You can see the item-by-item results of the first survey here . We hope you will find the PGI to be interesting and useful. Much of this issue of Performance News is devoted to analysis of the results of the first survey and discussion of some of the issues they raised.

We found some interesting results in the responses from the first survey. Not surprisingly, there is, indeed, a performance gap between the expectations of leaders and their organizations. Lehigh Valley employers exhibit a PGI of 34 meaning that their organizations are currently meeting roughly 66 percent of their expectations. This is a baseline measure since it is our first attempt to assess the Performance Gap.

While we can't conclude too much from the initial survey (it will be the changes in results in subsequent surveys where the richest information will be mined) it is possible to speculate on what the results may tell us and to identify questions for further investigation.

Index Components/Results

The Performance Gap Index is a composite number reflecting the combined results for all industry sectors on three separate drivers of performance: competence, commitment and focus. Interestingly, the gap for all respondents taken together is nearly identical in each of the three primary drivers of performance. However when the responses are analyzed by industry sector, a more interesting variance in the data is found. “Manufacturers” and “non-manufacturers” experience virtually identical performance gaps in commitment and focus but the performance gap in competence is substantially greater for manufacturers. This probably reflects the very high demand for advanced skills in the intensely competitive world of manufacturing as well as the highly quantifiable means leaders have to assess competence. The large gap is at least as indicative of the very high expectations of leaders in manufacturing as it is of any skills deficiency among the workforce. We believe this large gap is a positive result showing that local manufacturers are not satisfied with the current skills of their workforce and have very high expectations, which are essential to survival in this intensely competitive sector of the global economy.

We will be looking at this particular gap very closely in subsequent surveys.

We also found fascinating (at least we think they are fascinating) variances between the Performance Gaps perceived by CEOs and those perceived by respondents who identified themselves as Senior Executives or Middle Managers. Overall, CEOs see a smaller Performance Gap than those who may be closer to the trenches. One obvious possible interpretation of this is that CEOs are by nature optimistic people who see the best in their organizations while those more directly involved with the work of the organization see more opportunities to do better. Another possible interpretation is straight out of any Intro to Organizational Development textbook – each layer in an organization tends to filter out negative information while passing on up the chain positive information. Are CEOs getting an accurate picture of their own employees' performance? We will look at this question in future Performance News issues.

Results in another survey item also point to the issue of communications as a major contributor to the PGI. Of the twelve items that comprise the PGI, the one with the largest Performance Gap is “employees speak up and effectively discuss situations important to the organization.” Respondents indicate that employees are falling well short of their expectations on this item. They are not taking ownership of issues to the extent leadership expects and discussing them effectively. A challenge for every leader is to create an environment where employees feel safe to raise issues that may ruffle feathers but are important to the improvement of the organization's performance.

Don Robertson and Donna Goss address the issue of effective communications in their article about meaningful conversations in this issue.

As we do additional surveys over the next year or so, I believe we will discover many interesting and valuable insights into organizational and employee performance in the region. I welcome your comments, questions and criticisms as we continue this initiative and see where it takes us. And PLEASE take a few moments (I promise it will take less than three minutes) to complete our survey for the next iteration of the PGI.

We want to hear from you.

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