Refocusing Effort Across Job Tasks: Implications for Understanding Temporal Change in Job Performance

Abstract

This study introduces a component of adaptability, namely, a shift in the relative emphasis among different job tasks, to the measurement of employee job performance. Using a multiyear longitudinal data set on the performance of professional basketball players, the results indicate that (a) refocusing one's efforts among different job tasks exists in this context, (b) refocusing accounts for variation in performance, and (c) refocusing increases the odds of continued employment the following year. These findings have implications for understanding temporal change in job performance.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This research was supported in part by a grant to the first author from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Notes

¹We note that we did try a different threshold for labeling performance as changed (e.g., 0.30 standard deviation units), reclassified the players using this threshold, and reran the survival analyses. A greater percentage of players were classified as refocusing. However, the pattern of odds ratios and the conclusions that we draw from the findings do not differ when using the 0.30 standard deviation unit as the threshold compared to a threshold of 0.50.

²We note that when 0.30 standard deviation units was used as the threshold for labeling performance as changed, anywhere from 18% to 26% of the players were classified as refocusing, approximately one third were classified as increase or decrease, and the remainder as same.