114 Int. J. Manufacturing Technology and Management, Vol. 33, Nos.

1/2, 2019

Dimensions of organisational performance: a review

Nickson Herbert Odongo* and Daoping Wang

Dongling School of Economics and Management,
University of Science and Technology Beijing,
30 Xueyuan Road, Haidian District,
Beijing, 100083, China
Email: [email protected]
Email: [email protected]
*Corresponding author

Shaldon Leparan Suntu

Department of Computer Science,
University of Science and Technology Beijing,
30 Xueyuan Road, Haidian District,
Beijing, 100083, China
Email: [email protected]

Obadia Kyetuza Bishoge

Department of Environmental Engineering,
University of Science and Technology Beijing,
30 Xueyuan Road, Haidian District,
Beijing, 100083, China
Email: [email protected]

Abstract: This article reviews works in an endeavour to distinctly determine

the aspects that affect organisational performance. The pertinent articles are
retrieved and scrutinised for relevancy after which the next action is to
objectively appraise the writings to ascertain methodological quality. The
literature review describes the significant aspects that influence organisational
performance specifically leadership approach, organisational culture,
organisational systems and structures, organisational environment, resources
and expertise, and organisational adaptation. These dimensions develop an
environment that enables performance at personal, group and organisational
stages. Organisations to a great extent, strive to obtain better performance and
take advantage of the gains from superior performance, and embrace the
sustainability of circumstances that boost performance around their operational
environments as a lasting process. This outcome helps scholars and
practitioners to embrace technical approaches for the identification of
management actions that enhance performance and human resource
development activities in organisations.
Keywords: organisational performance; organisational culture; leadership
approach; organisational adaptation; human resource development; HRD.

Copyright © 2019 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

 Dimensions of organisational performance 115

Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Odongo, N.H., Wang, D.,
Suntu, S.L. and Bishoge, O.K. (2019) ‘Dimensions of organisational
performance: a review’, Int. J. Manufacturing Technology and Management,
Vol. 33, Nos. 1/2, pp.114–129.

Biographical notes: Nickson Herbert Odongo obtained his Master of Business

Administration from the University of Nairobi, Kenya. His research interests
are organisation management, performance management and management
science.

Daoping Wang is a Professor at Dongling School of Economics and

Management, University of Science and Technology, Beijing, China. He
obtained his Post PhD at Tsinghua University, China. His research interests are
supply chain management, information management, logistics management,
data mining and data warehouse and electronic business.

Shaldon Leparan Suntu obtained his Master of Computer Science and

Technology from University of Science and Technology Beijing, China. His
research interests are management science, accounting information
management, computer science and technology, data mining and warehouse.

Obadia Kyetuza Bishoge obtained his Master of Environmental Science and

Engineering from University of Science and Technology Beijing, China. His
research interests are environmental planning and management, environmental
policy and management.

1 Introduction

Human resource development (HRD) is the blended exercise of career growth,

organisational development, training and development to facilitate individual, group and
organisational performance (Vinesh, 2014). HRD studies demand for ethical
considerations and practice, diversity and equality at work, corporate social
responsibility, global and cross-cultural understanding, development of social and human
capital, the commitment and value for work and other pertinent issues of importance to
organisations and society like performance and compensation (Sharma, 2016).
The effect of HRD has extended beyond its conventional domain, the technical and
corporate workplace. Ranging from job skills development, HRD has improved its value
to organisations by embracing employee development systems, managerial development,
career progression and technical knowledge (Callahan, 2012). As expediters of
performance, HRD has broad responsibility for expediting tactical performance across
organisations and communities. As champions of workplace values, conducive working
environments, and good society, HRD is entrenched in recent endeavours to demonstrate
the mutual benefits of productive entities and society (Opengart, 2007). HRD exists non-
profit and profit sectors, actively assisting in conflict resolution and expedite beneficial
performance among different groups and communities’ agencies (Berlan, 2013). HRD is
exploring the utilisation of organisational performance through tactical orientation and
enhanced growth (Niazi, 2011).
116 N.H. Odongo et al.

Based on breadth and influence of HRD, Edmondson and Harvey (2017), noted that
HRD offers beyond corrective understanding and is not limited to interdisciplinary use.
HRD thrives by drawing from numerous knowledge foundations and diverse research
which areas confirms its interdisciplinary application (Orozco, 2017). The decision on
fresh guidelines for a profession should be informed by resources and knowledge from
within the profession and community in which its part of. Boudreau and Ziskin (2011)
argue that as researchers choose the HRD ideas viable to them; they collectively develop
the trend that the HRD field will thrive on in future. The crucial identity of HRD stems
from its capability to generate intellectual, practical and informed capacities of
individuals to perform different types of work (Omotayo, 2015).
Performance is becoming a strategic point in question for organisations in their quest
for addressing imperfections in order to remain competitive in the industry
(Oberholzer-Gee and Yao, 2017). For a long time, the subject of performance has
attracted tremendous studies aimed at divulging why some personalities, groups or firms
are highly likely to devise fresh, beneficial thought, actions, products and services (Marr,
2006). Previous research in the field of performance highly concentrated on uncovering
and linking personality attributes (Denissen et al., 2018) and intellectual capacities, for
example, semantic ability, innovative achievements and emotional flexibility by Mention
(2012).

Figure 1 Methodology for carrying out a systematic literature review

Outline the Research Question

Identification of Relevant literature

using Electronic Bibliographic
Databases and viable Information
Sources

Evaluation of Study Quality

Data Extraction

Summarizing and Interpreting of the

Findings

Researchers have tried to unearth the association between individual inventiveness and
organisational creativeness, and also to establish the association between individuals,
groups and organisational features of performance (Bakotik, 2016). This study is a
systematic review from a multidisciplinary perspective where organisations are the key
unit of examination. By advancing this way, it’s feasible to identify the basis for future
 Dimensions of organisational performance 117

organisational studies and to explore organisational performance at the centre of

numerous literatures. Based on their works, this article reviews several papers to express
how firms champion performance in their operational environments and the crucial
factors that affect organisational performance. The research agenda that scholars have
addressed is whether dimensions of organisational performance influence performance.
The methodology used is shown in Figure 1.
While conducting a systematic review of the literature, electronic search engines
specific to organisational performance literature were used and useful literature sources
such as libraries. The pertinent articles are retrieved and scrutinised for relevancy after
which the next action is to objectively appraise the writings to ascertain methodological
quality. Information is obtained from every article in a prescribed manner to allow for
conformity, interpretation and summary of the findings. All the information was based on
existing literature and therefore secondary data was used.

2 Dimensions impacting on organisational performance

The literature review sheds light extensively on the critical aspects influencing
organisational performance at the workplace environment, which is leadership approach,
organisational culture, organisational systems and structures, organisational climate,
resources and expertise, and organisational adaptation as displayed in Figure 2. This is an
intensive synthesis of study evidence which includes the evaluation of accessible and
relevant literature in a robust style. These dimensions initiate circumstances that improve
performance at personal and group stages. However, they also point out unfavourable
consequences in the exercise of this approach. The preceding sections highlight how
organisations can utilise the various dimensions to upscale the performance levels around
the workplace setting and possible adverse results.

Figure 2 Aspects impacting on organisational performance

Leadership Approach
Organization Environment • Representative
Action point Organizational systems and structures
• Freedom of investigation •
Strong working teams • Long-term objectives
• Huge incentives •
• Horizontal structure
• Development of viable ideas
• Impartial and objective assessment
• Open interaction
of employees
• Freedom of expression
• Awarding exemplary performance
• Set performance standards

ORGANIZATIONAL
Organizational culture PERFORMANCE Resources and expertise
• Learning and supportive • Balancing work with individual’
culture works
• Clear flow of information • Informed recruitment
• Risk-taking • Adequate resources
• High independence • Information sharing
• All-inclusive safety • Challenging tasks
Organizational adaptation
• Acknowledge performance
• Performance adaptation
strategies
• Upward mobility
• Indifferent
• Ambivalent
118 N.H. Odongo et al.

2.1 Leadership approach

There is a general agreement that an orderly and representative leadership approach is
favourable to organisational performance (Men and Stacks (2013), although some
arbitrary approaches are likely to curtail it. Cuccu and Gomez (2011) reiterated that in
obtaining and managing original ideas adequately, it’s not sufficient merely by ignoring
the practices and processes that discourage it. The leader’s approach is hence a
fundamental factor when handling performance geared personalities (Parr et al., 2016).
The action point is an inspirational plan that has ethical connotations, depicts shared
principles it indicates what the organisation’s destiny might and ought to be (Brown and
Treviño, 2006). The action point should be relayed from top to the lowest stages of
management (Nickols, 2016). Strong working teams should comprise of varied expertise
and comprise of personalities who are trustworthy and relate perfectly with others, are
highly supportive to members and respond to other’s opinions in a beneficial manner. In
support of the same argument, Cania (2014) affirmed that teams driven management
approach is highly influential in improving organisational performance. Leaders should
also be capable of finding equilibrium between employee’s flexibility and obligations
without undue dominance, whilst demonstrating interest in employees’ sentiments and
demands (Gallo, 2011).
Several scholars have highlighted various leadership approaches like autocratic where
the managers hold considerable power and authority for decision making (Taucean et al.,
2016). In this case, employees are very resistant since they are required to execute orders
without questioning anything which may not work well as far as perfect organisational
performance is envisaged. However, the style may be appropriate when there are fresh
employees who still do not understand the tasks and processes to be followed and more
saw when there is less time to make a decision Rubinstein (2013). The approach should
not be applied if employees become fearful and resentful as this will lead to employee
demoralisation, increased turnover and work desertion (Tavakoli, 2010).
Under Bureaucratic leadership approach, work is carried out as per the established
policy and procedure. Due to this, employees carry out routine tasks again and again and
therefore may lead to specialisation which is good for organisational performance
Rouzbahani et al. (2013). However, employees perform only those duties assigned to
them thus they become bored and lose interest in their tasks in the long run (Hoskins,
2014). This is demotivating to employees and unfavourable for meaningful performance
(Shafie et al., 2013). The democratic leadership approach formulates schemes to assist
employees to assess their individual performance (Dyczkowska and Dyczkowski, 2017).
This approach keeps employees informed about all issues affecting their performance and
are involved in decision-making responsibilities (Ejimabo, 2015), which is beneficial in
bettering organisational performance. The democratic leadership approach is not
appropriate always and favourable when experienced employees are involved, when
instituting operational adjustments, when tackling individual issues and when there is a
need for team building (Rubin, 2013).
Another dimension explored by different scholars is the laissez-faire leadership
approach where managers provide limited or no guidance and leave employees with
enough freedom to make decisions and tackle their own issues (Cherry, 2017). This
method is highly used when employees are very skilled and experienced, which leads to
informed decision making and favourable performance for the organisation Gabčanová
 Dimensions of organisational performance 119

(2011). In contrast, the managers do not comprehend their responsibilities since they are
hands-off, and this is a threat to organisational performance (Fried and Ction, 2008).

2.2 Organisational culture

The actions, ideas, policies, and morals of an organisation constitute its culture
(O’Donnell and Boyle, 2008). Organisation culture put all the employees in a common
arena that unites them at work (Tsai, 2011). The employees in their respective manner
contribute to shaping the culture of the organisation (Felipe and Rold, 2017). While
managing organisational performance, a crucial challenge is to domesticate an
organisational culture which fosters creative ways of solving issues to a logical
conclusion. Organisational culture is the inherent level of values, habits and believes
those are shared by organisation members and contribute to the social and psychological
environment of the organisation. These values, habits, and beliefs are demonstrated in
numerous styles, such as the procedures and rituals that occur within the organisation, the
tales, language commonly used, myths and legends that are said, and the fittings that are
displayed throughout the organisation (Islam and Zyphur, 2009).
To cultivate a consistent culture of performance innovation, organisations are
expected to develop a learning and supportive culture (Winkler and Fyffe, 2016).
Controlling and directing a culture where gains come before personalities discourage
determination towards performance in the organisation (Sokro, 2012). In order to prosper
in an industry, an organisation is required to align goals based on a certain set of norms
and culture that offers the anticipated direction.
Several scholars regard the clear flow of information as a key to supporting
performance in organisational context and therefore the specific norms that bolster
information sharing ought to expedite resourceful performance. Tremendous conformity
seems to be disadvantageous to innovative behaviour in some settings Pelkmans (2014).
However, cultures that embrace and sustain risk-taking should embellish constructive
performance outputs (Twining et al., 2010). Individuals are mostly risk-averse when
deciding between prospective returns and the risk inherent. Individuals are mostly
unwilling to appreciate the change in spite of the fact that the majority say they value
fresh ideas Hultman (2014).
Performance grounded culture should cultivate pro-activeness where personalities and
groups own up to their problems and solutions in a way that inherent motivation is
encouraged. Performance is enhanced when persons and groups have reasonably high
independence in their regular conduct and a feeling of ownership and authority over their
work and idea. Another fundamental dimension of organisational culture established in
the literature review about performance is the action of promoting and guaranteeing
all-inclusive safety (Rehman, 2012). For that reason, high performing groups and
individuals need to be in an organisational setting where top level management takes a
strategic position so as to acknowledge performance and condone few wrongdoings Tavis
and Cappelli (2016). On the other hand, the short-term focus on performance may
encourage prejudice (Sappideen, 2011).
An organisation culture which encourages innovation should nurture logical methods
of solving work-related problems while regarding performers as desirable role models to
be associated with. The nature of an organisation also affects the culture of the
organisation to a great extent. Organisations which are reliant on external factors like
120 N.H. Odongo et al.

demand and supply, creditors and so on, for example, profit-making organisations, are
prone to numerous risks Dragnic (2014).

2.2.1 Organisational systems and structures

Performance is well realised if the entire organisation upholds it, thus managers should,
therefore, fix their organisations with proper systems and processes which stresses that
top performance is critical in the firm. Organisational structure and processes are about
formal and informal operations within the (Khalili et al., 2018). Systems comprise of
recognition, career progression, reporting, and compensation, operating plan, research,
and development (Zhang et al., 2018). To maintain consistent performance, senior
management must ensure a long-term obligation towards the careers of all employees
(Kotrba, 2011). Productive organisations should adopt a horizontal structure since this
will create an enabling environment for progressive decisions to be made at all
operational levels.
Impartial and objective assessment of employees’ personal contribution is considered
a beneficial aspect of organisational progress Sambrook (2012). Field investigations have
shown that helpful, revealing analysis can promote an objectively appealing state that is
favourable to performance (Meier and O’Toole, 2013). To some scale, employees’
reasoning styles is dependent on the reward system of the organisation, since the majority
of employees prefer rewarding environments. Unethical and ill-considered performance
appraisal and extrinsic rewards can curtail performance.
Organisations which strive to sustain the level of performance within their work
groups should usually award exemplary achievements, without the use of bribes to
persuade people to work better. Managers can support performance by advocating for
knowledge sharing and teamwork, and also reducing political activities within the
organisation. Latif (2011) noted that gossip, politicking, and disharmony are very
detrimental to performance since they distract employees’ concentration from their
duties. The sense of common purpose and enthusiasm, which is extremely fundamental to
underlying motivation, always diminishes when individuals are in conflict with each
other or operate in cliques. Underlying motivation improves when individuals are aware
that those around them are happy with their work. In composite arrangements,
organisations could benefit from alternative styles of conducting performance
management, where managers are expected to be smart thinkers, open-minded and in
touch with political developments.
People having personal agendas contrary to the common goal of the organisation are
most likely to view others work with prejudice. It begins by luring people to pay attention
to extrinsic rewards and penalties related to their performance, therefore advancing the
probability of extrinsic motivation, which in turn impact on intrinsic motivation
unfavourably. Good performing individuals value a taste of fulfilment and note that
novelty can offer definite accomplishment of psychological, economic and professional
objectives of these personalities.
In several incidents, monetary appreciation can have an unfavourable impact on
performance, specifically when employees see monetary enticement as a way of bribing
or controlling them. They suggest that monetary rewards do not always make employees
excited about their jobs and therefore could curtail performance. Motivation can also be
derived from within the organisation, for instance, an individual can develop the intrinsic
 Dimensions of organisational performance 121

desire to perform a function. Feedback among the different systems and processes within
the organisation is fundamental to organisational performance.
Regulating personal motivation is disadvantageous to performance, encouraging
intrinsic inspiration can be conducive, and more saw if the starting points are superior.
When organisations have some departments crowded by employees specialised in similar
work areas, implies that beneficial interaction of employees with different views are
lessened and this works against organisational performance. Employees handling
organisational systems should have expertise in multiple fields otherwise if not, then it
will curtail organisational performance. Where a group of experts in a functional
organisation is fairly isolated, the cohesiveness that encourages organisational
performance is weakened than in organisations where employees with diverse
competencies interact quite often (Diddenige et al., 2018)
Overton and Lowry (2013) study on financial management observed that the
likelihood of territorial disputes may occur because of budgetary competition,
disagreements on objectives or issues that arise from a conflict of egos when every
department has a separate structural system. Divisional organisational structure may
engineer compartmentalisation leading to its products not being compatible across
internal business units.

2.2.2 Organisational environment

Organisational climate is associated to a great extent with the working atmosphere or
state of affairs (Zhang, 2010). Organisational environment covers all the dimensions that
exist outside or within the organisation and have the capacity to influence a portion or the
entire organisation. Conducive and welcoming atmosphere supportive to productive
performance entails personal involvement and free expression with immunity from
victimisation and also demands defined performance standards Pravamayee (2014).
Performance is best attained in open environments where numerous actions are taken
systematically towards prescribed targets.
Managers should zero in on environmental dimensions of particular interest to the
organisation. Managers should pay closer attention to clients’ aspects of the task
environment since it’s the client’s feedbacks that that keeps organisations sound. If
employees are managed well, they can positively influence performance and poor
handling of the employees can lead to a disastrous situation of the organisation. In
accordance with Imran (2013), it’s crucial for managers to understand and know the
environment adequately to enable smooth guidance towards satisfactory organisation
performance.

2.2.3 Resources and expertise

The organisational performance also pushes organisations to make tactical decisions
concerning their personnel. Fapohunda (2014) argue that growing organisations should
clearly seek to recruit, develop and manage to retain productive talent if they aspire to
remain competitive (Yu et al., 2018). The idea that organisations are required to attract
and nurture their intellectual ability and recruit individuals who are intelligent,
innovative, knowledgeable and willing to work resolutely to realise their objectives. Top
management must provide adequate resources, for instance, training, ample environment
122 N.H. Odongo et al.

to facilitate the development of fresh ideas, sufficient time to accomplish work on

projects and all necessary support (Vardarlıer, 2016).
These resources comprise of various elements sufficient enough for enhancing
performance, systems and procedures, frequent training, knowledgeable personnel,
enough resources, and important information. There is a baseline of sufficiency and
whenever resources are increased beyond this baseline, performance is intensified.
Employee’s views of the sufficiency of resources could have an impact on their
perception about the inherent worth of the activities undertaken. However, the sharing of
information within an organisation needs to be facilitated by hands-on management and
decision making for performance to thrive in the long run. The most fundamental thought
for performance to thrive is for the organisation to domesticate personal traits of all
employees (Ali et al., 2011).
Employees should be granted independence as appertains to processes and not
essentially the ends. Independence around processes boosts performance since it bolsters
employee’s sense of control over a situation. Of specific interest is the idea that some
level of challenge within the workplace can have a favourable impact on performance if
it’s observed as emanating from the urgent and logically challenging state of the problem
in question (Moore et al., 2012). For instance, time constraint due to strict deadlines as a
challenge can positively correspond with inherent motivation and performance (Kenneth,
2017).
What is equally elaborate is the significance of corresponding employees to tasks,
based on skills and aspirations, to exploit a sense of productive challenge at work and
thus bolster employee’s performance abilities. Employees are most likely to be proactive
in pursuit of performance outcomes which befit their joy. Hence, leaders should align
people with roles that portray their competence which automatically inspires motivation
to perform better (Naile and Selesho, 2014).
Employees should be reasonably stretched, that is too little work creates room for
boredom and excess work causes unnecessary loss of control especially if it’s
overwhelming. In order to have a balance, managers need to be equipped with adequate
knowledge about each workers ability and competency against assigned jobs. Such
information is gathered mainly through objective performance appraisal systems and
frequent monitoring of employees performance which could be difficult at times. It’s an
obligation for managers to ensure economical use of resources, space, time, materials and
at the same time nurture and develop individual skills prudently.

2.2.4 Organisational adaptation

Organisational performance adaptation is the different means individuals use to approach
their work in an organisation and the strategies organisations use to adapt and survive in
the industry (McLaughlin, 2017). A fundamental issue among the scholars has always
revolved around the reasons as to why organisations collapse in the initial stages (Davila
et al., 2015). In this respect, Abatecola (2012) introduced the liability of newness
construct concept which over time has offered practitioners and scholars with great
insight into the understanding of the Darwinian push for continuity between fresh and
established organisations. In this regard, he expressed that many of the new organisations
go under in the early years because they lack the crucial cemented trust and experience
within their structures.
 Dimensions of organisational performance 123

Later on, several scholars and practitioners dominated the introduction of liability of
adolescence concept (Scott, 2012). In this concept, the organisation growth rate is still
very low and later increases for a certain period known as the adolescence and then after
reaching the peak, it drops. Three distinct organisational adaptations have been
established as, upward mobility, indifferent and ambivalent Pruden (2017), which are
related to organisational performance. The adaptations are considered as personal traits
which individuals will inhibit regardless of the organisations they work for (Henriques,
2017). Individual characteristics relate directly to the performance of every employee
which is critical to overall organisational performance.
Upward mobile employees perceive their work as the core of their lives, they are
committed to their careers and they have the aspirations to secure higher statue rewards
(Kuruvilla and Ranganathan, 2010). The upward mobile has good decision-making skills
and willing to take risks to uphold both their individual performance and performance of
the organisation (Dobre, 2013). Most organisations prefer hiring upward mobile
individuals since they are knowledgeable, reliable and easily adaptable to organisations
performance processes. Indifferent individuals mostly work as a means of making ends
meet. They are less interested in their work or organisation performance at large (Lee and
Raschke, 2016). Organisations need this kind of people since they can be utilised to carry
out routine work that needs little thought, and in the process, overall output will be
enhanced, thus supporting organisational performance immensely Mabey and
Gooderham (2010).
Ambivalent individuals inhibit both positive and negative orientations towards an
assignment (Pratt et al., 2017). Although unfavourable, ambivalent have the potential to
encourage performance. Holding ambivalent initiates the urge to be curious about self-
discovery, where the inner potential is unearthed and capitalised on towards better
performance. Ambivalence facilitates reactiveness, abstract thinking and aggressive
problem-solving. Longer time in consultation due to the fear of ambivalence leads to
better decision making. On the same note, however, ambivalent are largely unpredictable
and may be difficult to work with especially if poorly managed since they are highly
resistant to authority change. This study has beneficial implications for scholars and
practitioners as outlined in preceding sections.

3 Implications for scholars and practitioners

Being able to find positive dimensions offers compelling description of this challenging
study. Moreover, studies in the field of organisational performance have been shy from
multistage approach due to the conceptual nature and technical issues involved while
gathering data from various stages of analysis. These outcomes help scholars and
practitioners to employ preliminary technical approaches for the detection of
management actions that boost performance and HRD activities in organisations. These
findings offer operational implications for strategists concerned with testing theories and
approaches addressing organisational performance.
Embracing operational performance towards organisational performance provides
way for strategy scholars and practitioners to advance productive organisational theories.
This analysis addresses internal capacities affecting organisational performance which is
crucial for transformation of organisations. Generally, recognising the association
124 N.H. Odongo et al.

between operational and organisational performance ought to boost scholars building

stronger theories and empirical tests. Implications of the related nature of the dimensions
confirm the relevance of selected measures by avoiding composite measures in the
performance aspects and design reliable benchmarks of performance dimensions of
interest. This outcomes boost researchers in comparing various measures from different
dimensions for the purpose of verifying their usefulness. These results build confidence
by relying on a base of dimensions with verifiable and reliable properties. Thus, the
dimensions analysed were designed to appreciate the depth of organisational
performance.
The clear organisational performance dimensions addressed in this work provides
organisations with beneficial intuition into effective approaches for developing human
capital (Mawdsley, 2016). Therefore, the synthesis of multiple dimensions of
performance offer blended and informed strategies to the study of HRD in firm
environment. The main theme of HRD indicates that HRD supports organisational
performance by encouraging employee growth and motivation (Nadarajah et al., 2012).
Our organisation-wide review of performance related literature ascertains that HRD
influences employee’s career development and organisational performance through its
effects on employee outputs. In profit-making organisations with large structures and
strong behaviour control, employee competence matters a lot in terms of organisational
operations than employee motivation (Glas et al., 2018).
Our study observed that investment in resources; management support and anticipated
benefits of HRD improve employee commitment to work. Intensifying the frequency and
intensity of employee training can easily curtail employee effectiveness and
organisational performance through disruption of work processes and increasing
psychological burdens on employees. Nielson and Randall (2012) argue that eminent
negative consequences of intensive training without willingness of employees towards
the HRD action may impact negatively on the positive outcomes gained from employee
commitment. Employees appreciate knowledge and expertise more willingly when they
are convinced that management is absolutely committed about their development (Saari
and Pyöriä, 2015).
The review also submits managerial importance of multidimensional
conceptualisation and classification of performance dimensions which potentially aid
practitioners in understanding the concept of quality performance. The framework
emphasises the interdependence among defining, evaluating, and appraising performance
and designing pertinent strategies to provide impetus to anticipated performance. In this
case, the framework provides fundamental capacities and success aspects of developing
and ensuring optimal organisational performance.

3.1 Practical implications

The analysis provides practical guidelines in planning and implementing HRD schedules
for organisations. Organisations may not always attain the anticipated outcomes of HRD
unless they ensure employee recognition of the HRD strategies in line with employee
view of benefits afterwards. The analysis encourages practitioners to embrace a
structured perspective towards finding equilibrium between HRD needs and employee
needs in order to optimise the performance benefits from organisational investments and
efforts towards HRD. These efforts are crucial in order to maximise the ability of
employees and boost their support to the organisations. Researchers have shown that
 Dimensions of organisational performance 125

HRD systems impact on an organisations ability to innovative Uraon (2018) and group
performance is guided by HRD actions (Richman, 2015).
By comprehending the crucial dimensions that impact on performance in the work
arena, enables practitioners to become conversant with matters that require being taken
into account when spearheading a fresh performance-driven organisation, and also while
laying strategies to upscale and sustain performance within the organisation. The
outcomes from the literature review can be used as a reference point by managers in
discovering new performance centred measures that can improve results at personal and
group stages. Performance centric norms and goals ought to enable a conducive working
environment to better performance by addressing the named dimensions systematically.
Performance should align with organisational vision and HRD operational plan. Hence, a
critical challenge for management is to channel all the employees’ individual
performance through strong HRD initiatives towards overall organisational performance
so as to sustain the competitive advantage.
There should be a drastic shift from over controlling employees to creating an
enabling work environment where employees can confidently express independent
decisions and realise self-fulfilment. Managers across all functional areas should be fully
supportive of the existing performance system to facilitate in cascading organisational
goals downwards into personal goals, thereafter helping to sustain uniformity and
prosperity. Managers should take advantage of sudden benefits if they result from
operationalisation of performance strategies and transform them into long-term gains.

4 Conclusions

Deriving from earlier writings, this article reviewed writings that address how
organisations can boost their performance and established the fundamental dimensions
that influence organisation performance. The researchers argue that through HRD
initiatives, these dimensions develop an environment that enables performance at
personal, group and organisational stages. Effective management of personalities and the
work environment where they operate can lead to significantly superior organisational
performance. Future studies could aim at establishing more beneficial dimensions which
encourage performance in organisations of varied forms. Scholars should assimilate the
performance aspect of the individuals towards organisation interaction while searching
for fresh intuition.

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