Human performance technology

Human Performance Technology (HPT) - also known as Human Performance Improvement (HPI) "uses a wide range of interventions that are drawn from many other disciplines including, total quality management, process improvement, behavioral psychology, instructional systems design, organizational development, and human resources management" (ISPI, 2007).

HPT is a systematic approach to improving individual and organizational performance (Pershing, 2006). HPT (a.k.a Performance Technology) is a field of study which is related to Process Improvement, Lean, Six Sigma,Organization Development, Motivation, Instructional technology, Human Factors, learning, performance support systems, knowledge management, and training, and is focused on improving performance at the organization, process and individual performer levels.

HPT stresses a rigorous analysis of the requirements of organization, process and human performance for new design and/or identifying the causes for performance gaps, and attempts to provide new designs and/or solutions to improve and sustain performance, and finally - to evaluate the results against the requirements.

History of HPT

The origin or inception of HPT, traces mainly to the work of Thomas Gilbert, Geary Rummler, Karen Brethower, Roger Kaufman and Joe Harless. They were the technologists of HPT. A great deal of the credit for popularizing it goes to Mager and Pipe. HPT has its earliest origins in the mid to late 1960s and it evolved rapidly during the early 1970s. One of the seminal articles was written by Karen Brethower and was titled "Maintenance Systems: The Neglected Half of Behavior Change" ( [http://home.att.net/~nickols/Brethower.pdf Brethower, 1967] ). HPT rapidly evolved in the 2nd half of the 20th century and now provides solutions for many types of human performance issues and problems.

HPT professionals work in many different performance settings such as corporate settings, educational institutions, and the military (Bolin, 2007).

Definitions of the field

Because our field is so new, many are attempting to define and understand the field. This section describes some of the definitions that have been provided thus far.

The American Society of Training & Development (ASTD) defines Performance Improvement as "the process of identifying and analyzing important organizational and individual performance gaps, planning for future performance improvement, designing and developing cost-effective and ethically justifiable interventions to close performance gaps, implementing the interventions, and evaluating the financial and non-financial results."

A 2003-4 Task Force of the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) updated the definition of Human Performance Technology in a March 31, 2004 Report to the ISPI Board: HPT Definition and Criteria Human Performance Technology – An integrated systems approach to improving human performance:

Criteria to Judge applications of HPT

1. Is focused on valuable, measured results;
2. Considers the larger system context of people’s performance;
3. Provides valid and reliable measures of the effectiveness of those applications
4. Clearly describes applications grounded in prior research or empirical evidence (or are not discouraged by either one) so that they may be replicated under the conditions and by the means for which they were recommended*

* When stated this way, intuition and respected practice are permitted and encouraged (provided they meet the first three criteria) without scientific evidence provided that there is no research evidence that it may not work under the conditions or by the means where it is being recommended.

* Our definition of human performance is: “those valued results produced by people working within a system.”

Assumptions:

1. A technology is a set of empirical and scientific principles and their application
2. Human performance technology is the technology concerned with all variables which impact human performance
3. All organizational processes and practices impact the production of valued results, whether positively or negatively and whether those results go measured or unmeasured, acknowledged or not. (Everything that an organization does affects what it accomplishes, whether or not the results are acknowledged or desirable.)
4. The purpose of all organizations is the same: to create value for their stakeholders; this is accomplished by aligning all processes, practices, and resources to maximize the production of that value.
5. We collaborate with and value the expertise of other disciplines; human performance technology becomes the integrator and multiplier.

HPT can become the leverage organizations need to increase improved performance and focus on results using a variety of means and methods. HPT is the multiplier factor for Performance Improvement.

tandards of practice

The International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) codified a series of [http://www.ispi.org/hpt_institute/#standards standards] in an effort to raise the quality of HPT practice:

* Focus on Results
* Take a Systems View
* Add Value
* Utilize Partnerships
* Systematic Assessment of Need or Opportunity
* Systematic Cause Analysis
* Systematic Design
* Systematic Development
* Systematic Implementation
* Systematic Evaluation

See also

* Educational technology
* Business Process Improvement
* Business Process Reengineering
* instructional systems design
* Lean
* Organizational Development
* Process Improvement and Management (PI&M)
* Total Quality Management

For further reading

* [http://www.ispi.org/ ISPI]
* [http://www.afc-ispi.org/hptprimer.htm Human Performance Technology (HPT) Primer]

References

* Bolin, A.U. (2007) HPT in military settings. "Performance Improvement". 46(3) 5-7
* Brethower, K.S. (1967). Maintenance Systems: The Neglected Half of Behavior Change. In Managing the Instructional Programming Effort, Geary A. Rummler, Joseph P. Yaney and Albert W. Schrader (Eds) Ann Arbor: Bureau of Industrial Relations, University of Michigan. Retrieved Novemeber23, 2007 from http://home.att.net/~nickols/Brethower.pdf
* Gilbert, Thomas F. Pfeiffer (March 1, 1996), ISBN 978-0961669010
* ISPI "Human Competence: Engineering Worthy Performance ", (2007) What is Human Performance Technology? retrieved November 12, 2007 from [http://ispi.org/hpt_institute/#What http://ispi.org/hpt_institute/#What]
* cite book
author=Pershing, J.A.
year=2006
title=Handbook of Human Performance Technology: Principles Practices Potential
location=San Francisco | publisher=Pfeiffer| id=ISBN 0-7879-6530-8