Adaptive Performance: A New Scale to Measure Individual Performance in Organizations

• Author: Patrice Roussel,Audrey Charbonnier‐Voirin
• Date: 01 September 2012
• Published date: 01 September 2012
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/cjas.232

Adaptive Performance: A New Scale to Measure

Individual Performance in Organizations

Audrey Charbonnier-Voirin*

INSEEC

Patrice Roussel

CRM - Université Toulouse 1 & CNRS

Abstract

As a component of overall employee performance, adaptive

performance refers to the ability of an individual to change

his or her behaviour to meet the demands of a new environ-

ment. The concept is relevant to f‌irms that face especially

complex and volatile business conditions. Research and

practice have been hampered by a general lack of a widely

available, psychometrically sound, multidimensional scale of

adaptive performance that is applicable across a wide range

of job contexts. Using both qualitative and quantitative

methods, we develop and evaluate a 19-item scale measuring

f‌ive dimensions of adaptive performance. Copyright © 2012

ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Keywords: individual work performance, adaptive

performance, development scale

Résumé

Le concept de performance au travail évolue pour être en phase

avec un environnement plus complexe et incertain. Cette

recherche s’intéresse à une approche émergente de la perfor-

mance: la performance adaptative. Déf‌inie comme une

aptitude à modif‌ier ses comportements pour s’adapter à la

demande d’un environnement nouveau, la performance

adaptative représente un axe de recherche prometteur.

Malheureusement, il n’existe aucun instrument de mesure dis-

ponible pour rendre compte de la complexité du phénomène.

À partir d’une étude qualitative et quantitative, cette

recherche présente et discute les résultats d’une démarche

exploratoire et conf‌irmatoire de développement d’une échelle

de mesure de la performance adaptative. Les résultats montrent

que l’échelle créée bénéf‌icie de qualités psychométriques

satisfaisantes.

Mots-clés : performance individuelle au travail, performance

adaptative, création d’une échelle de mesure

Characteristics inherent in the work context, such as

increaseduncertainty, complexity, turbulence, and interdepen-

dence, have cast doubt on the adequacy of traditional

measures of employeeperformance, which almost exclusively

focus on the completion of tasks listed in job descriptions

(Ilgen & Pulakos, 1999; Murphy & Jackson, 1999).

Importantly, changes in work context have contributed to

redef‌ining the behaviours that organizations encourage in

order to achieve set objectives (Griff‌in, Neal, & Parker,

2007; Ilgen & Hollenbeck, 1991). Indeed, since the early

1990s, the concept of employee performance has been

broadened toinclude behaviours that alignwith organizational

development. Forexample, adaptive performance (Hesketh&

Neal, 1999; Pulakos, Arad, Donovan, & Plamondon, 2000,

Pulakos et al., 2002; Pulakos, Dorsey, & White, 2006) refers

to an individual’s capacity for adaptation to dynamic work

situations (Hesketh & Neal, 1999) and to the capability to

modify behaviour according to the requirements of

new environments, situations, or events (Johnson, 2001).

Unfortunately, these advances in theory have rarely been

accompanied by recommendations of measurement tools that

encompass the full range of desired behaviours.This study

addresses this def‌iciency by developing a multidimensional

measure of adaptiveperformance that meets the needs of both

researchers and practitioners.

This paper is comprised of three main sections. The f‌irst

is dedicated to a review of prior studies of adaptive perfor-

mance. The second describes the process and f‌indings that

guided construction of the new measurement scale. Finally,

the limitations of this paper are noted as are the applied

implications and possibilities for future research.

Adaptive Performance: Theoretical Perspectives

A Facet of Job Performance

Individual performance in the workplace has often been

def‌ined in terms of a single global indicator with a set of

associated criteria ref‌lecting professional success (Bingham,

Please note that this paper was submitted and reviewed in French.

*Please address correspondence to: AudreyCharbonnier-Voirin, INSEEC, 26

rue Raze, Bordeaux 33000 France. Email: acharbonnier@groupeinseec.com

Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences

Revue canadienne des sciences de l’administration

29: 280–293 (2012)

Published online 25 January 2012 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI: 10.1002/CJAS.232

Can J Adm Sci

29(3), 280–293 (2012)Copyright © 2012 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 280