Within-Person Variability in Job Performance

By Reeshad S. Dalal, Devasheesh P. Bhave, J. Fiset. The Handbook of Personality Dynamics and Processes, 2014

152 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Although both researchers and practitioners know that an employee’s performance varies over time within a job, this within-person performance variability is not well understood and in fact is often treated as error. In the current paper, we first identify the importance of a within-person approach to job performance and then review several extant theories of within-person performance variability that, despite vastly different foci, converge on the contention that job performance is dynamic rather than static. We compare and contrast the theories along several common metrics and thereby facilitate a discussion of commonalities, differences, and theory elaboration. In so doing, we identify important future research questions on within-person performance variability and methodological challenges in addressing these research questions. Finally, we highlight how the conventional practical implications articulated on the basis of a static, between-person perspective on job performance may need to be modified to account for the dynamic, within-person nature of performance.

Subfields: Applied Psychology, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/b4356b834446ff4965dd4359c647110ca17d0faf

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Applied Psychology

1. Ciaran Heavey
2. B. Fox
3. Zeki Simsek

In Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

1. Ciaran Heavey
2. B. Fox
3. Zeki Simsek

In Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

1. Ciaran Heavey
2. B. Fox
3. Zeki Simsek
4. Jianhong Chen
5. Sucheta Nadkarni

Citations in the corpus

• Main and interactive effects of weekly transformational and laissez‐faire leadership on followers’ trust in the leader and leader effectiveness (2019, unknown): “Similar to other formsof behaviour in thework context (Dalal et al., 2014), we found that substantial variability in leadership behaviours resided at thewithin-person level.”
• Systematicity in Organizational Research Literature Reviews: A Framework and Assessment (2021, methodology): “…terms of theories (e.g., resource dependence, Hillman et al. 2009), construct and contextual conditions (e.g., anger in organizations, Gibson & Callister, 2010), level of analysis (e.g., within-person variability, Dalal et al. 2014), or methodologies (e.g., simulation studies, Baumann et al. 2019).”