We begin by charting the evolution of the dominant perspective on job performance from one that viewed performance as static to one that viewed it as dynamic over long timeframes (e.g., months, years, decades) to one that views it as dynamic over not just long but also short timeframes (e.g., minutes, hours, days, weeks)—and that accordingly emphasizes the within-person level of analysis. The remainder of the article is devoted to the newer, short-timeframe research on within-person variability in job performance. We emphasize personality states and affective states as motivational antecedents. We provide accessible reviews of relevant theories and highlight the convergence of theorizing across the personality and affect antecedent domains. We then focus on several major avenues for future research. Finally, we discuss the implications of these perspectives for personnel selection and performance management in organizations as well as for employees aiming to optimize their job performance.
We conducted a meta‐analysis to examine the relations of individual differences in reflective (or rational) and intuitive thinking styles with workplace task performance. We meta‐analyzed 113 effect sizes from 71 independent samples (N = 11,713). Results indicate that reflective thinking style has a positive and non‐zero meta‐analytic relation with task performance (ρ = .213). This positive relation is stronger in environments characterized by higher task complexity, greater importance of creativity and innovation for work tasks, and higher time pressure associated with work tasks. Intuitive thinking style, conversely, has a very small but positive meta‐analytic relation with task performance (ρ = .051), and this relation is stronger in environments characterized by higher task complexity. Finally, incremental validity analyses reveal that reflective thinking style explains unique variance in task performance, beyond conscientiousness and intelligence (general mental ability). Overall, this meta‐analysis demonstrates that reflective thinking style is an important antecedent to task performance.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.