ABSTRACT
Is every slight downtick on daily, monthly, or quarterly performance reports cause for managerial anxiety and every uptick a reason for celebration and praise? Probably not. Some variation in performance measures from day to day, month to month, and quarter to quarter is normal and occurs despite any special efforts of supervisors and workers. Detecting the difference between downticks worthy of concern and those warranting little worry is an important managerial and supervisory function. Control charts can help distinguish signals from noise.
