The Impact of Institutional Pressures on Employee Performance Management Systems in Higher Education in the Low Countries

Abstract

As a result of the 2008 financial crisis, governments' budgets for higher education and research have come under pressure. In the aftermath of the crisis, higher education institutions are likely to face significant budget constraints, as governments and society became considerably more demanding concerning the level and amount of research output to be produced. The need for increased efficiency and effectiveness pushes these institutions to consider the adoption of employee performance management systems. Starting from the contextually based HRM theory framework and institutional theory, this study examined the institutional factors associated with academic units' adoption of employee performance management systems in two institutions of higher education in the Low Countries in 2009. The results show that coercive pressures are a significant predictor of whether the academic unit adopted an employee performance management system. The results also demonstrate that the presence of an HRM department and complementary human resource management practices are associated with an increased likelihood of the presence of employee performance management systems in academic units.

Performance-based Incentives and the Behavior of Accounting Academics: Responding to Changes

“…Thus, institutional pressures (coercive, mimetic and normative) play a decisive role in Spanish academia. While coercive mechanisms are significant in certain processes (which connects our results with those presented in Decramer et al 2012), at other times mimetic forces appear to dominate.…”

“…Thus, coercive mechanisms were responsible for driving the number and quality of papers, reinforcing mimetic and normative institutional forces. Prior literature refers to similar experiences in other countries such as Austria, UK, Australia or the Low Countries (see, for example, Shore & Wright, 2000, Sangster, 2011, Nedeva et al, 2012, Hussain, 2012and Decramer et al, 2012). Some of these authors discuss the introduction of "league tables" (coercive and normative mechanisms again) to determine tenures and promotions in the university system, affecting professors' behavior and, to some extent, generating undesirable consequences.…”

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“…We have seen, in design degrees, for example, that creativity and product knowledge form the basis of learning, whereas in business and marketing degrees, knowledge is centred on creating a business. Activities for developing business plans should be based on ideas from real businesses and, in this sense, Decramer et al (2012) point out that a greater participation by businesses and business people, as well as a more extensive use of methods based on case studies and specific projects, are better suited to develop innovation.…”

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“…There is a changing environment and increasing pressure from governments and global markets (Taylor 2006;Gordon and Whitchurch 2007). Higher education institutions are subject to increasing market pressures forcing them to achieve efficiency gains (Decramer et al 2012). However, in Thai context, 9 The Challenges of Strategic HRM Programs … whereas many government policies have placed pressure on all such institutions to compete more effectively in the higher education market and adjust to environmental change (Witte 2000).…”