Performance management over time: non-monotonic effects of personal values, work attitudes and situational strength on employee performance behaviour

Purpose This study addresses a persistent paradox in performance management research: why performance-enhancing practices generate early behavioural gains yet fail to sustain performance over time. It challenges the dominant static assumption that motivational effects are immediate and cumulative. Design/methodology/approach Using three-wave longitudinal panel data from 421 employees, the study applies a hybrid latent growth curve and longitudinal structural equation modelling framework. Personal values, work attitudes, situational strength and performance-relevant behaviour are modelled as higher-order constructs to disentangle initial levels, change trajectories and lagged mechanisms. Findings Personal values activate work attitudes over time, which in turn transmit motivation into performance behaviour. Situational strength amplifies early value–attitude alignment but attenuates later attitudinal transmission into behaviour. Trajectory analyses reveal significant slope variance, non-linear curvature and non-monotonic total effects, with performance gains decelerating or reversing under sustained high situational strength. Originality/value The study reconceptualises performance management as a dynamic control-motivation system, demonstrating that performance sustainability depends on temporal alignment between motivational activation and contextual constraint rather than static practice intensity.