Alasdair A. K. White - Research

Research

In 2006, he worked closely with John Fairhurst and, following various observational studies, they formulated the White-Fairhurst Performance Hypothesis which states that "all performance will initially trend towards a steady state, particularly after a period of performance uplift, and that steady state will then develop a downward curve leading to a significant performance decline".

In a paper entitled From Comfort Zone to Performance Management, White examines the hypothesis from a theoretical perspective starting with the Comfort Zone Theory and the work of Robert Yerkes and John Dodson, David McClelland et al., the Tuckman Model and Colin Carnall. This theoretical examination leads White to conclude that the White-Fairhurst Hypothesis broadly holds true and the performance curve is as demonstrated in the White-Fairhurst TPR Life-cycle Model (TPR stands for Transforming, Performing, Reforming). There has been some criticism of White’s approach, suggesting that more recent sources and work would have been more appropriate, but none have been able to offer a counter-argument or to adequately refute or dispute the hypothesis. The fact remains that most of the fundamentals of performance behaviour were established in the last century and that the more recent work is itself based on this earlier work.

White argues that what is important now is to determine trend-change points on the performance curve so that the most appropriate performance management actions can be applied. He conducted research within a university environment in this relation to this and the result is recorded in his 2008 essay Managing Academic Performance the underlying theory of which underpins the approach being adopted by a number of academic institutions.

Read more about this topic:  Alasdair A. K. White

Famous quotes containing the word research:

    If politics is the art of the possible, research is surely the art of the soluble. Both are immensely practical-minded affairs.
    Peter B. Medawar (1915–1987)

    Our science has become terrible, our research dangerous, our findings deadly. We physicists have to make peace with reality. Reality is not as strong as we are. We will ruin reality.
    Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990)

    One of the most important findings to come out of our research is that being where you want to be is good for you. We found a very strong correlation between preferring the role you are in and well-being. The homemaker who is at home because she likes that “job,” because it meets her own desires and needs, tends to feel good about her life. The woman at work who wants to be there also rates high in well-being.
    Grace Baruch (20th century)