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1 – 10 of 27Clinton Aigbavboa, Lawrence Yao Addo, Andrew Ebekozien, Wellington Didibhuku Thwala and Bernard Martins Arthur-Aidoo
A viable framework has been proven to reduce operational and institutional inefficiencies in the urban water supply sector. The absence of drivers necessary to develop a framework…
Abstract
Purpose
A viable framework has been proven to reduce operational and institutional inefficiencies in the urban water supply sector. The absence of drivers necessary to develop a framework may have hindered institutional development and effective Ghanaian urban water supply management. Thus, the research aims to identify the drivers and develop a framework for effectively managing the urban water supply in Ghana.
Design/methodology/approach
The study utilised a qualitative research design approach and analysed collected data to proffer answers to the research questions. The research sampled 19 participants, and saturation was achieved.
Findings
Findings identified drivers for developing Ghana's urban water supply framework. They categorised them into the availability of water supply resources, the level of professionalism of the personnel, the provision of accessible quality water, the efficient management system of water supply, prudent financial management, ethics for managing water supply and the culture of managing water supply. These pertinent constructs form components of Ghana's urban water sector framework.
Originality/value
Besides supporting transformation and sustainability to develop a framework for managing Ghana's urban water supply sector, policymakers may utilise the developed model to evaluate public urban water supply compliance with Ghana's water sector performance.
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Clinton Ohis Aigbavboa, Lawrence Yao Addo, Andrew Ebekozien, Wellington Didibhuku Thwala and Bernard Martins Arthur-Aidoo
Access to clean drinking water is a major encumbrance in developing countries. In Ghana, urban water supply is below internationally recognised standards, especially among the…
Abstract
Purpose
Access to clean drinking water is a major encumbrance in developing countries. In Ghana, urban water supply is below internationally recognised standards, especially among the urban poor, sub-urban and rural communities. Stakeholders and institutional inefficiencies may be hindrances facing the Ghanaian water supply process. Therefore, this study aims to appraise the motivational factors and outcome of stakeholders’ engagement and identify the factors that influence effective institutional management of urban water supply in Ghana.
Design/methodology/approach
Sequential exploratory mixed methods were adopted and analysed to proffer answers to the research questions. Nineteen participants and 521 respondents were sampled for the qualitative and quantitative phases.
Findings
Findings reveal that the institutional processes and stakeholder engagement significantly influence the effectiveness of the management of urban water supply in Ghana. Findings identified 35 motivational factors and categorised them into the health of the population, socio-economic, technological and innovation trends, policy reform and adaptive governance. Also, the 22 institutional factors identified were categorised into three groups: regulatory framework, ethics for managing water supply and the culture of managing water supply.
Originality/value
Besides the study addressing the theoretical gap regarding which variables are germane in influencing the effective management of urban water supply, the study may be among the top studies that have appraised the role of stakeholders in the institutional management of urban water supply in Ghana.
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Karin Seger, Hans Englund and Malin Härström
The purpose of this paper is to describe and theorize the type of hate-love relationship to performance measurement systems (PMSs) that individual researchers tend to develop in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe and theorize the type of hate-love relationship to performance measurement systems (PMSs) that individual researchers tend to develop in academia. To this end, the paper draws upon Foucault’s writings on neoliberalism to analyse PMSs as neoliberal technologies holding certain qualities that can be expected to elicit such ambivalent views.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on a qualitative interview study of researchers from three Swedish universities, who were asked to reflect upon questions related to three overall themes, namely, what it means to be a researcher in contemporary academia, the existence and use of PMSs at their universities and if/how such PMSs affected them and their work as researchers.
Findings
The empirical findings show that the hate-love relationship can be understood in terms of how PMSs are involved in three central moments of governmentality, where each such moment of governmentality tends to elicit feelings of ambivalence among researchers due to how PMSs rely on: a restricted centrifugal mechanism, normalization rather than normation and a view of individual academics as entrepreneurs of themselves.
Originality/value
Existing literature has provided several important insights into how the introduction and use of PMSs in academia tend to result in both negative and positive experiences and reactions. The current paper adds to this literature through theorizing how and why PMSs may be expected to elicit such ambivalent experiences and reactions among individual researchers.
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Kirsi-Mari Kallio, Tomi J. Kallio, Giuseppe Grossi and Janne Engblom
Employing institutional logic and institutional work as its theoretical framework, this study analyzes scholars' reactions to performance measurement systems in academia.
Abstract
Purpose
Employing institutional logic and institutional work as its theoretical framework, this study analyzes scholars' reactions to performance measurement systems in academia.
Design/methodology/approach
Large datasets were collected over time, combining both quantitative and qualitative elements. The data were gathered from a two-wave survey in 2010 (966 respondents) and 2015 (672 respondents), conducted among scholars performing teaching- and research-oriented tasks in three Finnish universities.
Findings
The analysis showed statistically significant changes over time in the ways that the respondents were positioned in three major groups influenced by different institutional logics. This study contributes to the international debate on institutional change in universities by showing that in Finnish universities, emerging business logics and existing professional logics can co-exist and be blended among a growing group of academics. The analysis of qualitative open-ended answers suggests that performance measurement systems have led to changes in institutional logic, which have influenced the scholars participating in institutional work at the microlevel in academia.
Social implications
While most scholars remain critical of performance measurement systems in universities, the fact that many academics are adapting to performance measurement systems highlights significant changes that are generally occurring in academia.
Originality/value
While most extant studies have focused on field- and organizational-level analyses, this study focuses on understanding how the adoption of performance measurement systems affects institutional logic and institutional work at the microlevel. Moreover, the study's cross-sectional research setting increases society's understanding of institutional evolution in academia.
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James Guthrie, Francesca Manes-Rossi, Rebecca Levy Orelli and Vincenzo Sforza
This paper undertakes a structured literature review to analyse the literature on performance management and measurement (PMM) in universities over the last four decades. Over…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper undertakes a structured literature review to analyse the literature on performance management and measurement (PMM) in universities over the last four decades. Over that time, PMM has emerged as an influential force in universities that impacts their operations and redefines their identity.
Design/methodology/approach
A structured literature review approach was used to analyse a sample of articles on PMM research from a broad range of disciplines over four decades. This was undertaken to understand the impacts of PMM practices on universities, highlight changes over time and point to avenues for future research.
Findings
The analysis highlights the fact that research on PMM in universities has grown significantly over the 40 years studied. We provide an overview of published articles over four decades regarding content, themes, theories, methods and impacts. We provide an empirical basis for discussing past, present and future university PMM research. The future research avenues offer multiple provocations for scholars and policymakers, for instance, PMM implementation strategies and relationships with various government programs and external evaluation and the role of different actors, particularly academics, in shaping PMM systems.
Originality/value
Unlike a traditional literature review, the structured literature review method can develop insights into how the field has changed over time and highlight possible future research. The sample for this literature review differs from previous reviews in covering a broad range of disciplines, including accounting.
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Dorota Dobija, Anna Maria Górska, Giuseppe Grossi and Wojciech Strzelczyk
The purpose of this paper is to facilitate a deeper understanding of the uses and users of performance measurement (PM) in the university context.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to facilitate a deeper understanding of the uses and users of performance measurement (PM) in the university context.
Design/methodology/approach
Empirical data were gathered from four universities. This approach allows for a multilevel and comparative analysis based on the neo-institutional theory. The results are discussed alongside interdisciplinary literature on the use of PM in the public sector.
Findings
PM practices at universities have become increasingly popular on institutional, organisational and individual levels. The results indicate that different types of PM are used in universities and that the extent, and scope of PM used by various actors differ. Universities often use PM in a ceremonial and symbolic manner, with the aim of legitimising themselves externally as research-oriented institutions. The use of PM depends on both, exogenous factors (such as isomorphic pressures) and endogenous factors related to the different responses of organisations and individual actors (university managers, and academics). However, the analysis at the internal level reveals different attitudes and some resistance to the use of such kinds of PM. In universities with a local focus, the use of PM for rational decision-making is generally loosely coupled with the reporting performance for external accountability purposes. Moreover, the internal use of PM can be also symbolic.
Research limitations/implications
This paper focusses on four case studies that are currently undergoing changes. The comparative analysis is supported by the use of different data collection methods and several in-depth interviews with key university actors.
Originality/value
The authors assume that the use of PM depends on a number of exogenous and endogenous factors. PM uses and users are discussed in the specific context of the higher education system in Poland. The four business school cases facilitate a comparative analysis of the similarities and differences in terms of the uses and users of PM in the context of internationally and locally oriented universities.
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Michael Habersam, Martin Piber and Matti Skoog
This study aims to answer the research question of how a calculative regime for public universities is implemented, how and under which conditions its symbolic use emerges and…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to answer the research question of how a calculative regime for public universities is implemented, how and under which conditions its symbolic use emerges and what kind of unintended consequences occur over time.
Design/methodology/approach
The empirical material presented in the paper derives methodically from a longitudinal qualitative research approach analyzing higher education systems (HES)-reforms in Austria. To better understand the consequences of the organizational changes in line with the new legal framework, 2 series of qualitative interviews in 2011/2012 and 2016/2017 on the field level and the organizational level were conducted.
Findings
Identifying two enabling consequences from the tactical behaviors of resistance and symbolic use, i.e. new processes of communication and horizontal network building, allows for theory-building with a focus on the dynamics how accounting begins, then next becomes an established infrastructure, is then destabilized and re-elaborated before it becomes, again, an infrastructure which is different from before.
Research limitations/implications
Although the findings are based on a national empirical context, they are linked to the international discourse on HES in transition and the role of calculative regimes including performance measurement and management attitudes and instruments. They are relevant for an international research community open-minded toward differentiated case studies in a longitudinal perspective on HES-reforms.
Practical implications
When reflecting on their own specific settings governing bodies and practitioners managing the transition of HES may find insights from longitudinal case studies inspiring. The dynamics initiated by new calculative regimes installed need a sensitive framework to handle dissent, resistance, tactical behaviors and changes in power relations between the field level and the organizational level.
Originality/value
This is a unique longitudinal case study of the Austrian HES and its public universities in transition.
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Enrico Guarini, Francesca Magli and Andrea Francesconi
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…
Abstract
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.
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This paper examines the qualities of situations wherein hybrid professionals in knowledge-intensive public organizations (KIPOs) vary in their displays of conflicting…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper examines the qualities of situations wherein hybrid professionals in knowledge-intensive public organizations (KIPOs) vary in their displays of conflicting institutional logics. Specifically, it examines the situations when individual researchers vary in their displays of a traditionalist academic- and an academic performer logic.
Design/methodology/approach
Analysis is grounded in an institutional logics perspective and founded on qualitative interviews with university researchers recurrently exposed to performance measurement and management.
Findings
The findings show that individual researchers display a traditionalist academic- and an academic performer logic in situations of lower or higher “perceived control exposure” (i.e. perceptions of (not) being exposed to “what the performance measurement system wants to/can ‘see’”). In more detail, that a traditionalist academic logic is displayed more in situations of lower “perceived control exposure” whereas an academic performer logic is displayed comparatively more in situations of higher “perceived control exposure”.
Originality/value
These findings add insight into when there is room for resistance to pressures to perform in accordance with increasing performance measurement and when researchers more so tend to conform. While previous research has mostly studied such matters by emphasizing variation between researchers, this study points out the importance of situations of lower or higher “perceived control exposure”. Such insight is arguably also more broadly valuable since it adds to our understanding about hybridity of professionals in KIPOs and how to design and use performance measurement systems in relation to them.
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The purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretical model elaborating on the type of conditions that can inhibit (or at least temporarily hold back) “reactive conformance” in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretical model elaborating on the type of conditions that can inhibit (or at least temporarily hold back) “reactive conformance” in the wake of an increasing reliance on quantitative performance evaluations of academic research and researchers.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative study of a research group at a Swedish university who was recurrently exposed to quantitative performance evaluations of their research activities.
Findings
The empirical findings show how the research group under study exhibited a surprisingly high level of non-compliance and non-conformity in relation to what was deemed important and legitimate by the prevailing performance evaluations. Based on this, we identify four important qualities of pre-existing research/er ideals that seem to make them particularly resilient to an infiltration of an “academic performer ideal,” namely that they are (1) central and since-long established, (2) orthogonal to (i.e. very different from) the academic performer ideal as materialized by the performance measurement system, (3) largely shared within the research group and (4) externally legitimate. The premise is that these qualities form an important basis and motivation for not only criticizing, but also contesting, the academic performer ideal.
Originality/value
Extant research generally finds that the proliferation of quantitatively oriented performance evaluations within academia makes researchers adopt a new type of academic performer ideal which promotes research conformity and superficiality. This study draws upon, and adds to, an emerging literature that has begun to problematize this “reactive conformance-thesis” through identifying four qualities of pre-existing research/er ideals that can inhibit (or at least temporarily hold back) such “reactive research conformance.”
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