivate their employee in a better way. Motivation also increases the cooperation between employees and managers, it also encourage their responsibilities. It also encourages participation of their subordinates, to take their responsibilities in better way and also to help oversee other employees and monitor their performance. Motivation gives managers a maximum rate of interaction towards work and allows them to know their employee’s working capacity and assign work according to their capacity to get maximum productivity (Ali, Abrar and Haider, 2012).
Therefore, we have to consider the quality of an effort as well as its intensity. Effort that is directed towards and consistent with the organization’s goal is the kind of effort that we should be seeking. Finally, motivation has a persistence dimension. This is a measure of how long a person can maintain effort. Motivated individuals stay with a task long enough to achieve their goal.
Motivation is a Latin word and it means ‘To move’ (Wade & Tavris, 2008). Psychologists believe that motivation is the process that drives individual towards achieving a goal. Moreover, motivation gives a person a purpose and the drive that he needs to achieve it. It helps people to push or pull from a bad situation, which are negative features in their lives. Nowadays, employers are interested to know about motivation and how to motivate their employees to improve productivity.
On the other hand, employees who feel motivated to work are likely to be persistent, creative and productive, turning out high quality work that they willingly undertake. Motivation can be defined as something inside people that drives them to action. Motivation is the willingness to work at a certain level of effort. Motivation emerges out of needs, values, goals, intentions and expectations (Josiah Roman Aketch, Odhiambo Odera, Paul Chepkuto & Ochieng Okaka, 2012).
Therefore, Maslow’s Motivation Theory is important as it assists the learner to acquire the behaviour necessary for effective performance. People learn if they accept the need for training and commit to it. If their motivation is weak, for instance if they doubt their ability to learn, no matter how well their training is designed and implemented, its effectiveness will be limited (Bruce,2003).
As supported by Armstrong (2001), the more highly motivated the trainee, the more quickly and thoroughly a new skill or knowledge is learned. This means training should be based on what the employee desires, such as job promotion and recognition to enhance performance. Maslow’s model has had a considerable impact on the study of motivation in general and in particular with regards to employee performance that relates to this research.
Contrary to Maslow’s views, the short answer appears to be the fact that for the majority of people, money is clearly significant and a motivator at work. But to what extent is money a significant motivator and how important depends upon their individual circumstances and the other happiness they derive from work. The bottom line is definitely the extent to which money motivates people to work to the top of their abilities. Even though pay may still make people tick, there are now a number of other significant influences on motivation. For a lot of people, the feeling of being recognized and valued appears more important than money in motivating them to keep on in a particular job. (Laurie 2007, 255) Therefore, motivation has been an issue of concern in the past and has established itself as an integral part in current organizational settings. Motivation is quite complex to comprehend thus placing awareness to the fact that several factors influence employees performance in a particular organization. Reason being that, what motivates one worker will not definitely motivate the other employee within the same company.
McShane et al defines motivation as ‘…a factor that exist in an individual which has the potential to affect the way, strength and eagerness of behaving towards work’. (McShane & Von Glinow 2003, 132) The above definition of motivation has been supported by Petri & Govern, ‘motivation is the thought that explains the propelling force in an individual that explains differences in intensity of behavior’. (Petri & Govern 2004, 16).
The employee motivation is obviously important. In fact, it is one of the most important and essential factors for the achievement of employees, and ultimately, the organizational targets and goals (Berman et al., 2010). Ololube (2006) asserts that motivation to work, whether intrinsic or extrinsic are very essential in the lives of workers because they form the fundamental reason for working in life. It represents the complex forces and needs which provide the energy for an individual to perform a particular task (Schulze & Steyn, 2003). Moreover, employee motivation serves as an essential component of business operations whereby high motivation coincides with job satisfaction, a sense of pride in one’s work, a lifelong commitment to organization which enhances performance and productivity (Linz et al., 2006). Likewise, for Islamic organizations, this factor is useful to examine the employees’ performance, although the findings may be equivocal.
Motivation increases the job involvement by making the work more meaningful and interesting as well as the fact that it keeps the employees more productive and improves their subsequent job performance (Kamery, 2004; Ekerman, 2006).
Further research needs to be carried out on a larger population and sample size to increase the generalizability of the findings. More motivation factors and other factors that could have influenced on job performance must be included in order to obtain more comprehensive understanding factors that influence on job performance (Mohammad Saeid Aarabi, Indra Devi Subramaniam & Abu Baker Almintisir Abu Baker Akeel, 2013).
2.3.3 Attitude
Bagozzi states that the term attitude is often used as an umbrella expression covering such concepts as preferences, feelings, emotions, beliefs, expectations, judgments, appraisals, values, principles, opinions, and intentions (Onzima, A. D., 2011). Attitude can be formed from a person’s past and present. In lay language, attitude may refer to the distinct concept of mood, or be especially synonymous with teenage rebellion.
An attitude is actually defined as ‘… a summary evaluation of an object or thought’ (Malhotra, N. K.,2005). The object or phenomenon can be anything a person discriminates or holds in mind (Bohner, G., and Wanke, M., 2002) and may include people, products, and organizations.
Attitude plays an important role in generating a smooth assignment so that it can be executed efficiently and effectively with the consent of personal behavior. An organization is able to develop specific skills and training to its employees based on the needs and requirements of the organization. Particularly the military is in dire need of a positive thinking in all aspects of the assignment. Positive attitude in the nature of a person or the organization includes factors that will produce the best performance and achieve the standards set by the organization.
Sergio Roman (2005) stated that the level of education affects a person in performing a task. High level of education will encourage an attitude to do the job better, and more quality compared to workers with lower education. Attitude consists of the three main components, namely discerning awareness, influence and behavior. Cognitive category in attitude is a belief, opinion and knowledge or information about an individual. Influence on attitudes translates into behavior. Behavior on the part commission refers to a certain attitude towards something or someone. The three components of this attitude prove that attitude is something that is complex. It can be concluded that emotions and feelings affect an individual’s attitude towards something or someone.
The attitude-performance problem has drawn extensive research from all fields of behavioral sciences over the past 70 years (Luu, H.,2011). Arguments that support an attitude towards work cause performance usually refer to the functions of attitudes as guidelines and facilitators of behavior (e.g. Judge, T. A., Carl J. T., Joyce E. B., 2001) or refer to the functions of attitudes as the motivational effects of the personal importance or identification with the job or organization (e.g., as a component or a consequence of the commitment; see (Meyer, J. P., Becker, T. E., and Vandenberghe, C., 2004).
Attitude towards work is the feelings we have toward different aspects of the work environment (Carpeter et al, 2009). According to him, there are some elements which influence attitude towards work, namely personality, person-environment fit, job characteristics, psychological contract, organizational justice, work relationship and stress.
According to Sulaiman, et al (2013), given the facts about competency and attitude having equal effect on performance, competency is employee’s skills and knowledge, potential and attitude are internal feelings to perform tasks efficiently and quickly. Employees are the source of earnings for all services provider organizations and if they are committed to their work, they can provide services efficiently, where attitude and performance are correlated where a good behavior person can deal with customers perfectly and increase organization profit. Lee and Chen (2013) concluded that employees doing work for a long time in organizations have a negative attitude because the longer the time passed with the specific organization, their commitment to work is also lower and finding motivation is a solution for this type of situation.
(Judge et al. 2001) noted that ‘although most social psychologist would argue that attitudes do predict corresponding behaviors, industrial organizational psychologists continue to hold the view that the most focal behavior on the job (job performance)’.
Employee attitude is the most influencing factor that forms personality traits especially at workplace (Waryszak, R. and B. King, 2001). A leader can influence the attitude of his subordinates, psychologically influence them to erect high level of performance and enhance the satisfaction of employees (Burris, E.R., J.R. Detert and D.S. Chiaburu, 2008).
In the line with the previous opinion, (Wei, W. C., and Chu, S. H., 2008) performed a survey about the relationship between attitude towards work and job performance in the financial service industry and they found that work attitude has a positive effect on job performance. Better work attitude leads to better job performance. Studies on attitude mentioned above affirmed that attitude is about the conduct of life through knowledge which transferences to the performance of individual.
2.3.4 Skill
Skill is the learned capacity or ability to carry out the pre-determined results often with the minimum outlay of time, energy or both. In other words, the abilities that one possesses. Skill can often be divided into domain-general and domain-specific skills. For example, in the domain of work, some general skills would include time management, teamwork and leadership, self-motivation and others, whereas domain-specific skills would be useful only for a certain job. Skill usually requires certain environment stimuli and situations to assess the level of skill being shown and used. People need a broad range of skills in order to contribute to the modern economy.
Dokko, Wilk and Rothbard (2008) proposed a psychological theory to propose socio cognitive factors that interfere with the transfer of knowledge and skill acquired from prior work experience. The finding showed that task-relevant knowledge and skill mediates the relationship between prior related experience and job performance. The study also suggests that the positive effect of prior related experience on task relevant knowledge and skill is attenuated by higher levels of experience within the current firm.
Benjamin (2012) asserts that providing employees with an opportunity to take on a variety of skills of greater complexity in their current roles enables an employee to learn new tasks in a supported environment and develop the skills needed to progress in his career. Management can also assess the employee’s performance and see how he responds to feedback on the new responsibilities, thus enabling company executives to devise a job design that is workable and effective.
In the view of Garg & Rastogi (2006), skill variety refers to the extent to which the job requires the employee to draw from a number of different skills and abilities as well as upon a range of knowledge (cited in Ali, 2010). According to Benjamin (2012), the theory behind providing skill variety in job design is that it will reduce boredom, thereby increasing job satisfaction and motivation. This is likely to be true as long as the employee enjoys the skills and perceives the addition and mix of skills to be a benefit to the job. But adding a variety of skills which the employee finds stressful, isn’t qualified to address, or simply adding basic duties and minimal skills without adding to the intrinsic value of the job could actually have the opposite effect and increase dissatisfaction.
This finding empirically confirms the theoretical arguments given by Al-Ahmadi (2009), Ivancevich (1998), (Kahya, 2007), Garg & Rastogi (2006), Aswathappa (2006), Mathis and Jackson (2003), Campion et al (2005), and Perry et al., (2006). They explained that strong, positive relationship exist between the extent of a firm’s adoption of high involvement HRM strategies including skill variety and job performance. The implication of the finding is that, hospitals should provide nurses with more training to enhance their skills in order to improve nurse’s job performance
Arnold (2007) defined employability skills as the ability to survive in a job. Kearns (2001) has listed employability skills as i) the availability of work and individual works capacity, ii) knowledge in entrepreneurships, iii) the creative and innovative, interpersonal skills and iv) thinking and willingness to learn.
Effective trainings convey relevant and useful information that inform employees and develop skills and behaviors that can be transferred back to the workplace. (Montana & Charnov, 2000). The goal of training is to create an impact that lasts beyond the end time of the training itself. The focus is on creating specific action steps and commitments that focus people’s attention on incorporating their new skills and ideas back at work. Training can be offered as skill development for individuals and groups. In general, trainings involve presentation and learning of content as a means for enhancing skill development and improving workplace behaviors (Karlan & Valdivia, 2011)
These two processes, training and development are often closely connected. Training can be used as a proactive means for developing skills and expertise to prevent problems from arising and can be an effective tool in addressing any skills or performance gaps among staff.
In a similar approach, Sultana et al (2012) found training and development significant for the employee performance and they suggested that the organization must increase their investment in training and development to increase the performance of employees as well as their skills and capabilities.
Azami Zaharim (2009) stated that employability skills are skills that are very influential in ensuring the success and progress of a company or industry. Affandi (2012) identifies that employees or graduates having employability skills are able to perform in various situations. In this regard, the military organization with its trained personnel who work in technical working environment should be capable of maintaining their own skills or among their peers so that it will meet the needs of the organizations.
All the studies found that the higher average levels of labor productivity in firms in continental Europe were closely related to the greater skills and knowledge of their workforces, especially intermediate skills. Skill levels were also shown to be associated with the uptake of new equipment and to maintenance activity. These studies mostly took place in the mid to late 80s and early 90s but the findings have been replicated very recently (Mason and Wagner, 2002) with similar results.
Leithch (2006) acclaimed that investing in the literacy and numeracy skills on young people will improve their chances of employability; enhance productivity at company level, and competitiveness internationally. However, while literacy and numeracy skills are necessary, they are by no means sufficient. Furthermore, Leithch continued by examining qualifications and those things that can be measured. However, skills are arguably more broad-based.
A recent study published by the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development (CIPD) (Purcell et al. 2003) also finds these positive impacts and examines the ways in which HR practices may impact on performance and asserts that for people to perform above minimal requirements they must: i)have the ability, ie the requisite knowledge and skills; ii) be motivated to work well and iii) be given the opportunity to deploy their skills and contribute.
While study by Minbaeva (2005) stated that skill is the process of developing talents in order to more effectively perform a specific job or task.
2.3.5 Knowledge
Knowledge refers to the information possessed and their ability to assimilate additional information. Relating to the current information, the RMN requires the Navy People to have skills of specific job tasks and a strong basis in general education. Relating to new information, the RMN desires the Navy People that are life-long learners and are easily trainable, meaning that they have the ability to receive instruction and new information.
Knowledge is familiarity with someone or something, which can include facts, information, descriptions or skills acquired through experience or education. It can be implicit (as with practical skill or expertise) or explicit (as with the theoretical understanding of a subject); it can be more or less formal or systematic. In philosophy, the study of knowledge is called epistemology; the philosopher Plato famously defined knowledge as ‘justified true belief’. However, no single agreed upon definition of knowledge exists, though there are numerous theories to explain it. Knowledge acquisition involves complex cognitive processes: communication, association, perception and reasoning; while knowledge is also said to be related to the capacity of acknowledge in human beings.
Knowledge workers are becoming an increasingly important and voluminous group of employees, covering a quarter to a half of workers in advanced economies (e.g., Davenport, 2006; Levenson, 2012).
Knowledge characteristics reflect the kinds of knowledge, skill, and ability demands that are placed on an individual as a function of what is done on the job (Morgeson & Humphrey, 2006). Recent dissemination of service work and overflow of knowledge workers have particularly emphasized the importance of cognitive ability for handling working issues. As organizations increasingly struggle with complexity and tend to build their future on the knowledge work, they should be able to recognize, understand and design jobs that will utilize competencies of their workers. The most prominent knowledge characteristics are: job complexity, information processing, problem solving, skill variety, and specialization.
Judge (2004) revealed that high-ability teams perform better than lower-ability teams, especially when the workload is high. High-ability teams are also more flexible when it comes to changing situation as they were able to more effectively adapt prior knowledge to suit a set of new problems. The failures of the employees to perform their job effectively will certainly jeopardize the overall performance of an organization, thus cause lower productivity as mentioned by Abu AlRub (2004).
Likewise, Almeida et al (2003) examining the relationship between experience and performance frequently treat work experience as a substitute of knowledge. Knowledge characteristics are the structural features of jobs that affect the development and utilization of information and skills (Parker et al., 2001). If they are enriched, they can create challenging jobs and provide workers with opportunities to solve problems, process complex information, and to apply deep and broad skills (e.g., Morgeson & Campion, 2002; Morgeson & Humphrey, 2006). Their recent development reflects the wide increase of knowledge work and knowledge workers in modern business (Huang, 2011). Demanding and complex work settings for knowledge workers should positively influence on their task and contextual performance.
Jasvinder, Anwar and Ruslan (2001) stated that knowledge can be obtained through one’s own effort and can also be achieved through training, work and courses and through the positions he held throughout his career. Blasko (2009) explained on the importance of education and the inculcation of a higher level of knowledge to ensure that changes to the structure within the organization and development of military doctrine. Blasko said in his study of the Chinese Army on People Liberation Army (PLA) education reform organization, a lot of PLA institutions and training centers were combined and courses for its members have been modified according to the needs through the development of weapons systems and the concept of a combination of the three services. Even PLA officers are encouraged to furthering their studies in more than 50 PLA schools, locally and abroad.
Schack (2004) proved that the expert knowledge can be measured and it contributes in optimizing human performance. The study found that a person with expertise in a particular field to perform all tasks needed excel in their field and those who do not have any expertise failed to shine in the performance of his duties in any field whatsoever. Knowledge can increase a person’s level of aspiration. It can also be a motivating factor to a person to take necessary measures to achieve the aspects of higher knowledge. When a level of knowledge is as what as expected, an individual in his career, will directly help him to perform his job effectively.
Study from the above mentioned scholars can be interpreted that knowledge is one of the main factors that should be considered in measuring performance.
2.4 Performance Theory and Model
Organizations need highly performing individuals in order to meet their goals, to deliver the services they specialized in, and finally to achieve competitive advantage. Performance is also important for the individual. Accomplishing tasks and performing at a high level can be a source of effectiveness, with feelings of mastery and pride. Low performance and not achieving the goals might be experienced as dissatisfying or even as a personal failure. Moreover, performance, if it is recognized by others within the organization, is often rewarded by financial and other benefits. Performance is a major, although not the only, prerequisite for future career development and success in the labor market. Although there might be exceptions, high performers get promoted more easily within an organization and generally have better career opportunities than low performers (VanScotter, Motowidlo, & Cross, 2000).
Flexible work options traditionally have been introduced largely to meet employer needs for flexibility or to keep costs down, although they may also have met employee needs and demands (Krausz et al., 2000). Most importantly, there is virtually no research finding that employees working on flexi-time have lower productivity than those on traditional fixed work schedules (Yang and Zheng, 2011).
Moreover, Christen et al. (2006) argued that employees’ effort and ability determined the level of job performance. They also claim a different concept of effort and performance, which is an input to work while job performance is an output from those efforts. Generally, job performance is related to the employees’ ability to carry out their job well or not.
This evidence suggests the long-standing idea that there are leaders and followers in teams. The leaders make decisions and the followers abide by them. While agreeableness was positively correlated with working with a team, it is negatively correlated with being a leader. Those followers who don’t always agree and are willing to voice their own opinions end up moving up the ranks while those who blindly agree are left as followers.
The strongest force behind the spread of more decent working time arrangements, one that is both productive and socially healthy, remains a full employment economy plus the new institutional structures that facilitate a formal expression for desired flexibility in working time options. Therefore, companies could and should be offered incentives to adopt and spread flexible working time arrangements, such as flexi-time and working time accounts, which are known to improve employee morale and attitudes. This could, in turn, not only enhance individual work performance, but also improve company productivity, quality and, ultimately, the sustainability of firm performance (Lonnie Golden, 2011).
New perspective on performance also provides hints as to how to start developing models which contain cross-level linkages from individual to group to organizational performance. Most of the research on performance within organizations conducted to date has used highly specific measures when examining individual performance (Viswesvaran & Ones, 2000).
Reinforcement theory is an instrument used by managers to increase or decrease employees’ behaviors. As performance and effectiveness are more emphasized nowadays, it is important to understand and utilize these concepts in motivating staffs. Positive reinforcement is seen to be the most effective way of motivating staffs to perform better in organizations (Leong Teen Wei, Rashad Yazdanifard, 2014)
Traditional research finds the structural factors, e.g., composition, leadership structure, and board size, to be the most relevant influences on board effectiveness. Alternatively, behavioral approaches emphasize as the key factors of board effectiveness those influencing the processes within boards, i.e., effort norms, cognitive conflict, and usage of knowledge, as well as board members’ characteristics, including background diversity and behavioral characteristics. Factor analysis indicates that a new integrative framework for board effectiveness evaluation is much needed as a good starting point model for further empirical research. It is also suggested that the proper model implementation is contingent on its adjustment to the given socio-economic circumstances (Verica M. Babi”, Jelena D. Nikoli” & Jelena M. Eri”, 2011)
The method an organization chooses for performance reviews and evaluations can have the biggest effect on employee performance. Organizations that fail to review their employee’s performance or recognize a job well done may soon find disgruntled employees. Furthermore, organizations that stringently monitor employee work without providing employees the opportunity to provide feedback may also result in non-motivated employees (Cardy & Selvarajan, 2004).
The idea implies the dual role of the theory first to organizations and second to employees on the basis that both the organization and the employees must decide on the performance of their organization, and that when employees put in their best in the service of the organization, the culture and human resource practice should also ensure that the employees’ level of needs are reflected in the values the organization holds with high esteem (Greenberg & Baron, 2003).
Employee’s performance is an issue that has received wide attention in literature and research due to its importance since every organization aims to achieve higher performance (Ojo, 2009). For clarity, the two concepts, employees and performance, will be defined separately as follows to ensure common understanding. (a) Employees are people who are hired, working on the basis of part time or full time under an employment arrangement, whether it is in written or oral expression. It also includes agreement on the remuneration and the kind of duties expected of the employee within a time frame (Shumen, 2009). (b) Performance is the achievement of a set of assigned tasks that are anchored to time, with a result indicator that will measure the accomplishment level of the task assigned, which can be measured only when a performance standard has been put in place (Shumen, 2009).
Performances are activities that ensure goals are consistently being met in an effective and efficient manner (Cardy & Selvarajan, 2004; McNamara 2005). Employee’s performance refers to the observable behaviors and actions which explain how a job is done, plus the results that are expected for satisfactory job performance (McNamara, 2005). To achieve or encourage higher performance from employees, the following criteria should be considered (Cardy & Selvarajan, 2004).