Convergence through Research Performance Measurement?

2020 ◽  
pp. 184-207
Author(s):  
Jenny M. Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Performance Measurement ◽  
Research Performance

Academic logics in changing performance measurement systems

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enrico Guarini ◽  
Francesca Magli ◽  
Andrea Francesconi
Keyword(s):  
Performance Measurement ◽  
Financial Incentives ◽  
Performance Metrics ◽  
Single Case ◽  
Academic Staff ◽  
Research Performance ◽  
Unintended Effects ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Measurement Systems ◽  
Performance Measurement Systems

Purpose The purpose of this study is to analyse how academic staff cope with the new culture of performance measurement and assessment in universities. In particular, the study aims to shed light on how external pressures related to measurement of research performance are translated into organisational and individual academic responses within the university and the extent to which these responses are related specifically to the operational features of performance measurement systems (PMS). Design/methodology/approach The study is based on a case study conducted in an Italian public university and based on interviews with a cross-disciplinary sample of faculty members. Findings The study provides insights into how linking financial incentives and career progression to research performance metrics at the system and organisational levels may have important reorientation effects on individual behaviours and epistemic consequences for the academic work. Research limitations/implications The study is based on interviews, so one limitation is related to the risk of researcher and interviewee personal bias. Moreover, this study is focused on one single case of a specific university setting, which cannot be fully representative of the experiences of others. Originality/value The study contributes to the literature on management accounting by exploring the factors that might explain why the unintended effects of PMS on academics’ behaviour reported by several studies might occur. From a practitioner’s point of view, it shows features of PMS that may produce unintended effects on academic activities. It also highlights the need to rethink PMS for the evaluation of university performance through the involvement of different stakeholders.

scholarly journals History of research performance measurement systems in the Australian higher education sector

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Martin-Sardesai ◽  
James Guthrie ◽  
Stuart Tooley ◽  
Sally Chaplin
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Performance Measurement ◽  
Public Management ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Management Accounting ◽  
Research Performance ◽  
Education Sector ◽  
Measurement Systems ◽  
History Of ◽  
Performance Measurement Systems

Performance measurement systems (PMSs) are a global phenomenon emanating from new public management (NPM) reforms. While they are now prolific and entrenched, they have attracted criticism based on their design and the manner in which they are applied. The purpose of this article is to explore the history of accounting for research in the Australian higher education sector (HES). It focuses on how successive Australian governments have steered research within the sector through the introduction of PMSs, in line with NPM reforms. Relying on publicly available online policy documents and scholarly literature, the study traces the development of performance measures within the Australian HES from the mid-1980s to 2015. It contributes to literature in management accounting aspects of NPM through the means of management accounting techniques such as PMSs. It also contributes to accounting history literature through an examination of three decades of accounting for research in the Australian HES.

Design of a Research Performance Measurement System: The Case of NIAB

2001 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 259-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Visser ◽  
Inge Kerssens-van Drongelen ◽  
Petra C. de Weerd-Nederhof ◽  
James Reeves
Keyword(s):  
Performance Measurement ◽  
Measurement System ◽  
Research Performance ◽  
Performance Measurement System

scholarly journals Failed promises – performance measurement ambiguities in hybrid universities

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jarmo Vakkuri ◽  
Jan-Erik Johanson
Keyword(s):  
Performance Measurement ◽  
Research Performance ◽  
Interdisciplinary Studies ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Accounting Research ◽  
Hybrid Governance ◽  
Institutional Structures ◽  
Research Gap ◽  
Policy Problems ◽  
Unexpected Outcomes

Purpose This paper aims to analyse performance measurement ambiguities in hybrid universities. In accounting research, performance measurement of universities has been discussed in detail, and there is some research on impacts of hybridity in institutional systems. However, there is a particular need in accounting research for more sophisticated theorizations of the ambiguities associated with measuring performance in hybrid organizations. Moreover, there is a dearth of accounting-related interdisciplinary studies conceptualizing the hybridity of universities with important implications for measuring and reporting performance. This paper fills this research gap by providing more elaborate basis for conceptualizing performance measurement ambiguities through the lenses of hybrid universities. Design/methodology/approach The authors critically scrutinize the promise of performance measurement in hybrid universities and explore why it may result in new policy problems. Questions asked are as follows: How can we better understand those institutional mechanisms through which the promise of performance measurement may ultimately result in new forms of ambiguities and unexpected outcomes, and what are the specific characteristics of hybridity that make those mechanisms possible in universities? Findings The authors propose a conceptual model for studying universities in hybrid performance settings. The model provides a new inter-disciplinary approach for conceptualizing performance measurement ambiguities in universities when they are influenced by hybridity, hybrid arrangements and hybrid governance. Originality/value This paper provides more elaborate basis for understanding hybridity of universities, not only through reforms for combining business, government and collegial professional logics (e.g. corporatization, marketization) or through new hybrid mixes of professions but also as a more comprehensive, inter-disciplinary understanding of institutional structures, logics and practices at modern universities.

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