Toward an Integrated, Multidimensional View of Individual Performance: A Systematic Literature Review of Its Distinctions, Overlaps, and Antecedents

This systematic review synthesizes theoretical, meta-analytic, and empirical evidence from 85 studies to clarify the conceptual boundaries and overlaps among five core job performance dimensions: task performance (TP), contextual performance (CP), adaptive performance (AP), creative and innovative performance (CIP), and counterproductive work behavior (CWB). In doing so, it addresses two gaps in the literature. To our knowledge, no prior study has: (1) systematically examined the distinctions and overlaps among all five dimensions simultaneously, across a broad range of occupations, rather than in isolated pairs, or (2) synthesized their antecedents into a single integrative framework. The synthesized evidence indicates that these dimensions are empirically and conceptually distinct yet correlated, and that multivariate, dimension-specific models can account for both shared and unique variance across dimensions, consistent with more targeted performance management. As the review’s central contribution, we propose a two-stage conceptual model. In the expression stage, the degree to which the work role prescribes a behavior (prescribed, discretionary, proscribed, or unscripted) determines which determinant class (ability, motivation, or opportunity) remains free to vary and hence to predict each dimension, with proximal states (e.g., task knowledge and skill, engagement, psychological capital) carrying these effects into behavior. In the evaluation stage, behavior is converted into dimension scores against standards that are themselves prescription-dependent, explaining why rater and measurement effects pattern differently across dimensions. The model yields testable propositions, most distinctively that formalizing a previously discretionary behavior should shift both which antecedents predict it and how it is scored.