ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on dictionaries for the lexical content of the term and looks at the meaning that management literature on performance attaches to its core notion. It provides a comprehensive account of the meanings given to performance in English, as well as an account of how the term can be translated to French or to Swedish. A common translation of performance for example, is rendement. Translation involves choosing some word that only imperfectly matches the English word, and what is more, does so in some of its meanings only. Taken into the web of significations of English vocabulary, it is a word expressing a certain perception of the world and certain sociocultural norms. Belonging to specific cultural ambiences, words are the bearers of language-specific thought habits and language-specific visions of the world. The conversation takes place in English, which is the company language.
