PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT-What, Why & How?

When we talk about the five dimensions of Human Resource Management (HRM), we
list down the following, namely,
Performance Management,
Career Management,
Recruitment & Selection,
Training & Development, and
Compensation & Benefits Management.
These five dimensions, though equally important, often fail to secure equal attention
from Human Resource (HR) managers. The facts that performance management is
not just an annual performance appraisal and training is not the only solution to
effective performance are forgotten by the HR managers and the management team.
As a result, successful organizations, happy with their existing success status, are
actually deprived of a potential growth that could have been achieved should they
have invested more attention to performance management than only performance
appraisal. For instance, the total HR performance of your company is worth $10,
which means your employees performance is resulting revenue worth $10. Among
this set of employees, some are excellent performers, some are good, some
moderate and some poor. This difference in performance level are due to the fact
that some are using 100% of their potentials, some working below their full potentials
and some working at zero or marginal potentials. The challenge of equalizing the
difference in performance level lies in an objective performance management
system.
Prior to explaining what performance management is, it is important to know what
performance management is not, which will help you gain an insight that what your
managers have assumed to be performance management may be just an annual
performance appraisal confined to an hours meeting with a performance appraisal
form to be filled up and signed by the employee and his supervisor.
What Performance Management Is Not:
-

its not just an annual performance appraisal

its not imposing targets/goals on an employee by his supervisor

its not only evaluating individual job performance

What is Performance Management:

-

its Management By Objectives (MBO)

its about setting SMARTER goals

its about planning to perform

its about periodically reviewing progress in performance

its about evaluating performance for further improvement

its about delivering reinforcement for performance success and performance

failure

 What is the Performance Management Process/Cycle:

The Performance Management Process begin and ends in the same cycle of events
which are as follows:
-

Individual goal setting

Performance planning

Mid year performance review

Annual performance appraisal

Under individual goal setting, the supervisor and the employee will sit together to set
annual goals at the year end; the goals are to be achieved by the employee at
designated quarters of the following year.
Under performance planning, the supervisor and the employee, during the same goal
setting session, will plan on how to perform in order to achieve the goals most
effectively and efficiently.
In the middle of the following year, the supervisor will review the employees
progress and achievements, advise and coach for better performance, give
recognition and appreciate for achievements so far and make changes in the
performance plan, if required; the progress of employee shall tell the supervisor
whether or not the all preset goals can be achieved in the given year.
At the year end, the supervisor and the employee will sit together to appraise the
employees performance in the given year and the feedbacks will all be fed into
setting new goals and action plans for the following year.
You may find the performance management process pretty easy, however,
implementing each phase of it requires an understanding of how individual
performance of all employees can translate into total organizational performance. As
regard to this, managers need to ask themselves the following questions:
WHAT TO ASK
What does the company want to achieve in

WHAT TO DO
Gain insight into the corporate vision

the long run?

What business does the company has to be in

Gain insight into the corporate mission

to achieve its vision?

What will be the strategy to sustain in that

Formulate corporate strategy

business?
What are the functional objectives supporting

Set functional objectives

the strategy?

Operation of the Performance Management Process:

Individual Goal Setting & Performance Planning

-

host a goal setting session between the supervisor and the employee

list down the major goals to be achieved in a year in line with functional
objectives

review goals to assess the feasibility of their accomplishments; make sure the
goals are SMARTER- Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, Time-framed,
Extended & Rewarding

finalize goals for a year

plan on ways to achieve the goals

identify the possible barriers to achieving them

plan on ways to overcome those barriers

Mid Year Performance Review

-

host a performance review session between the supervisor and the employee

discuss on performance progress status and seek accountability for missing

deadlines on goals

revise performance plan (if needed) with new deadlines for goals

Performance Appraisal
-

host a performance appraisal session between the supervisor and the

employee

measure performance as against preset goals

measure competencies as against required competencies set for current role

measure potentials as against required competencies set for future role

chalk out Individual Development Plan outlining to fill skill gap, motivation &
aspiration gap and communication & cooperation gap

chalk out Reinforcement plan to reward/recognize for success and punish for
deliberate failure

The beauty of this Performance Management process is that it has three dimensions
only, which give three major outputs that can be fed into other four dimensions of

HRM and not to mention Performance Management also. The beauty is illustrated as
follows:
Performance

Performance

Assessment
Performance Evaluation

Measures
Preset Goals
Required competencies

Competency Evaluation
Potential Evaluation

of current role
Required competencies
of future role

Rating Scale

Outputs

5-points

New goal setting

5-points

Development Plan

5-points

Career Development
Plan

Those are the underlying standards that can be used by managers to

develop/customize existing Performance Management tools and put them in practice.

Competency mapping
Contemporary Issues
Human Resource Audit
o Objectives and benefits of Human Resource Auditing
o Human Resource Auditing Process
Human Resource Accounting
o Methods of Human Resource Accounting
Human Resource Information Systems
Outsourcing and Crowdsourcing
Employer Brand
Temping or Temporary Staffing
Attrition
Call centers
Exit interviews
Stress Management
Balanced scorecard
Competency mapping
Human Resource Benchmarking
Employee absenteeism
Competency approach to job depends on competency mapping. Competency Mapping
is a process to identify key competencies for an organization and/or a job and
incorporating those competencies throughout the various processes (i.e. job evaluation,
training, recruitment) of the organization. A competency is defined as a behavior (i.e.
communication, leadership) rather than a skill or ability.
DEFINITION:
According to Boyatzis(1982) A capacity that exists in a person that leads to behaviour
that meets the job demands within parameters of organizational environment, and that, in
turn brings about desired results

The steps involved in competency mapping are presented below:

1. Conduct a job analysis by asking incumbents to complete a position information
questionnaire(PIQ). This can be provided for incumbents to complete, or used as a
basis for conducting one-on-one interviews using the PIQ as a guide. The primary
goal is to gather from incumbents what they feel are the key behaviors necessary
to perform their respective jobs.
2. Using the results of the job analysis, a competency based job description is
developed. It is developed after carefully analyzing the input from the represented
group of incumbents and converting it to standard competencies.
3. With a competency based job description, mapping the competencies can be done.
The competencies of the respective job description become factors for assessment
on the performance evaluation. Using competencies will help to perform more
objective evaluations based on displayed or not displayed behaviors.
4. Taking the competency mapping one step further, one can use the results of ones
evaluation to identify in what competencies individuals need additional
development or training. This will help in focusing on training needs required to
achieve the goals of the position and company and help the employees develop
toward the ultimate success of the organization.
METHODS OF COMPETENCY MAPPING
It is not easy to identify all the competencies required to fulfill the job requirements.
However, a number of methods and approaches have been developed and successfully
tried out. These methods have helped managers to a large extent, to identify and reinforce
and/or develop these competencies both for the growth of the individual and the growth
of the organization. In the following section, some major approaches of competency
mapping have been presented.
1) Assessment Centre
Assessment Centre is a mechanism to identify the potential for growth. It is a
procedure (not location) that uses a variety of techniques to evaluate employees for
manpower purpose and decisions. It was initiated by American Telephone and Telegraph
Company in 1960 for line personnel being con
Step 1:Gathering facts: The methodology usually employed through an open-ended
questionnaire, gathering retrospective data. The events should have happened fairly
recently: the longer the time period between the events and their gathering, the greater the
danger that the users may reply with imagined stereotypical responses. Interviews can
also be used, but these must be handled with extreme care not to bias the user. sidered for
promotion to supervisory positions. An essential feature of the assessment center is the
use of situational test to observe specific job behavior. Since it is with reference to a job,
elements related to the job are simulated through a variety of tests. The assessors observe
the behavior and make independent evaluation of what they have observed, which results
in identifying strengths and weaknesses of the attributes being studied.

It is, however, worth remembering that there is a large body of academic research which
suggests that the assessment centre is probably one of the most valid predictors of
performance in a job and, if correctly structured, is probably one of the fairest and most
objective means of gathering information upon which a selection decision can be based.
From the candidates perspective it is important to be natural and to be oneself when
faced with an assessment centre, remembering always that you can only be assessed on
what you have done and what the assessors can observe. The International Personnel
Management Association (IPMA) has identified the following elements, essential for a
process to be considered as assessment center:
a) A job analysis of relevant behavior to determine attributes skills, etc. for effective job
performance and what should be evaluated by assessment center.
Techniques used must be validated to assess the dimensions of skills and abilities.
Multiple assessment techniques must be used.
Assessment techniques must include job related simulations.
Multiple assessors must be used for each assessed.
Assessors must be thoroughly trained.
Behavioral observations by assessors must be classified into some meaningful and
relevant categories of attributes, skills and abilities, etc.
Systematic procedures should be used to record observations.
Assessors must prepare a report.
All information thus generated must be integrated either by discussion or
application of statistical techniques.
Data thus generated can become extremely useful in identifying employees with potential
for growth. Following are some of the benefits of the assessment center:
It helps in identifying early the supervisory/ managerial potential and gives
sufficient lead time for training before the person occupies the new position.
It helps in identifying the training and development needs.
Assessors who are generally senior managers in the organization find the training
for assessor as a relevant experience to know their organization a little better.
The assessment center exercise provides an opportunity for the organization to
review its HRM policies.
Assessment Centre is a complex process and requires investment in time. It should
safeguard itself from misunderstandings and deviations in its implementation. For this,
the following concerns should be ensured:
Assessment Centre for diagnosis is often converted as Assessment Centre for
prediction of long range potential.
The assessors judgment may reflect the perception of reality and not the reality
itself.
One is not sure if the benefits outweigh the cost.
Assessment Centre comprises a number of exercises or simulations which have been
designed to replicate the tasks and demands of the job. These exercises or simulations
will have been designed in such a way that candidates can undertake them both singly
and together and they will be observed by assessors while they are doing the exercises.
The main types of exercises are presented below. Most organizations use a combination
of them to assess the strengths, weaknesses and potential of employees.

a) Group Discussions: In these, candidates are brought together as a committee or

project team with one or a number of items to make a recommendation on. Candidates
may be assigned specific roles to play in the group or it may be structured in such a way
that all the candidates have the same basic information. Group discussion allows them to
exchange information and ideas and gives them the experience of working in a team. In
the work place, discussions enable management to draw on the ideas and expertise of
staff, and to acknowledge the staff as valued members of a team.
Some advantages of group discussion are:
Ideas can be generated.
Ideas can be shared.
Ideas can be tried out.
Ideas can be responded to by others.
When the dynamics are right, groups provide a supportive and nurturing
environment for academic and professional endeavour.
Group discussion skills have many professional applications.
Working in groups is fun!
A useful strategy for developing an effective group discussion is to identify task and
maintenance roles that members can take up. Following roles, and the dialogue that might
accompany them in a group discussion have been identified.
Positive Task Roles: These roles help in reaching the goals more effectively:
Initiator: Recommends novel ideas about the problem at hand, new ways to
approach the problem, or possible solutions not yet considered.
Information seeker: Emphasises getting the facts by calling for background
information from others.
Information giver: Provides data for forming decisions, including facts that derive
from expertise.
Opinion seeker: Asks for more qualitative types of data, such as attitudes, values,
and feelings.
Opinion giver: Provides opinions, values, and feelings.
Clarifier: Gives additional information- examples, rephrasing, applications about
points being made by others.
Summariser: Provides a secretarial function.
Positive Maintenance Roles : These become particularly important as the discussion
develops and opposing points of view begin to emerge:
Social Supporter: Rewards others through agreement, warmth , and praise.
Harmonizer: Mediates conflicts among group members.
Tension Reliever: Informally points out the positive and negative aspects of the
groups dynamics and calls for change, if necessary.
Energiser: Stimulates the group to continue working when the discussion flags.
Compromiser: Shifts her/his own position on an issue in order to reduce conflict
in the group.
Gatekeeper: Smoothes communication by setting up procedures and ensuring
equal participation from members.

b) In Tray: This type of exercise is normally undertaken by candidates individually. The

materials comprise a bundle of correspondence and the candidate is placed in the role of
somebody, generally, which assumed a new position or replaced their predecessor at short
notice and has been asked to deal with their accumulated correspondence. Generally the
only evidence that the assessors have to work with is the annotations which the
candidates have made on the articles of mail. It is important when undertaking such an
exercise to make sure that the items are not just dealt with, but are clearly marked on the
items any thoughts that candidates have about them or any other actions that they would
wish to undertake.
c) Interview Simulations/Role Plays: In these exercises candidates meet individually
with a role player or resource person. Their brief is either to gather information to form a
view and make a decision, or alternatively, to engage in discussion with the resource
person to come to a resolution on an aspect or issue of dispute. Typically, candidates will
be allowed 15 -30 minutes to prepare for such a meeting and will be given a short,
general brief on the objective of the meeting. Although the assessment is made mainly on
the conduct of the meeting itself, consideration are also be given to preparatory notes.
d) Case Studies / Analysis Exercises: In this type of exercise the candidate is presented
with the task of making a decision about a particular business case. They are provided
with a large amount of factual information which is generally ambiguous and, in some
cases, contradictory. Candidates generally work independently on such an exercise and
their recommendation or decision is usually to be communicated in the form of a brief
written report and/or a presentation made to the assessors. As with the other exercises it is
important with this kind of exercise to ensure that their thought processes are clearly
articulated and available for the scrutiny of the assessors. Of paramount importance, if
the brief requires a decision to be made, ensure that a decision is made and articulated.
2) Critical Incidents Technique
It is difficult to define critical incident except to say that it can contribute to the growth
and decay of a system. Perhaps one way to understand the concept would be to examine
what it does. Despite numerous variations in procedures for gathering and analyzing
critical incidents researchers and practitioners agree the critical incidents technique can
be described as a set of procedures for systematically identifying behaviours that
contribute to success or failure of individuals or organisations in specific situations. First
of all, a list of good and bad on the job behaviour is prepared for each job. A few judges
are asked to rate how good and how bad is good and bad behaviour, respectively. Based
on these ratings a check-list of good and bad behavior is prepared.
The next task is to train supervisors in taking notes on critical incidents or outstanding
examples of success or failure of the subordinates in meeting the job requirements. The
incidents are immediately noted down by the supervisor as he observes them. Very often,
the employee concerned is also involved in discussions with his supervisor before the
incidents are recorded, particularly when an unfavourable incident is being recorded, thus

facilitating the employee to come out with his side of the story.
The objective of immediately recording the critical incidents is to improve the
supervisors ability as an observer and also to reduce the common tendency to rely on
recall and hence attendant distortions in the incidents. Thus, a balance-sheet for each
employee is generated which can be used at the end of the year to see how well the
employee has performed. Besides being objective a definite advantage of this technique
is that it identifies areas where counseling may be useful.
In real world of task performance, users are perhaps in the best position to recognize
critical incidents caused by usability problems and design flaws in the user interface.
Critical incident identification is arguably the single most important kind of information
associated with task performance in usability -oriented context. Following are the criteria
for a successful use of critical incident technique:
Data are centred around real critical incidents that occur during a
taskperformance.
Tasks are performed by real users.
Users are located in their normal working environment.
Data are captured in normal task situations, not contrived laboratory settings.
Users self report their own critical incidents after they have happened.
No direct interaction takes place between user and evaluator during the
description of the incident(s).
Quality data can be captured at low cost to the user.
Critical Incidents Technique is useful for obtaining in-depth data about a particular role or
set of tasks. It is extremely useful to obtain detailed feedback on a design option. It
involves the following three steps:
There are two kinds of approaches to gather information:
1) Unstructured approach: where the individual is asked to write down two good things
and two bad things that happened when one was carrying out an activity.
2) Moderate structured approach: where the individual is asked to respond to
following questions relating to what happened when he/she was carrying out an activity.
What lead up to the situation?
What was done that was especially effective or non- effective?
What was the result( outcome)?
Step 2: Content analysis: Second step consists of identifying the contents or themes
represented by the clusters of incidents and conducting retranslation exercises during
which the analyst or other respondents sort the incidents into content dimensions or
categories. These steps help to identify incidents that are judged to represent dimensions
of the behaviour being considered. This can be done using a simple spreadsheet. Every
item is entered as a separate incident to start with, and then each of the incidents is
compiled into categories. Category membership is marked as identical , quite similar and
could be similar. This continues until each item is assigned to a category on at least a
quite similar basis.Each category is then given a name and the number of the responses

in the category are counted. These are in turn converted into percentages (of total number
of responses) and a report is formulated.
Step 3: Creating feedback: It is important to consider that both positive and negative
feedback be provided. The poor features should be arranged in order of frequency, using
the number of responses per category. Same should be done with the good features. At
this point it is necessary to go back to the software and examine the circumstances that
led up to each category of critical incident. Identify what aspect of the interface was
responsible for the incident. Sometimes one finds that there is not one, but several aspects
of an interaction that lead to a critical incident; it is their conjunction together that makes
it critical and it would be an error to focus on one salient aspect.
Some of the advantages of critical incident technique are presented below:
Some of the human errors that are unconsciously committed can be traced and
rectified by these methods. For example, a case study on pilots obtained detailed
factual information about pilot error experiences in reading and interpreting
aircraft instruments from people not trained in the critical incident technique (i.e.,
eyewitness or the pilot who made the error)
Users with no background in software engineering or human computer
interaction, and with the barest minimum of training in critical incident
identification, can identify, report, and rate the severity level of their own critical
incidents. This result is important because successful use of the reported critical
incident method depends on the ability of typical users to recognise and report
critical incidents effectively.
Some of the disadvantages of critical incidents method are presented below:
It focuses on critical incidents therefore routine incidents will not be reported. It is
therefore poor as a tool for routine task analysis.
Respondents may still reply with stereotypes, not actual events. Using more
structure in the form improves this but not always.
Success of the user reported critical incident method depends on the ability of
typical end users to recognise and report critical incidents effectively, but there is
no reason to believe that all users have this ability naturally.
3) Interview Techniques Competency Mapping
Almost every organisation uses an interview in some shape or form, as part of
competency mapping. Enormous amounts of research have been conducted into
interviews and numerous books have been written on the subject. There are, however, a
few general guidelines, the observation of which should aid the use of an interview for
competency mapping.
The interview consists of interaction between interviewer and applicant. If handled
properly, it can be a powerful technique in achieving accurate information and getting
access to material otherwise unavailable. If the interview is not handled carefully, it can
be a source of bias, restricting or distorting the flow of communication.

Since the interview is one of the most commonly used personal contact methods, great
care has to be taken before, during and after the interview. Following steps are suggested:
Before the actual interviews begins, the critical areas in which questions will be
asked must be identified for judging ability and skills. It is advisable to write
down these critical areas, define them with examples, and form a scale to rate
responses. If there is more than one interviewer, some practice and mock
interviews will help calibrate variations in individual interviewers ratings.
The second step is to scrutinize the information provided to identify skills,
incidents and experiences in the career of the candidate, which may answer
questions raised around the critical areas. This procedure will make interviews
less removed from reality and the applicant will be more comfortable because the
discussion will focus on his experiences.
An interview is a face-to-face situation. The applicant is on guard and careful to
present the best face possible. At the same time he is tense, nervous and possibly
frightened. Therefore, during the interview, tact and sensitivity can be very useful.
The interviewer can get a better response if he creates a sense of ease and
informality and hence uncover clues to the interviewees motivation, attitudes,
feelings, temperament, etc., which are otherwise difficult to comprehend.
The fundamental step is establishing rapport, putting the interviewee at ease;
conveying the impression that the interview is a conversation between two
friends, and not a confrontation of employer and employee. One way to achieve
this is by initially asking questions not directly related to the job, that is, chatting
casually about the weather, journey and so on.
Once the interviewee is put at ease the interviewer starts asking questions, or
seeking information related to the job. Here again it is extremely important to lead
up to complex questions gradually. Asking a difficult, complex question in the
beginning can affect subsequent interaction, particularly if the interviewee is not
able to answer the question. Thus it is advisable for the pattern to follow the
simple-to-complex sequence.
Showing surprise or disapproval of speech, clothes, or answers to questions can
also inhibit the candidate. The interviewee is over-sensitive to such reactions.
Hence, an effort to try and understand the interviewees point of view and
orientation can go a long way in getting to know the applicant.
Leading questions should be avoided because they give the impression that the
interviewer is seeking certain kinds of answers. This may create a conflict in the
interviewee, if he has strong views on the subject. Nor should the interviewer
allow the interview to get out of hand. He should be alert and check the
interviewee if he tries to lead the discussion in areas where he feels extremely
competent, if it is likely to stray from relevant areas.
The interviewer should be prepared with precise questions, and not take too much
time in framing them.
Once this phase is over, the interviewers should discuss the interviewee, identify areas of
agreement and disagreement, and make a tentative decision about the candidate. It will be
helpful if, in addition to rating the applicant, interviewers made short notes on their
impression of candidates behavior responses; which can then be discussed later. If the
interview is to continue for many days, an evaluation of the days work, content of

questions and general pattern of response should be made for possible mid-course
correction.
4) Questionnaires
Questionnaires are written lists of questions that users fill out questionnaire and return.
You begin by formulating questions about your product based on the type of information
you want to know. The questionnaire sources below provide more information on
designing effective questions. This technique can be used at any stage of development,
depending on the questions that are asked in the questionnaire. Often, questionnaires are
used after products are shipped to assess customer satisfaction with the product. Such
questionnaires often identify usability issues that should have been caught in-house
before the product was released to the market.
a) Common Metric Questionnaire (CMQ): They examine some of the competencies to
work performance and have five sections: Background, Contacts with People, Decision
Making, Physical and Mechanical Activities, and Work Setting. The background section
asks 41 general questions about work requirements such as travel, seasonality, and license
requirements. The Contacts with People section asks 62 questions targeting level of
supervision, degree of internal and external contacts, and meeting requirements. The 80
Decision Making items in the CMQ focus on relevant occupational knowledge and skill,
language and sensory requirements, and managerial and business decision making. The
Physical and Mechanical Activities section contains 53 items about physical activities
and equipment, machinery, and tools. Work Setting contains 47 items that focus on
environmental conditions and other job characteristics. The CMQ is a relatively new
instrument.
b) Functional Job Analysis: The most recent version of Functional Job Analysis uses
seven scales to describe what workers do in jobs. These are: Things, Data, People,
Worker Instructions, Reasoning, Maths, and Language.
Each scale has several levels that are anchored with specific behavioral statements and
illustrative tasks and are used to collect job information.
c) Multipurpose Occupational System Analysis Inventory (MOSAIC): In this method
each job analysis inventory collects data from the office of personnel management system
through a variety of descriptors. Two major descriptors in each questionnaire are tasks
and competencies. Tasks are rated on importance and competencies are rated on several
scales including importance and requirements for performing the task. This is mostly
used for US government jobs.
d) Occupational Analysis Inventory: It contains 617 work elements. designed to yield
more specific job information while still capturing work requirements for virtually all
occupations. The major categories of items are five-fold: Information Received, Mental
Activities, Work Behavior, Work Goals, and Work Context. Respondents rate each job
element on one of four rating scales: part-of-job, extent, applicability, or a special scale

designed for the element. Afterwards , the matching is done between competencies and
work requirements.
e) Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ): It is a structured job analysis instrument to
measure job characteristics and relate them to human characteristics. It consists of 195
job elements that represent in a comprehensive manner the domain of human behavior
involved in work activities. These items fall into following five categories:
Information input (where and how the worker gets information),
Mental processes (reasoning and other processes that workers use),
Work output (physical activities and tools used on the job),
Relationships with other persons, and
Job context (the physical and social contexts of work).
f) Work Profiling System (WPS): It is designed to help employers accomplish human
resource functions. The competency approach is designed to yield reports targeted toward
various human resource functions such as individual development planning, employee
selection, and job description. There are three versions of the WPS tied to types of
occupations: managerial, service, and technical occupations. It contains a structured
questionaire which measures ability and personality attributes.
5) Psychometric Tests
Many organizations use some form of psychometric assessment as a part of their
selection process. For some people this is a prospect about which there is a natural and
understandable wariness of the unknown.
A psychometric test is a standardized objective measure of a sample of behavior. It is
standardized because the procedure of administering the test, the environment in which
the test is taken, and the method of calculating individual scores are uniformly applied. It
is objective because a good test measures the individual differences in an unbiased
scientific method without the interference of human factors. Most of these tests are time
bound and have a correct answer. A persons score is calculated on the basis of correct
answers. Most tests could be classified in two broad categories:
a) Aptitude Tests: They refer to the potentiality that a person has to profit from training.
It predicts how well a person would be able to perform after training and not what he has
done in the past. They are developed to identify individuals with special inclinations in
given abilities. Hence they cover more concrete, clearly defined or practical abilities like
mechanical aptitude, clinical aptitude and artistic aptitude etc.
b) Achievement Tests: These tests measure the level of proficiency that a person has
been able to achieve. They measure what a person has done. Most of these testsmeasure
such things as language usage, arithmetic computation and reasoning etc.