1. PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT:
The Death of the Collegiate System in
Higher Education
3 April 2012
CLAIRE POVAH & TOM FINNIGAN

2. AGENDA
Welcome and Introductions
What is Performance Management followed by Interactive
Exercise
Performance Development Reviews , a wolf in sheep’s clothing
Performance Management Systems vs Organisational Culture – a
Battle of Wills
Question & Answer Session

3. Operational PM
CIPD Survey Report (2009) ‘Performance management in action:
current trends and practice’
Methodologies include
• Performance Appraisal/Performance Development Reviews
• 360 Degree Feedback
• Regular Review Meetings
• Objective setting

4. Strategic PM
Methodologies include
• Six Sigma
• Balanced Scorecard (BSC)
• Total Quality Management (TQM)
• Activity-based Costing

5. Performance Management Systems
Interactive Session
• Get into groups of about 8 and nominate a speaker, consider
the following questions…
• Which performance management tools are you aware are
used in your organisation?
• How well are they adopted in your organisation? Rank this on
a scale of 1-4 (1 = “tick box exercise”; 4 = widely adopted)
• How effective do you feel these are? Rank on a scale of 1-4
(1 = not effective at all; 4 = extremely effective)
10 minutes to discuss this then will feed back.

6. Performance Management Systems
Strategic Methodologies
• Six Sigma
• Balanced Scorecard (BSC)
• Total Quality Management (TQM)
• Activity-based Costing
Operational Methodologies
• Performance Appraisal/Performance Development Reviews
• 360 Degree Feedback
• Regular Review Meetings
• Objective setting

7. Performance Development Reviews, a wolf
in sheep’s clothing

8. Performance Development
Reviews – The Research
“The Performance and Development Review is a critical process
for enhancing individual and organisational performance.”
Lancaster University PDR Policy (2010)
• Aim of the research
• Methodology and methods
• Findings

9. Student Based Services –
Organisation Structure
Director of
Student Based
Services
Student Registry
Centre for
Enterprise,
Employability &
Careers
Colleges &
Student Life

10. Methodology and Methods
Methodology: Methods:
Case Study Survey & Interviews
Example image

11. Findings
Effectiveness in terms of:
Participation Meeting the
stated aims
Linking organisational/faculty/departmental & individual goals.
Clarify role expectations & performance required.
Facilitate the giving/receiving of feedback.
Support individuals in planning & fulfilling their ongoing development.
Example image
Offer an opportunity to discuss individual circumstances & wider experiences at work.
Support individuals and their departments as roles, expectations & structures change.

12. Findings
• Process is effective in terms of participation
• There is an awareness of the aims of the PDR process
• Only one-third of reviewees are having regular discussions/follow-up meetings with
their line-managers.
• Of the reviewers who responded to the survey only one is having regular meetings
with their reviewees.

13. Findings
• Reviewers and reviewees value the process in terms of the opportunity it provides
to sit down and have one-to-ones.
• The one-size fits all approach impacts on engagement with the process.
• Process is viewed as a bureaucratic, tick-box exercise by both parties, the
perception being that neither side has 'bought into' the process.

14. Findings
Example image

15. EFFECTIVENESS
EFFECTIVENESS
EFFECTIVENESS image
Example

16. Performance Development Reviews, a wolf
in sheep’s clothing

17. Performance Management: The Death of
the Collegiate System in Higher Education

18. Performance Management Systems vs
Organisational Culture – a battle of wills

19. AGENDA
Introduction to Management Control Systems
Balance Score Card as an example
KPIs
Performance Management Systems
Questions

20. Management Control Systems
• Where did they come from?
• What do they seek to do?
• In a MCS almost everything in the organisation
is included as part of the overall control system”
Malmi and Brown (2008)

21. Balanced Score Card
• The BSC was developed by Robert S. Kaplan and David P.
Norton in 1992.
• The BSC relies on using a range of measures termed Key
Performance Indicators (KPIs).
• “The perception that implementation of a BSC, in and of itself,
will lead to organizational alignment is a fairy tale”.
Deem et al. (2010)

22. KPIs in HE
• KPIs are part of everyday life in the higher education (HE)
sector
• 1999 first group of KPIs for UK universities (HEFCE 1999).
“Choosing relevant KPIs requires thinking to be aligned with
strategies and objectives; once this is done the choice of measures
of success is often an obvious one”
Cronin (2007 p.13)

23. The Role of KPIs
• KPIs should reflect and measure progress along the strategic
direction of the organisation.
“personal rewards or incentives often result in staff resisting or
preventing change in order to deliver KPIs that benefit them
rather than the organisation”
Brooks (2005)

24. KPIs – problems of usage
• Organisations identify too many KPIs
• Continue to rely on historical data
• Ignore the culture of the organisation
• Fail to consider the leadership style of the managers

25. Performance Management Systems
• A PMS as an overall control system, which not only undertakes
the measurement of performance it also seeks to undertake
the management of performance.
• What do you need to set one up?

26. PMS – analytical framework by
Ferreira and Otley (2009)
Example image

27. Ferreira and Otley’s Performance
Management Framework - Adapted
Example image

28. Performance Management Systems
“The literature in the area of performance management systems
(PMSs) and management control systems (MCSs) increasingly
recognises the need for research to be based on more coherent
theoretical foundations”
Ferreira and Otley (2009 p.263)

29. Questions