Assessment Of Cadres And Its Corresponding Institutional Culture

According to the science of management and institutional behavior, institutional culture is often defined as something sensitive to the pattern of administration and performance style of cadres as well as an established symbol of something rooted in every member's consciousness and group identity. Qualified cadres are essential to a work unit (i.e., institution or institutional culture under discussion). As Mao Zedong put it, "As a decisive factor, cadres comes next to the political line." With an aim at building up teams of qualified cadres, performance assessment has been established as an important access to the selection and appointment of cadres for the Chinese Communist Party since the adoption of the "open door" policy in China.The university-based assessment of middle-ranking cadres has become an integral part of administration for most of universities in China, which is aimed at building up teams of qualified cadres. The criteria of the assessment will develop into guidelines for cadres' administrative behavior and behavioral culture of an institution. With reasonable criteria, it can turn true that the assessment of cadres is accurate and objective, and the appointment of cadres is appropriate and fair. As the evolvement of a favorable climate for "the excellent be promoted, the mediocre resigning, the inferior eliminated" and a mechanism of cadre elimination in operation, the cadres will be highly motivated for greater initiative and creativity in their work, and the colleges and universities for greater success in their operation. As a result, the institutional members will be powered with initiative and enthusiasm for excellence contributing to the cohesion of teams as well as the formation of the regulating and obliging mechanism for systems. In a long run, this kind of power will produce some positive washback effect on the values of cadre assessment, and vise versa. The positive interaction between the two will bring into play a positive circulation.The positive washback effect has come into the view of the present author. However, we can not deny the negative washback effect brought by the cadre assessment which may stand in the way of reform and development for the colleges and universities. A thorough analysis of such an effect will be constructive for promoting the administration, cadre management and fulfillment of mission statement in universities. Therefore, the negative washback effect will serve as a reasonable starting point for the present discussion with exposing the problems and promoting development of cadre assessment as its aims.Based on the reality, background and the needs of development of middle-ranking cadre assessment in institutions of higher learning, the present study will undertake a case analysis of the related assessment in colleges of Zhejiang ZF University. In the first chapter, there is an introduction about the motivation, scope and approach of the present research. The second chapter will be devoted to a thorough discussion on the value orientation evolving from the practice of middle-ranking cadre assessment in universities and the corresponding negative washback effect on cadres occupying positions of college or department administration. To further the discussion undertaken in the previous part, Chapter 3 will elaborate an analysis of institutional culture at the level of colleges and departments guided by the above value orientation. A discussion on the negative washback effect will also undergo in this part of the value orientation upon the corresponding institutional culture. The underlying causes of the above problems will be explored in Chapter 4. As an effort at promoting the scientificalness and efficiency of cadre assessment, some strategies and suggestion will be proposed in Chapter 5 to maximize the discussed positive washback effect, minimize the undesirable washback effect and cultivate the favorable institutional culture at the level of colleges and departments. It is concluded in Chapter 5 that a positive interaction between cadre assessment and institutional culture at the levels of colleges and departments will contribute to the reform, construction and development of universities.