Define the behavior-based and results-based definitions of job performance. Provide some of the relative arguments for each, and whether the two can coexist and how.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Campbell and Wiernik (2015), Aguinis (2019), and Beck, Beatty, and Sackett (2014) defined performance based on employee behaviors and actions--particularly those that are relevant to organizational goals. In fact, Campbell and Wiernik (2015) were quite forceful in their conclusion that “performance should be specified in behavioral terms as things that people do” (p. 67). On the other hand, Minbashian and Luppino (2014), O’Boyle and Aguinis (2012), and Aguinis et al. (2016) defined performance in terms of results--what people produce. Given the co-existence of these definitions, it is not surprising that some researchers such as Viswesvaran and Ones (2000) defined performance as both behavior and results as follows: “scalable actions, behavior and outcomes that employees engage in or bring about that are linked with and contribute to organizational goals” (p. 216).
Although there are different proponents for the behavior- and results-based definitions, the two are clearly related. For example, behaviors such as exerting more effort at work (i.e., behavior-based performance) are likely to result in more and better outcomes (i.e., results-based performance). In fact, the empirical evidence shows that these two types of performance are distinct but also related at nontrivial levels (e.g., Beal, Cohen, Burke, & McLendon, 2003; Bommer, Johnson, Rich, Podsakoff, & MacKenzie, 1995). So, the question is not whether to define performance as behaviors or results, but when and why to define performance one way or another (or both).
Some of the proponents of the behavior-based definition of performance believe that there is, nevertheless, value in defining it as results. For example, although Beck et al. (2014) adopted the behavior-based approach, they clarified that a results-based definition “may indeed serve many useful organizational and research purposes” (p. 534). Specifically, Aguinis and O’Boyle (2014) chose the results-based definition of performance because “. . . a focus on results rather than behaviors is most appropriate when (a) workers are skilled in the needed behaviors, (b) behaviors and results are obviously related, and (c) there are many ways to do the job right” (p. 316). These researchers and others have adopted a results-based definition also because it plays a central role regarding organizational-level outcomes (Boudreau & Jesuthasan, 2011; Cascio & Boudreau, 2011). In other words, in terms of assessing firm performance, we are more interested in what employees produce than in how they produce these results.