Performance: Its meaning and content for today's business research

Abstract

Performance, as a concept, is a subject open to wide variability as it is a somewhat imprecise word when it functions as a placeholder in research. By using definitions from the Oxford English Dictionary and other research disciplines, this paper provides a wide-ranging discussion of the meaning and content of the term performance in the business performance research. The paper reviews numerous characteristics of performance, such as its being a subjective entity that is non-random in character; while it is governed by its relevance to a particular environment, and operates from a particular objective, by virtue of a set of chosen characteristics. It contains elements that are both static and dynamic; and it is possible to characterise via three states: unformed or random, formalised or systematic, and deformed or over-bureaucratic. Also, an encapsulating model of performance, whereby performance acts as a frame around performance management, performance assessment and performance measurement is proposed. Studies of performance as a concept in itself are practically non-existent in the business research; the value of this paper, therefore, lies in its attempt to explicate previously undocumented models of performance.