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1 – 10 of over 120000Kim Sundtoft Hald and Chris Ellegaard
The purpose of this paper is to illuminate how supplier evaluation practices are linked to supplier performance improvements. Specifically, the paper investigates how performance…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to illuminate how supplier evaluation practices are linked to supplier performance improvements. Specifically, the paper investigates how performance information travelling between the evaluating buyer and the evaluated suppliers is shaped and reshaped in the evaluation process.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper relies on a multiple, longitudinal case research methodology. The two cases show two companies' efforts in designing, implementing, and using supplier evaluation in order to improve supplier performance.
Findings
The findings show how the dynamics of representing, reducing, amplifying, dampening, and directing shape and reshape supplier evaluation information. In both companies, evaluation practices were defined, redefined, and re‐directed by the involved actors' perception and decision making, as well as organisational structures, IT systems, and available data sources.
Research limitations/implications
The identified factors and dynamics could be empirically tested on larger samples to increase generalisability.
Practical implications
The results provide insights into how an evaluating buyer may analyse and control supplier evaluation processes thereby improving their effects. Managers must know how performance information is altered before reaching key supplier actors in order to optimise supplier performance.
Originality/value
Current studies on supplier evaluation practices are limited in their focus on design, implementation, or use. This paper explores all three phases empirically, and proposes a set of dynamics to better understand and control the often taken for granted link between intentions and outcome of such practices. In relation to future research, the authors propose a more holistic direction, which will take the entire supplier evaluation process as its unit of analysis.
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Christos Begkos and Katerina Antonopoulou
In the current digital era where online content is riddled with fabricated metrics and rankings, this research aims to investigate the underpinning mechanisms of the calculative…
Abstract
Purpose
In the current digital era where online content is riddled with fabricated metrics and rankings, this research aims to investigate the underpinning mechanisms of the calculative practices which actors engage with to evaluate digital platform content in the absence of well-defined performance measures.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper focuses on the online, photo-sharing platform Instagram which is devoid of common performance measures such as rankings, ratings and reviews. The authors applied netnographic methods to capture users' actions and interactions at the Greek Instagram community. The authors adopt a practice lens as informed by Schatzki's ‘site ontology’ to capture actors' calculative practices as organised by rules, teleoaffective structures and general and practical understandings.
Findings
Platform actors engage in aesthetic and palpable evaluations of other user profiles and their posted content. They employ permissible (e.g., using third-party apps) and illicit (e.g., lobbying and procuring engagement) tactics to measure and manage digital platform performance, fabricate metrics and blur others' evaluations, in pursuit of prestige and material teleologies. Their calculative practices are conditioned by an implicit social etiquette, which permeates the platform both horizontally and vertically.
Originality/value
First, the paper captures and theorises the mechanisms which underpin actors' calculative practices for performance measurement in the absence of robust judgement devices. Second, it demonstrates how ambiguous assemblages of material and prestige teleologies, aesthetic and palpable evaluative regimes and implicit rules and practical expertise collectively invoke platform actors' calculative practices and the construction of performance measures. In doing so, it contributes to performance measurement literature via demonstrating how management accounting is implicated in the evaluation of digital platform outputs.
Practical implications
The paper provides insight on how platform actors fabricate performance metrics, what they perceive as ‘good’ online content and what constitutes an ‘impactful’ user account or a ‘successful’ social media campaign. Such findings are valuable to management accountants, entrepreneurs and practitioners who seek to evaluate digital platform performance.
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This study aims to examine performance evaluation measures across private sector companies in an Egyptian context and pinpoints obstacles that may limit the adoption of the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine performance evaluation measures across private sector companies in an Egyptian context and pinpoints obstacles that may limit the adoption of the balanced scorecard (BSC).
Design/methodology/approach
Uses a questionnaire that was mailed to a sample of 150 companies listed in the Egyptian stock exchange market. The analysis is directed at determining managers' perceptions of performance evaluation measures within the Egyptian private sector. Descriptive statistics, frequency of use of companies' practices and possible relationships between variables provide the basis for discussion.
Findings
Companies rely on both financial and non‐financial measures of performance evaluation. The profit margin, as a financial measure, is also the most commonly used performance measure. Customer satisfaction is the most commonly used non‐financial measure of performance evaluation. The BSC has wide spread use in the Egyptian companies surveyed, but the level of use of multi‐dimensional indicators is significantly low. The survey provides considerable insight into obstacles inhibiting the adoption of the BSC. The most significant obstacle is the inadequacy of implemented information systems.
Research limitations/implication
Survey results restrict generalization, as the sampling design cannot be claimed to represent all Egyptian companies. Also a relatively low response rates must be taken into account.
Originality/value
Provides an insight into performance evaluation practices in the private sector in a developing country.
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E. Soltani, J. Gennard, R.B. van der Meer and T. Williams
While the concepts of performance evaluation and total quality management (TQM) have been explored in the management literature of the last decades, there has been relatively…
Abstract
While the concepts of performance evaluation and total quality management (TQM) have been explored in the management literature of the last decades, there has been relatively little work on the particular characteristics that an organisation with a TQM approach to human resource (HR) performance evaluation should adopt. To this end, this paper provides a review of the literature in the area of TQM and HR performance evaluation, in order to establish the context for future empirical research. This study provides a brief overview of the implications of a quality orientation for the evaluation of employee performance. It reveals the main difficulties with the concept of performance evaluation from a quality perspective; and it also examines particular characteristics of performance evaluation that could maximise the effectiveness of HR performance evaluation in organisational environments with a quality orientation. Both the assumptions of TQM and the requirements for HR evaluation are used as a foundation from which to examine the ways in which HR performance evaluation might have changed to integrate TQM requirements. By examining the relevant literature, the main criteria of a TQM‐based HR performance evaluation system are refined and enhanced, thus moving towards a situation in which TQM can drive HR performance evaluation in practice. The results also serve as a guide for the evaluation of the effectiveness of such a system.
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Kate Thuy Mai and Zahirul Hoque
This paper explores why and how, and in what context, individuals' accounting of self, ethics and morality and self-knowledge of the limits of accountability can frame their…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper explores why and how, and in what context, individuals' accounting of self, ethics and morality and self-knowledge of the limits of accountability can frame their account giving and judging in an organisational formal performance evaluation process.
Design/methodology/approach
Building upon the Butlerian notions of accountability as advanced by Messner (2009) and Roberts (2009), the authors conducted a qualitative field study at a Vietnamese public university, involving face-to-face interviews, observation of performance evaluation meetings and examination of archival documents.
Findings
The authors found that individuals experience conflicting ethical and moral values when they rely on their self-knowledge of accountability (the ability to self-account) in their account giving and judging in the university's formal academic performance evaluation process. In addition, the authors found that when individuals want to provide the best account to the account demander, their understanding of their ability to self-account and the formal organisational accountability process influence their views on what authentic account giving means. As a result, enhanced ethics-to-others has the potential to be an ethical burden and may not lead to authentic or beyond minimum accounting of “self”. Yet, in the Vietnamese socio-cultural and political context within which the university operates, and in the situation of ethical and moral conflicts in self-accountability, the authors found evidence of individuals' self-accountability behaviours that is based on the co-existence of a sense of responsibility to others and self-knowledge of the limits of accountability.
Research limitations/implications
Although this study was limited to one Vietnamese public university, its findings enhance the knowledge about how individual ethical and moral values, self-knowledge of the limits of accountability and the formal organisational accountability process connect with each other in the socio-cultural and political context within which an organisation operates.
Practical implications
The study highlights the role of the context of local socio-cultural norms and values and of physical social interaction in developing the sense of connection to others, which influences the way individuals' ethical and moral values are mobilised to shape account-giving and judging behaviours.
Social implications
The emphasis on the role of the sense of connection to others on personal accountability and the emphasis on physical, face-to-face interaction in developing sense of connection to others leads to an interesting issue regarding the sense of connection in the virtual social interaction setting, which has become increasingly popular globally, especially during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, and its implication for the use of personal ethical and moral values in organisational accountability practices.
Originality/value
Adding to the conversation on how a formal organisational accountability process can be effective, this study identified (1) the unpredictable outcomes of using ethics as rules for accountability practices due to potentially conflicting ethical values; (2) the diverse understandings of self-accounting, leading to different ideas of authentic accounting; and (3) the possibility of moral accountability behaviours based on the co-existence of a sense of connection to others and an understanding of the limits of accountability.
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This study focused on the impact of principals' leadership content knowledge, evaluation practices and teachers' professional learning activities on classroom instruction.
Abstract
Purpose
This study focused on the impact of principals' leadership content knowledge, evaluation practices and teachers' professional learning activities on classroom instruction.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from 425 teachers who worked in 46 elementary and lower secondary public schools within two provinces in Turkey. Teachers were asked to fill out a questionnaire on principals’ leadership content knowledge, evaluation feedback, professional learning activities and changed instructional practices. This study employed multilevel structural equation modeling (MSEM) by using the Bayesian estimation method to analyze the research hypotheses.
Findings
Findings indicate that if teachers perceive the evaluation progress as more useful, then they will participate in more professional learning activities, and they will be more effective in their classroom practices. This study also indicates that teachers' professional learning activities stimulate their instructional practices.
Research limitations/implications
Although the number of schools and teachers allows using multilevel analysis, it limits the findings generalized beyond the sample. To compensate for this limitation, the author confirmed that the sample was representative of the larger population by examining the size of students and teachers, SES and teachers' job experience. The author also conducted a Bayesian estimator to strengthen the test of significance of effects.
Practical implications
This study underlines the critical role of leadership content knowledge in evaluating practices and providing useful feedback perceived by teachers in elementary and secondary schools. Principals should lead to instruction by knowing how to address a lack of teachers' pedagogical content knowledge and classroom practices. The Ministry of Education should support principals in becoming effective instructional leaders to observe teachers and provide them meaningful feedback on teaching.
Originality/value
Despite increased interest in this construct, research on principals' and teachers' responses to adapt the recent form of teachers’ performance evaluation systems is scant, especially in developing countries’ context. Moreover, little is known about the paths through which principals can enhance classroom practices by providing useful feedback. Given these trends in policy and practice context, this study provides empirical evidence that principals can enact the teachers' performance evaluation that affects classroom instruction.
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Keita Masuya and Eisuke Yoshida
This study aims to reconceptualize performance evaluation styles and reveal their performance effects.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to reconceptualize performance evaluation styles and reveal their performance effects.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a literature review, this study conceptualizes performance evaluation styles on two dimensions: priority of budgetary targets when setting performance criteria and use of accounting information for ex-post performance evaluation. This study discusses two concepts – budget rigidity and discretionary adjustments – to explain these two dimensions, and their optimal combination is then investigated by considering environmental uncertainty. The empirical analysis uses survey data from Japanese firms.
Findings
The results indicate that suitable combinations of budget rigidity and discretionary adjustments differ depending on environmental uncertainty. As expected, a combination of lower budget rigidity and higher discretionary adjustments is optimal in an uncertain environment. Contrary to expectations, a combination of higher budget rigidity and higher discretionary adjustments is optimal in a stable environment. Moreover, higher discretionary adjustments complement budgetary targets’ motivational effects, regardless of environmental uncertainty.
Originality/value
This study’s theoretical and empirical analysis suggests that it is difficult to understand the performance implications of performance evaluation styles without recognizing their multidimensionality and interdependencies. Moreover, the results demonstrate that discretionary adjustments in budget-based performance evaluations seem to act rationally in practice.
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The essential investments in new product development (NPD) made by industrial companies entail effective management of NPD activities. In this context, performance measurement is…
Abstract
The essential investments in new product development (NPD) made by industrial companies entail effective management of NPD activities. In this context, performance measurement is one of the means that can be employed in the pursuit of effectiveness.
Ali Mohammed Saeed, Colin Duffield and Felix Kin Peng Hui
A study of the current practices for evaluating the ex-post performance of public-private partnership (PPP) school projects in Australia via literature review and qualitative case…
Abstract
Purpose
A study of the current practices for evaluating the ex-post performance of public-private partnership (PPP) school projects in Australia via literature review and qualitative case studies has found that no consistent approach exists for evaluating operational performance. A detailed critique of international PPP audits and practices has identified existing gaps in ex-post performance evaluation. Through a process of comparative analysis and industry confirmation, a performance analysis technique aligned with international practice has been developed that can be utilised by the educational departments across Australia to evaluate the ex-post performance of PPP projects (PPPs). The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper opted for qualitative archival analysis of case studies using pattern matching, explanation building, time series, and comparative analysis. The data used for document analysis included value reports, project summaries, and contract documents, as well as local and international audit guidelines.
Findings
This paper reviewed current practices, identified a range of processes, and reported the best practices. However, consideration of the approaches taken in the UK and Australia for evaluating operational performance indicates that current techniques lack consistency.
Research limitations/implications
The developed ex-post performance measurement framework is limited to Australian PPP school projects and, at this stage, cannot be generalised to other social PPP projects.
Practical implications
The paper includes implications for the development of better performance evaluation practices and audits.
Social implications
An enhanced framework for measuring operational performance will increase the accountability of taxpayers in the content of their utilisation by the government.
Originality/value
This paper presents an enhanced ex-post performance measurement framework for education departments across Australia.
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Nonna Martinov-Bennie, Dominic S.B. Soh and Dale Tweedie
This paper aims to investigate how the roles, characteristics, expectations and evaluation practices of audit committees have adapted to regulatory change and what practices are…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate how the roles, characteristics, expectations and evaluation practices of audit committees have adapted to regulatory change and what practices are most conducive to effective audit committees.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses semi-structured interviews with audit committee chairs and chief audit executives.
Findings
While new regulation is a primary driver of changes in the roles of audit committees, the audit committee’s role has evolved beyond regulatory requirements. Audit committees are taking a more active role in organisational governance and performance in key areas such as risk management. However, while audit committees have a clear concept of what characteristics committee members require, conceptual frameworks and mechanisms for evaluating the performance of committees and their members remain underdeveloped.
Research limitations/implications
The responses of audit committees in Australia to broader regulatory trends suggest that more research is required into how audit committees function in practice, and into developing new frameworks for evaluating the committees’ performance. This paper provides an in-depth exploration of key areas of audit committee performance, and identifies aspects that might be further investigated.
Practical implications
The paper identifies key attributes of effective audit committees and especially the characteristics of audit committee members. The paper also identifies a need to improve – and in many cases create – performance evaluation frameworks and mechanisms. Given the international regulatory trend towards greater reliance on audit committees to improve governance, more policy attention is required on developing guidelines and assessment processes that evaluate whether audit committees are fulfilling their legislative mandate in practice.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to the relatively new and more specific discussion on reviewing and evaluating the performance of the board and its subcommittees.
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