Study Of Performance Management System Of Chinese Universities

The further higher education reform in China has seen the increasing investment and expansion on the Chinese universities. The universities have thus introduced Performance Management System to increase the efficiency in the operation and the management of the universities. However, there is, currently, a lack of the support of integral and well-recognized theories and methods in performance management of Chinese higher education. Many institutions have insufficient knowledge and experience of performance management, some of which directly adopt the performance management model in enterprises; some select the evaluation indicators simply according to experience; or even more often, the performance management procedures are hard to be implemented or simply become formality.This doctoral thesis firstly systematically reviews and analyzes the applications and the status quo of researches in performance management of higher education. Based on this three categories of problems urgently to be solved are summarized as its research focus:1) Performance management of Chinese higher education still has no integral scientific framework and related effective implementation tools, and no good method to integrate strategic decomposition, procedural optimization and balance of related stakeholders'interests.2) Performance management of higher education needs a performance evaluation indicator system and scientific performance evaluation framework based on strategic decomposition in order to realize the circular improvement of organizational performance of higher educations.3) The present performance management system in higher education institutions does not fully consider the interests of the key stakeholders. This leads to insufficient motivations for implementing performance management, and for enhancing self-development and self-improvement. To deal with the three problems, this thesis, based on Soft System Methodology, Performance Management Theory, Stakeholder Theory,3E Theory, Theory on Organizational Configuration, Quantitative Method and other methods, aims to build a theoretical framework of performance management system suitable for the Chinese universities. Based on this framework an integral performance management system, rooted in the strategic goals, procedural optimization and scientific establishment of performance evaluation indicator system of higher education institutions as well as the ideas and methods of balancing the stakeholders'interests, is formed.This performance management system for Chinese higher education includes balancing the interest of the key stakeholders from strategic level by using SSM and Stakeholder Theory, clarifying the strategic orientation, combining the three functions of education, scientific research and social service, applying SSM to decomposing organizational strategy, constructing conception model, collecting feedback information, conducting optimization of the operations, extracting performance evaluation indicators on a basis of 3E Theory, establishing performance evaluation indicator system based on balancing interests of stakeholders. Finally through performance designing, interview and tutoring, evaluation and assessment, incenting and feedback, an integral, systematic performance management system of higher education is constructed.Then through a case study, the feasibility and effectiveness of this system are verified, which also provides information for the theoretical research and practice of performance management.This thesis has the following three main contributions:1)Applying Soft System Methodology (SSM) to the construction and design of performance management system of Chinese higher education. Starting from the organizational strategy and aim of higher education, the systematic, logically coherent, and operable performance evaluation indicator system is built. As the foundation of the whole performance management system, it also provides performance management of higher education with a new theoretical research method. By the actual practice of strategy decomposition, procedure optimization, selection of performance indicators, indicator weighting and performance evaluation table formation, the useful operation procedure is provided for practitioners in performance management of higher education to practice.2)Applying Stakeholder Theory and stringing the idea and method of balancing interests of key stakeholders in the whole process of performance management of higher education in order to enhance the enforcement and validity of performance management. Through analyzing the key stakeholders'interests in strategy practice of higher education, according to the individual and collective needs of the faculties, the method and procedure of balancing interest demand of stakeholders are concluded and put into the verification and practice of empirical study of performance management.3) Using the Mintzberg's Theory on Organizational Configuration we constructed a performance management framework of higher education consisting of Strategic Apex---perating Core---Support Staff---Technostructure---Middle Line. On this foundation, the idea and methods of balancing interests of key stakeholders are combined with SSM analytical method to form the performance management system of higher education. After conducting a full case study, the feasibility and effectiveness of the built performance management system of Chinese higher education are verified.