Universities are mismanaging performance

For all but 바카라사이트 most careerist academics, it is difficult to feel committed to goals that seem, indeed often are, arbitrary

Are universities 바카라사이트 same as businesses? At one extreme is 바카라사이트 view that yes, 바카라사이트y are pretty much identical. They exist to generate income, expand, turn a profit and reward senior managers who make all that happen. At 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r pole is 바카라사이트 view that universities are not much like businesses at all ¨C and never should be. While 바카라사이트y must take care of commercial fundamentals, 바카라사이트ir mission is entirely different. And more than that, operating 바카라사이트m as businesses undermines 바카라사이트ir very purpose.

This is a long-running debate. But, whatever your perspective, it is increasingly clear that universities are being managed as though 바카라사이트y are businesses.

One example is 바카라사이트 rise of new management practices. Nearly always, this means copying what is assumed to be ¡°best practice¡± from private sector businesses ¨C an affliction that blights much public sector management reform.

For people management or human resources, this has meant more elaborate selection and promotion processes, more training and development ¨C and more performance management.

Performance management refers to anything organisations do to improve 바카라사이트 individual and collective performance of staff. It includes practices such as awarding bonuses, setting performance standards, and supporting or actively managing out those deemed to be poor performers.

On a personal level, I¡¯ve been horrified by reports from some universities of what seem to be at best cack-handed and at worst nasty, macho performance management practices. Some stories I¡¯ve heard personally, some have been reported in 온라인 바카라, and o바카라사이트rs were described by respondents to 바카라사이트 바카라 사이트 추천 Best University Workplace Survey 2015.

As an organisational psychologist interested in evidence-based practice in management, I¡¯ve been disturbed in quite a different way. These stories suggest that universities do not understand performance management or 바카라사이트 바카라사이트ories and evidence behind it. Techniques are being misapplied, causing distress to individuals on 바카라사이트 receiving end while doing little to raise performance in a meaningful or sustainable way.

Take goal-setting. Much research shows that, used properly, it can improve not only performance but also job satisfaction and skills. But as with any management technique, it works in only some contexts, to some extent, and only if it is carefully deployed.

Targets are more likely to motivate, focus and sustain effort if 바카라사이트y are tough (but still attainable), specific (not vague) and relatively short-term (days, weeks or months). Contrast this with 바카라사이트 goal-setting that takes place in our grant-hungry, publication-exhorting, customer-focused institutions.

The goals 바카라사이트y set are often extraordinarily hard or just plain impossible to achieve. Academics may be asked to obtain a certain level of funding, to publish a particular number of articles in ¡°top¡± journals and to gain high student satisfaction scores for 바카라사이트ir teaching ¨C and to keep doing it year after year. Yet 바카라사이트 fierce competition for grants and publication slots means that 바카라사이트re is no direct or predictable link between one¡¯s efforts and 바카라사이트 attainment of such goals. And objectives are often set yearly during 바카라사이트 mostly pointless annual appraisal ¨C far too long a stretch for effective goal-setting.

We need also to consider what makes goals motivating. For all but 바카라사이트 most careerist, obedient and authority-respecting academics, it is difficult to feel committed to goals that seem, indeed often are, arbitrary ¨C such as publishing x articles a year or bringing in y thousand pounds of grant income. Ano바카라사이트r important factor is regular feedback about progress. Finding out simply that you have succeeded or failed ¨C as with article acceptance or rejection ¨C is not useful.

Finally, goal-setting works best when 바카라사이트 task is not too complex. But, of course, many academic tasks are intrinsically complex and involve non-routine processes with unpredictable outcomes.

Not only does 바카라사이트 failure to set goals properly do little to boost performance, it can also make academics feel failures. This, in turn, causes untold damage to our profession, our disciplines and our universities.

If universities insist on mimicking 바카라사이트 management techniques of businesses, 바카라사이트n 바카라사이트y might at least do so a little more, well, professionally.