Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice

The divide between theory and practice seems to be a pervading issue with most new disciplines. Last semester one of my courses examined the foundation principles and theories of instructional technology, and the need for practice to be influenced by research was a recurring issue.

Where is all this coming from? You bet right!!!… I read the article by Harold Stolovitch: Human Performance Technology Research and Theory to practice.

This led me to go in search of some theories that were related to Human Performance. The link below is for an article titled, A Control Theory view of Human Performance, by Fred Nickols. The second link examines Nickols’ model and discusses how it may be applied. (towards the bottom of the page.)

http://home.att.net/~OPSINC/controltheoryview.pdf

http://www.performancexpress.org/0709/px0709print.html

Nickols breaks down control theory for us in simple terms and discusses how it can be used to improve performance.

• Control Theory states that human beings are living control systems and we try to control our environment and vary our behavior to meet our goals.
• They propose that we have two conditions a reference condition, which is our goal and a perceived condition, which relates to the things to which our goals apply. Perceived condition examines our perceptions of the target we need to control to meet our goal.
• Control theory states that when there is a difference/discrepancy between these two conditions action occurs. However, when we try to control a target, for example cost, to bridge the gap/discrepancy we have to deal with external factors that affect the same target. For example, suppliers raising their price.

There is a very Good diagram in the article (see below and the explanation was taken from the second link).

In the GAP-ACT Model, the current state of the target variable is defined by the performer’s perceptions of that target. Desired performance is reached because the performer:

• Has a goal for the target that defines the conditions the goal must satisfy
• Compares his or her perceptions of the target with the goal to identify any discrepancies
• Adjusts his or her actions to align the target with the goal, offsetting the impact of other conditions on the target
• Determines an intervention to eliminate the discrepancy between perception and goal (closes the gap)

In addition:

• The dotted line stands for feedback from perception to target.
• The circles help define the separate and overlapping nature of the person and the environment.

Nickols’ makes a distinction between human behavior and human performance; behavior refers to the activity of the performer and performance refers to the effects or outcomes of that activity. He believes that the key to improving performance is by influencing behavior. The focus should not be on controlling behavior; instead effort should be placed on attaining the desirable outcomes. The essence of Nickols’ argument is that in trying to improve performance we have to bear the following in mind:

• Goals must be communicated clearly and supported
• Effort should be made to ensure that the performer’s/ employee’s perception of the current condition is timely and accurate.
• Distinguish between tasks where the results are direct and immediate and tasks where results are indirect and delayed. Example between assembling a product as oppose to enhancing return on equity of a department.
• Support performers don’t try to control their behavior
• Think in terms of interventions
• Manage those “other influences”
• Support performance instead of controlling behavior

Reflection

My father has a small business and each time he changes an office assistant (The person who handles the calls and paper work) he focuses on telling them exactly what to do to achieve his goals. However, in a lot of cases they failed to follow his instructions.

Based on this model, I think my father is trying to control the behavior of his workers instead of supporting them in achieving the target. Maybe if he had told them what his aims were and allowed them to decide how best to meet the goals maybe it would have been accomplished. However, he choose to give them a prescription

I see where some of the recommendations here would be helpful, especially the one that says we should get performers to commit to organizational goals (the article goes into details about how to do this). The perception issue is also important as our actions are based on our perceptions; so managers have to ensure that the performer’s perception actually reflects the current situation. I guess this would prevent the response that usually occurs after something goes wrong “but I thought this was the case……and that’s why I did that.”