ABSTRACT
Poor performance is a significant problem in organizations. Not only does it harm productivity and organizational results, it can bring down the morale of high performers, especially if they perceive that poor performers are not dealt with effectively. The traditional performance management approach does little to address poor performance—it often places heavy requirements on managers to complete extensive documentation but usually does not change employee behavior. A significant gap in dealing with poor performance is lack of understanding of the importance of context and environmental influences on performance. This chapter describes how context shapes performance and how organizations and managers can address performance challenges by changing the environment in which the performance occurs.
