The Best and the Rest: Revisiting the Norm of Normality of Individual Performance

In the field of human resources management, organizational behaviour and industrial and organizational psychology, the assumption that individual performance follows a Gaussian (normal) distribution – the form of a bell curve with the majority of performers clustered around the mean – has long influenced organizational practice. The study, “The Best and the Rest: Revisiting the Norm of Normality of Individual Performance” by Ernest O’Boyle Jr. and Herman Aguinis, presents a new paradigm for understanding why applying a normal distribution, that assumes the majority of individuals will perform in an “average” manner, does not present an accurate picture of the way that individual performance unfolds in an organization. In fact, as some of us may witness in our own organizations, the findings of this research provide evidence that the majority of work is carried out by a small number of people that out-perform the rest. Thus, the “picture of performance” is better represented by a Paretian distribution, which resembles the shape of a ski slope, where under-performers are at the upper most starting point of the slope and high performers are at the tip of the end. Key Definitions