Control out of Control: Conceptualizing the Politics of Deans' Performance Assessments

• In Event: Roundtable Session 20
  In Roundtable Session: Understanding Leaders' Decision Making: Politics, Policy, and Performance

Abstract

Deans' performance assessments play developmental and decisional roles. They can potentially reinforce the university's expectations regarding the management of its units and support the fulfillment of their goals. This paper challenges these taken for granted assumptions and argues that deans' performance assessments are instead used as political tools of control. It presents a conceptual framework theorizing how the unique characteristics of universities and managers combine negatively and corrupt the outcomes of performance assessments, as well as the dean's role, by subjugating the university's goals to those of power coalitions. The conceptual framework opens and supports new research approaches to study the management of postsecondary institutions and provides policy-makers with realistic concepts to develop assessment policies.

Author

• Eric Lavigne, University of Toronto