Performance is the degree of resourcefulness that any entity has about something. So, for example, a worker can have good or bad performance according to the execution of his work, a company can have good or bad performance according to the quality of its services through the offered costs, a machine will have a performance level in accordance with its results obtained for which it was created, a state will have determined performance in accordance with the realization of the established policies of the ruler in question, etc.
All these variants have in common the achievement of certain goals or objectives of a scale. That’s why the term “productivity” can be used synonymously with “performance” as it refers to a scale for measuring an activity in relation to the achievement of results. Thus, it is possible to relate, in a way, this expression to economic stability in due proportions.
From this perspective, it should be noted that every human activity consumes resources for its implementation: a company may need inputs, capital goods, facilities and, of course, workers to offer goods and services to the market; an athlete consumes energy in the form of glycogen and fat when practicing his discipline ; any machine needs electricity ; the state collects with taxes the money necessary for its operation. On the other hand, the objective of every human activity is to obtain benefits: in the case of a worker or company, it is the receipt of a value to overcome the costs; in the case of an athlete, the improvement of their physical condition and also theirmaintenance are within the professional plan; in the case of a machine, produce the desired effect that outweighs the costs of its acquisition and use. Thus, all performance can be evaluated in terms of obtaining an expected benefit (or unmet needs) in relation to the resources used for this achievement.
However, based on these reflections, it is worth noting that in any area or discipline, valuing performance as it incorporates many subjective variables is a difficult task. That’s why determining evaluation criteria is a separate discipline that tries to solve this type of problem.
