PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION: SUCCESS OR FAILURE?

Germaine Chan
Mount Saint Vincent University

ABSTRACT

Performance management is a very controversial topic in higher education, especially
among academics who generally see little benefit to these types of control systems. Given the lack of
a profit motive in public institutions, how can we assess if performance management is worth the
cost, time, and effort? Scholars have proposed that one measure of success is the extent to which
public managers use performance information to guide organisational activities and inform the
decision-making process. However, despite the many articles on performance management in
universities very little is known about the extent of performance information use. This study fills this
gap by surveying 79 Canadian senior university leaders to assess their use of performance
information for monitoring, attention focusing, strategic decision-making and legitimising activities.
Results show an above average use with an emphasis on using performance information for
monitoring purposes thus providing a different perspective on the value of performance
management systems in higher education.

Keywords: Performance management; higher education performance; performance measurement;
performance information use; evidence-based decision-making in higher education