An integrated productivity, training, and performance planning/appraisal framework

Improving the productivity of computer personnel requires an integrated view of the factors which promote effective and efficient work. Motivation, training, performance planning, and productivity are so closely interrelated that to attack them individually results in initiatives which often conflict with one another and lead to confusion of ends by professional personnel. Successful integration of these factors results in a management style and organizational form that supports the accomplishments of productive work. The framework identifies five major areas contributing to performance and behavior: personal effort, knowledge and skills, attitudes and values, environment, health, and sense of direction. These areas define the impact of training, personal development, management style, project control, performance planning, and job/goal direction-setting on performance and behavior. The framework also identifies five outcomes of work performance and behavior: rewards, costs, appraisal, equity, and satisfaction. The roles played by reward strategies, appraisal techniques tied to performance planning, and personal job costs to the worker are placed in a unified concept. The framework provides a view of how to make these factors work together to improve productivity. Data processing personnel career development implies the exercising of a specific plan within a structured environment. Career development should allow an individual to start as a programmer trainee or anywhere in the hierarchy of the group and progress to appropriate levels of responsibility, authority, and pay that are commensurate with the individual's abilities and desires. Career development is "GOOD BUSINESS" for the company and for the individual, as it provides for the development and optimal use of existing potential. It can provide significant contributions to productivity improvement and at the same time reduce retention problems. If a career development program is to work, it must be pragmatic. First, it has to be developed and implemented within the environment of each individual company. Second, it has to have sufficient flexibility to allow for the specific career requirements of each individual. This "tall order" has been met with varying degrees of success. This case study is intended to provide one example of how career development can and does work for the Missouri Pacific Railroad computer professional.