Not Trusting at Face Value: the Impact of Performance Management on Intra-Organisational Trust in Dutch Universities.
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2024-12-16
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en
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In order to become economically competitive at a global scale, the Netherlands has increasingly focused on the quality of their education. One way educational quality was thought to be achieved was through New Public Management theories which would make the sector more transparent and efficient. A manifestation of NPM application is performance management: the institutionalisation of formal control instruments, which has led to a quantification of everyday activities into comparative statistics. Simultaneously, research has found that trust is an important dimension in achieving and attaining educational excellence. Therefore, this study tries to depict how the institutionalisation of formal control mechanisms has affected intra-organisational trust within the Dutch Higher Education Sector. It does so through an inductive research approach, utilising Exploratory Data Analysis. The study consists of a two-step case-study of Radboud University. The first step analyses publications by the university to understand its organisational structure and strategic orientation. In the second step, academic staff was interviewed about their experiences and perceptions around the topics of performance management, quantification, trust within and between departments and the organisational characteristics of the university. The data showed that Radboud University enjoys high levels of intra-organisational trust fostered through a common identity, a strong sense of community, the facilitation of interaction among peers, and the opportunity for staff members to voice their concerns and provide input in decision-making processes. It showed that intra-organisational trust was retained through high levels of benevolence and integrity among staff members. In contrast, instruments that cause competition or solidify hierarchical structures, were perceived as a risk to engage in cooperation and trust-relations, and could potentially harm intra-organisational trust. The study concludes that formal control mechanisms have not directly affected intra-organisational trust at Radboud University, however the structures it has created could do so in the future.
Keywords: Formal control mechanisms; performance management; intra-organisational trust; New Public Management; Dutch Higher Education; Exploratory Data Analysis.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen