3.4. The Nine Performance Variables
The Three Levels of Performance constitute one dimension of our framework. The second dimension comprises three factors—Performance Needs—that determine effectiveness at each level (and the effectiveness of any system):
Goals: the Organization, Process, and Job/Performer Levels each need specific standards that reflect customers' expectations for product and service quality, quantity, timeliness, and cost.
Management: each of the Three Levels requires management practices that ensure that goals are current and are being achieved.
Combining the Three Levels with the Performance Needs results in the Nine Performance Variables. These variables, which appear in Table 3.1, represent a comprehensive set of improvement levers that can be used by managers at any level.
To illustrate the Three Levels approach, let's take a brief look at the company that we introduced in Chapter Two. To refresh your memory, Computec, Inc., is a software development and systems engineering firm, with 70 percent of its business from custom software development and consulting services. The other 30 percent of revenues is generated by off-the-shelf software packages.
Computec was successful for the first thirteen years of its existence. However, during the past two years, it has experienced significant erosion of its market share. Internal problems include high turnover and sinking morale. Senior management is concerned about the situation and has recently studied the organization culture and completed programs on total quality, customer focus, and entrepreneurship. The next program is slated to be on reengineering. So far, company performance has not improved.
Realizing that previous medication mayor may not have attacked the disease, we begin by diagnosing Computec. We will use the Nine Performance Variables that make up the framework of the Three Levels approach.