同儕互助與做中學習對績效表現之影響分析－以臺灣農會推廣部門為例

Abstract

在產業組織理論中，員工人力素質與工作環境是影響績效表現的重要因素，由於員工人力素質與其教育水準及工作經驗息息相關，因此過去之文獻多透過教育及做中學習所累積的人力資本，探討其對個人績效表現的影響，而考量現今社會公司組織內受雇員工團隊運作方式的重要性，近年來產業組織領域一個新的研究方向即是以工作場所中工作團隊成員間的同儕互動為主要研究重點。本研究嘗試結合這兩個研究方向，從做中學習及同儕間之互動情形的角度切入，檢視其對農事指導員個人及團體績效表現的影響。 臺灣農會之產業特性相當特殊，農會組織為一非營利性質之法人團體，其與一般追求利潤極大之企業組織有所不同。近年來農業正面臨著轉型及貿易自由化的衝擊，農會經營策略的調整及績效的評估有其必要性與即時性。此外，臺灣農業技術一直居於領先的地位，農民能否接收其在地耕耘的豐碩成果，接受新技術與新知識進而與國際接軌，身處於與農民接觸第一線的農業推廣人員之重要性不言可喻。基於農會推廣部門個人及團體績效表現相關議題過去在國內外學界並未獲得應有的重視，本研究選定農事指導員為研究母體，利用臺灣農會推廣部門人員問卷調查的初級資料進行分析。在研究方法上，本研究採Probit模型分析農會推廣團隊相關特徵變數對金推獎得獎機率之影響；在個人績效表現方面，本研究不僅依循過去檢視同儕效果所採用的實證方法，以固定效果模型估計同儕互動與做中學習對指導產銷班銷售量成長率的影響，更進一步建構同儕互動行為與績效表現的三維計量模型，檢視同儕互動與做中學習對指導員指導之產銷班獲得優良產銷班的機率之影響，這在相關領域不僅是一項新的嘗試，亦為同儕效果的研究領域帶入新的元素。 本研究之實證結果顯示，主動與被動之同儕互動行為皆對團體績效有顯著的正向影響。在個人績效方面，同儕提供協助之互動行為是一顯著的影響因素，而其影響方向則取決於工作團體內有無從事相同業務之同儕，若團體內存在專業同儕，由於同儕所具備之工作技能性質相同，較能提供工作上的協助，故能提升指導員個人之績效表現。反之，若指導員無專業同儕，則同儕間之互動可能因工作時間的排擠效果，對其個人績效產生負向的影響。本研究亦發現，在農會推廣團隊中，同儕之間存在互助的效果，顯示指導員在工作上的努力不但能有效提升其個人之績效表現，更能進一步對其同儕產生顯著的正向影響。此外，研究結果亦顯示隨著工作經驗的累積，個人績效會進而提升，因此進一步驗證農事指導員的做中學習現象。 綜觀言之，本研究的實證結果顯示，同儕互動是影響農事指導員個人及其工作之農會推廣部門整體績效表現的重要因素，整體團隊互動融洽，同儕間不吝互相提供協助，透過彼此交流與經驗分享，對於個人或是團體績效皆能發揮顯著的加分效果。

In the theory of industrial organization, labor quality is one of the important factors affecting workers’ performance. As the quality of workers is closely related to their education levels and work experiences, past literature emphasizes mostly on impacts of human capital accumulated through education and learning-by-doing on individual performance. In recent years, peer interaction among team members in the workplace has become the major focus of empirical industrial studies. This study attempts to combine these two directions of research to examine their impacts on individual and team performances of agricultural extension personnels . The industrial structure of Taiwan farmers’ association is quite unique. Farmers’ association is non-profit in nature, therefore, the management idea is different from general profit-seeking organizations. Over the past decades, Taiwan’s farmers’ association has been facing major challenges of agricultural transition and trade liberalization, performance evaluation of the entire organization as well as individual workers has important policy implications. However, most past research focused on the credit department and typically ignored the extension department. Agricultural extension services play a key role in the implementation of rural development policies, and extension personnels are regarded as the helmsman of agriculture, this study therefore is intended to present an in-depth study of the performance of the extension department in the farmers’ association. To examine the group performance of the extension department, Probit model is used to analyze factors affecting the winning probability of Golden Extension Award. As for individual performance, this study not only followed the standard fixed effect model to examine impact of peer effect on sale growth rates of the production and marketing group, we also built a three-dimension probability model to analyze the association of peer interaction and individual performance. The empirical results of this study showed that both active and passive peer interaction significantly improve group performance. As for individual performance, passive peer interaction was shown to be a key factor, however, its impact depends on whether or not there were peers with similar expertise. If a professional peer does exist in the group, individual performance is more likely to be improved. On the contrary, in the absence of professional peers, peer interaction might have a negative impact on individual performance due to the crowding-out effect of worktime. This study also found that within the agricultural extension team, the effect of mutual assistance among extension personnels does exist, implying that the individual work effort not only will improve individual performance, it will also create a significant positive influence on his/her peers. In addition, the present study found that individual performance could be improved through accumulation of work experiences, the phenomenon of learning-by-doing of the agricultural extension personnels, therefore, is verified. In conclusion, the empirical study of this study demonstrated that peer interaction is one key factor to the overall performance of the agricultural extension department. When the extension team maintains a harmonious interaction with mutual exchanges of work experiences and expertise, a win-win atmosphere could be created, and thus will eventually improve on both individual and group performances.