Organizational goals as well as individual goals must be considered to define worthy performance. The domain of human performance technology consists of management functions, development functions, and systems functions. Knowing how to engineer human performance and the conditions that affect it is as important as explaining why the behavior occurred. To diagnose problems, one should analyze the present system and then examine the differences between it and an ideal system. To avoid anticipated problems, one should analyze the planned system and modify it to approximate an ideal system.
Exemplary performance provides the most logical referent for determining job performance standards.
Human performance problems can have different root causes, and these causes are generally classified as either originating from the person, from something in the person's environment, or from both. Performance of one subsystem affects the performance of other subsystems in somewhat predictable ways, requiring that problem causes be analyzed at more than one level of an organization. Many different solutions may be used to improve human performance. Selection of any one solution is dependent upon the cause and nature of the performance problem, and the criteria used to evaluate a solution must include its potential to make a measurable difference in the performance system. ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and Vocational Education, The National Center for Research in Vocational Education, The Ohio State University, 1987.