Disciplinary Differences in Academics' Perceptions of Performance Measurement at Nordic Universities

Authors : Johan Söderlind, Lars Geschwind

Pages : 18-31

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Publication Date : 2020-06-30

Article Type : Research

Abstract :As performance measurement has become increasingly common at Nordic universities, concerns have been raised that disciplinary differences create difficulties in comparing academic performances. To better understand the potential of utilising performance measures for the management of academic work, this study explores how academics perceive governance and steering based on performance measurement. Building on an established typology of the disciplines that distinguishes the hard sciences from the soft and the applied sciences from the pure, we ask how academics perceive performance measurement depending on their disciplinary affiliation. The empirical material consists of a survey sent to academics in four Nordic countries. Our results show there are clear differences in the attitudes toward performance measurement between academics from different disciplines. Academics from the hard applied sciences are more positive about performance measurement than any other group, and academics from the soft pure sciences are more negative. These findings are consistent with notions about the poor adaptation of metrics to publication practices within the soft sciences and greater sensitivity to performance measurement among the applied sciences. The main contribution of the article is to provide empirical data that support the notion that performance measures are accepted to different degrees in different disciplines.
Keywords : Disciplines, performance measurement, Nordic universities