ABSTRACT

People are key to performance. When managers and workers are motivated and have appropriate skills, performance targets are accomplished and often exceeded. Challenges on the path to performance are taken in stride and overcome-they are genuinely viewed as learning opportunities. By con­ trast, when managers and workers are withdrawn and lack adequate skills, performance improvement becomes an exercise in futility whose success is measured in terms of getting by. Strategic planning, for example, might then be viewed as an exercise in paperwork ritual. The management of people, especially their motivation, is viewed by many scholars and practitioners as key to performance improvement.