Rummlers Model of

Performance Improvement


Geary Rummlers model of performance improvement likens organizations to
ecosystems whose components are linked and interrelated in ways that make both
improvement of organizational performance and individual performance equally
important. Thus, Rummlers model tries to account for performance variables at the
organizational, process, and job levels, which constitute his Nine Performance Variables
model of performance improvement:

Goals Design Management
Organizational
Level
Organizational
Goals
Organizational
Design
Organizational
Management
Process Level Process Goals

Process Design Process
Management
Job / Performance
Level
Job Goals Job Design Job Management

Rummler also identified 6 factors that affect human performance at the job
performance level: performance specifications, task support, consequences, feedback,
skills and knowledge, and individual capacity. 4 of these factors are outside of the
workers control but are part of the environment at either the process level or
organizational level, and can be impacted or modified in accordance with the goals,
design, and management modifications at these levels.

Rummlers model helped lay the groundwork for other models to consider these
variables and factors of individual performances and how to improve them.

References

Wilmoth, F. S., Prigmore, C. and Bray, M. (2002), HPT Models: An overview of the
major models in the field. Perf. Improv., 41: 1624. doi: 10.1002/pfi.4140410806