Stress and Performance Effectiveness

Volume 3

Earl A. Alluisi, Edwin A. Fleishman

• Publisher: Psychology Press
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781135830670
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

First published in 1982. This is Volume III of a three-volume series and focuses on stress and performance effectiveness. This series of volumes reviews the state of the art in several areas of human performance research. These areas are human capability assessment, information processing and decision making, and job stress. It was recognized that these have been active research areas, but work in these areas has not previously been linked directly to national concerns about productivity. The focus is on implications for improving productivity and for recommending research in these areas that should have impact on productivity.

Contents of Volume I

Human Capability Assessment

Introduction

Edwin A. Fleishman

1.Critical Concepts in the Assessment of Human Capabilities

Marvin D. Dunnette

2.Evaluating Productivity

Frederick A. Muckler

3.Skills, Task Structure, and Performance Acquisition

Norman G. Peterson and David A. Bownas

4.Intra-Individual Variation and Human Performance

Lyle F. Schoenfeldt

5.Training and Human Performance

Irwin L. Goldstein and Virginia M. Buxton

6.Individual Capability, Team Performance, and Team Productivity

Bernard Bass

7.Fitting People to Jobs: The Impact of Personnel Selection on National Productivity

John E. Hunter and Frank L. Schmidt

Contents of Volume II

Information Processing and Decision Making

Introduction

Edwin A. Fleishman

1.An Overview of Models, Methods, and Problems

William C. Howell

2.Interfacing Human Information Processing and Engineering Psychology

Barry H. Kantowitz

3.Applying the Human Information Processing Approach to Human/Computer Interactions

Robert C. Williges

4.Limited Capacity, Attention Allocation, and Productivity

David M. Lane

5.Toward Understanding and Improving Decisions

Paul Slovic

Preface

This series of volumes reviews the state of the art in several areas of human performance research. These areas are human capability assessment, information processing and decision making, and job stress. It was recognized that these have been active research areas, but work in these areas has not previously been linked directly to national concerns about productivity. The focus is on implications for improving productivity and for recommending research in these areas that should have impact on productivity.

The series is a product of a National Science Foundation grant (DAR-7707886) to the Advanced Research Resources Organization (ARRO), under the title “A critical path for formulating research and policy on human performance and productivity relevant to national needs” (E. A. Fleishman, Principal Investigator).

The structure of the project included the establishment of a research panel that served as a steering committee for the project. Besides the Principal Investigator, this panel included two members of the ARRO staff, and the chairperson selected for each of the three major areas. The chairpersons selected were Dr. Marvin D. Dunnette, University of Minnesota (human capability assessment); Dr. William C. Howell, Rice University (information processing and decision making); and Dr. Earl A. Alluisi, Old Dominion University (stress and performance effectiveness). Each is an acknowledged leader in the field he represented, and I am grateful for these contributions. I am pleased to acknowledge the assistance of Dr. Albert S. Glickman and Dr. Joyce C. Hogan of the ARRO staff, who also served on this panel.

The panel met early in the project to identify needs and priorities, to select subareas for intensive review, and to nominate exceptional researchers in each of the subareas. The individuals selected are listed as the authors of the various chapters in these volumes. Each is expert in the area identified, and has published extensively in his respective topic.

During the period of the project, each author prepared a chapter reviewing the designated subarea. The area subgroups held meetings with the chairperson of that area to discuss drafts and to deal with overlap and omission of relevant content and suggested revisions and implications. Each area chairperson served as a Section Editor, integrating the chapters for this series of volumes.

A major activity of this project was a conference organized by the Principal Investigator. The Conference, entitled “Human Performance and Productivity: A Critical Path for Research and Policy,” was held at the Washington Hilton on June 2, 1978. A brochure announcing the Conference was sent to a selected list of researchers and practitioners in both the public and private sectors, who are concerned with problems of productivity. Approximately 100 participants, representing industry, universities, governmental and other public agencies, and research institutes attended.

The Conference had two primary purposes. One was to disseminate the thinking and recommendations of the overall effort to a larger audience of researchers in related areas and to individuals who need to apply the findings. The second purpose was to obtain feedback from these groups for possible utility in revising sections of the report. The format consisted of three major presentations, representations by the Principal Investigator, and by the three area chair persons. This was followed by five concurrent workshops of specialized interest. These workshops and their leaders included:

•Individual Capability, Team Performance, and Productivity
Bernard M. Bass, Ph.D., State University of New York, Binghamton

•Applying the Information Processing Approach to Human/Operator Computer Interactions
Robert C. Williges, Ph.D., Virginia Polytechnic Institute

•Utility Considerations in Productivity Assessment
Frank L. Schmidt, Ph.D., Personnel R & D Center, U.S. Civil Service Commission

•Training and Human Performance
Irwin L. Goldstein, Ph.D., and Virginia Buxton, Ph.D., University of Maryland

•Temporal Factors in Human Performance and Productivity
Ben B. Morgan, Jr., Ph.D., Old Dominion University

Following these workshops, a plenary session was held in which a workshop member summarized the discussions of their workshop for the entire audience. The luncheon speaker was Dr. Vaughn L. Blankenship, Division Director for Intergovernmental Science and Public Technology, National Science Foundation. Dr. Blankenship described NSF’s interests in this area in the context of the total applied science program. I wish to express my appreciation to him and to Dr. Frank Scioli, Section Head, Social and Behavioral Sciences, National Science Foundation, for their continued support of this effort.

I am indebted to Ms. Ellen Eisner and Dr. Joyce C. Hogan of the ARRO staff for their assistance in the arrangements and administration of this conference.

It is felt that these volumes represent authoritative statements by leading scholars in their respective fields, regarding the state of the art in these areas of human performance. The individual chapters present the implications of research for productivity enhancement and the directions of needed human performance research likely to impact on productivity. I am indebted to these authors and editors for their contributions. In addition to individuals already mentioned, I wish to acknowledge the contributions of Dr. Jerrold Levine of the ARRO staff and Dr. Arthur Siegel and Dr. Martin Lautman, Applied Psychological Services, who influenced our earlier thinking on needs in this area.

I am especially indebted to Dr. Neil S. Dumas, then Program Director for Advanced Productivity Research and Technology, National Science Foundation, who was project officer at NSF and was particularly supportive of this effort.

Edwin A. Fleishman

Introduction

Edwin A. Fleishman

Advanced Research Resources Organization
Washington, D.C.

The universal goal of continuous improvement in quality of life is keyed to the enhancement of productivity. In simplest human terms, increased productivity translates as improvement in output generated by each unit of effort, with concommitant reduction in unit cost. The assumption is that, as the people who constitute a social and economic entity generate more output than other comparable entities, their relative standard of living will improve. For the unit of effort they expend, more goods and services become available, the amount of free time they have available to make use of these goods and services is increased, and the choice of alternative uses of the products and services is expanded—(i.e., life’s quality is improved).

In industrial societies, increases in productivity are accounted for largely by capital investment strategies. Machinery multiplies man’s output many fold. Theoretically, therefore, more people can be released from the ‘’bondage of labor” for more time to “enjoy life.”

However, though we hail the advent of the postindustrial society, in which substantially all our essential human needs will be produced without a great amount of human effort, the fact remains that the millennium is not here yet. Human beings are not yet obsolescent as important contributors to the productive process. The quality of performance by men and women, whether in manufacturing or servicing, still accounts for a very large part of the variation in productivity, however one chooses to define the criteria of productivity—and this condition will continue to prevail far into the future. As a matter of fact, as our social and economic system becomes proportionately less oriented to the production of goods and more to the provision of services, the “human element” takes on added importance and new meaning—including perhaps some revision of the conventional definitions of ‘’productivity.” Furthermore, as reserves of natural resources decline and the rate of population growth declines as well, productivity will indeed take on new meaning and added importance.

The need for attention to performance and productivity seems clear. During the past decade, output per man hour within the U.S. has dropped to a level of only 1.4% growth per year—the lowest rate in recent history. In addition to the rapidly changing expectations of American employees, the economy is confronted with slowed growth, high energy costs, foreign competition, and persistent unemployment. The productivity level of increasingly costly labor has become one of the key factors in the equation.

Over the past 50 or more years, “scientific” study of productivity has been a prominent feature of the work of many professions, including economists, psychologists, engineers, and accountants. Its applications have been the conc...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Contents of Volume 1
• Contents of Volume 2
• Preface
• Introduction
• 1. Stress and Stressors, Commonplace and Otherwise
• 2. Workload, Task, and Situational Factors as Modifiers of Complex Human Performance
• 3. Psychophysiological Correlates of Stress and Human Performance
• 4. Organismic Factors and Individual Differences in Human Performance and Productivity
• 5. Subjective Correlates of Stress and Human Performance
• 6. Temporal Factors in Human Performance and Productivity
• Author Index
• Subject Index