The Performance Diagnostic Checklist and Its Variants: A Systematic Review

Echeverria et al. (2024) read every paper that used a Performance Diagnostic Checklist. They found 28 studies and compared how each version was used.

The team looked at which checklist people picked, what problems showed up most, and how the tool helped in real workplaces.

The PDC-HS is the star. It showed up more than any other version.

Across all studies, the big trouble spots were antecedents and consequences. In plain words: workers either did not know what to do or did not get good results when they did it.

Cymbal et al. (2020) is inside this review. That paper showed the PDC-HS keeps working even when consultants watch real videos instead of paper stories. The review now tells us this strong tool is also the most popular one.

MacNaul et al. (2021) reviewed preference assessments, not job performance, but both papers give the same message: pick the right tool and use it on a schedule. One handles reinforcers, the other handles workplace problems, yet both push for routine, data-based choice.

Lill et al. (2021) built a decision tree for picking preference tests. Echeverria et al. show the field has already voted with its feet: when it comes to performance, most teams choose the PDC-HS without needing a new flow chart.

If you consult in schools, clinics, or factories, you now know the PDC-HS is the road-tested option. Start there, look first at antecedents and consequences, and you will match what the best evidence says. No need to reinvent the wheel.

The Performance Diagnostic Checklist (PDC) is an indirect assessment tool used in organizational behavior management to identify the variables supporting problematic employee performance.

It organizes those variables into four domains covering antecedents and information, equipment and processes, knowledge and skills, and consequences. Results guide an assessment-based intervention targeting the domains that are actually deficient.

Variants adapt the tool to specific settings, including the PDC-Human Services (PDC-HS), the PDC-Safety, and the PDC-Parent.

Across 28 published studies, the PDC-HS was the most frequently used variant, followed by the original PDC, the PDC-Safety, and the PDC-Parent. Assessments were most often completed with supervisors of employees showing performance concerns.

Many studies flagged more than one domain, but antecedent and consequence domains were most commonly identified. Interventions were typically built around the highest-scoring domain.

A notable gap is that few studies measured social validity or the maintenance of intervention effects, which the authors flag for future research.