There is a perceived increase in the use of internal and external indicators and measures of quality within UK universities, such as the National Student Survey and The Times HE league tables (Bryde and Leighton, 2009). This has resulted in the adoption of more corporate styles of management involving increased control (Melo, Sarrico and Radnor, 2010). This has also been referred to as a New Public Management approach (Hood, 1995). The purpose of this management approach was to rationalise government bureaucracy to a more efficient and effective state via the introduction of market mechanisms to implement policy decisions (Van Thiel and Leeuw, 2002). This policy approach was observed in the introduction of student fees and the requirement for performance data to enable informed decisions for prospective students. This has resulted in a period of turbulence within higher education, as organisations attempt to find their place within this new regime. The aim of this research is to explore this phenomenon using an action research project. This has a dual purpose; to enable the improvement of the situation of a particular higher education institute and also provide data to develop substantive and potentially generalizable theory. The theoretical perspective used is interpretive involving exploration of the perceptions of stakeholders within the case study organisation. Data were collected using participant observations and interviews. The data were analysed using a form of grounded theory (Charmaz, 2006), both initial and axial coding. The analysis produced a conceptual framework to demonstrate understanding of the context, consisting of the following categories; direction; deliver, dialogue and develop. The emergent core category relates to the impact that performance indicators, created by policy, have within an organisation. The findings have added to the organisational development and performance management knowledge domains by the production of an interpretive, substantive framework that can be used to articulate understanding of an organisational sub-unit responding to transformative policy change.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:700949 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Fearon, D. J. |
| Contributors | Bryde, D. J. ; Cotgrave, A. |
| Publisher | Liverpool John Moores University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/5050/ |
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