History of performance technology
Introduction
Human performance technology (HPT) refers to the systemic and systematic identification and elimination of obstacles to organizational and individual performance. HPT is a body of techniques and knowledge that has been proved to be effective and useful in organizing the conditions of performance to enable targeted results to be achieved consistently. HPT uses many interventions from other disciplines which includes human resources management, instructional systems design, total quality management, behavioral psychology, process improvement and organizational development (Piersol & Paris, n.d). HPT is a maturing discipline and its development can be traced to the early 1900’s. The pursuit of accomplishing organization success dates back to when civilization began. All through history, leaders have had to improve their strategies in order to ensure organizational survival to the political and socioeconomic forces of their time. The death of an organization affects the livelihoods and well-being of employees and to an extension the geographical areas and the local economies which depend on an organization. Early responses to ensure organizational survival led to the pursuit of various psychological and economic theories of human behavior (International Society for Performance Improvement, 2013). These efforts provided understanding of human nature and organizations. This paper discusses some of the elements that shaped the historical development of human performance technology.
Economic theories Sub-sistence theory held that hungry workers would lead to high performance. Theory of the economic man held that there would be an increase in productivity if payment of workers is based on how they perform. In 1892 Schoenhof provided evidence that higher wages raises productivity while costs are reduced. This success