3. Performance Management
AMO
The performance equation
Use when
Diagnosing why an individual or team underperforms before acting
Ability
Can they? Skill, knowledge, fit; the training lever
Motivation
Will they? Incentives, purpose, fairness, consequences
Opportunity
May they? Tools, authority, time, process, information
“Performance fails at the weakest term; multiply, don't add.”
How to use it
The multiplication matters: zero opportunity times high ability is still zero. In unionized or process-heavy environments, Opportunity is the most common weak term and the least examined; where a collective agreement shapes the work, read it as part of the Opportunity term. Use before any performance conversation about a person: which term is broken?
Card details
- Model type
- Grid
- Origin status
- Established
- Content last reviewed
- 28 July 2026
Origin
EstablishedAMO theory in strategic HRM; associated with Bailey, and with Appelbaum and colleagues, 2000.