When does adaptive performance lead to higher task performance?

• Published in: Journal of organizational behavior Vol. 33; no. 7; pp. 910 - 924
• Main Authors: Shoss, Mindy K., Witt, L. A., Vera, Dusya
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chichester, UK John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 01.10.2012; John Wiley & Sons; Wiley Periodicals Inc
• Subjects: adaptive performance; Applied psychology; Conscientiousness; Contingencies; Corporate strategies; Customers; Employee supervision; Human performance; Individual differences; Job performance; Job performance evaluation; Organizational behavior; Organizational performance; Organizational politics; Perceptions; Perceptual organization; Performance enhancing substances; personality; Political influence; Studies; Task performance; Work environment
• ISSN: 0894-3796; 1099-1379
• DOI: 10.1002/job.780

Adaptive performance is a facet of performance that reflects acquiring enhanced competencies in response to change. Micro-level researchers have assumed that adaptive performance is beneficial for task performance. Similarly, macro-level researchers have suggested that organizations need to attend to, monitor, and respond to contingencies in their environments for adaptive performance to be beneficial for firm performance. Drawing from the attention-based theory of the firm and resource theory, we suggest that perceptions of organizational politics and individual differences in conscientiousness constitute contingencies of the adaptive performance-task performance relationship. In a sample of 92 call center employees, we found that adaptive performance is positively associated with task performance but that conscientiousness and organizational politics jointly influence the adaptive performance-task performance relationship.