A kpi based performance assessment system

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Job performance is usually defined as “actions and behaviors that are under the control of the individual that contribute to the goals of the organization” [9]. Performance measurement-based management systems help an organization to line up its business activities to its strategy, and to supervise performance in the direction of strategic goals over time. In other words, performance management is used to keep track of the organizational progress against its strategic plan and particular performance goals. According to Campbell [7], the procedure of assigning a ranking to an individual’s job performance is as follows: observation, sampling, encoding, storage, retrieval, evaluation, differential weighting, and composite scoring.

Measuring the performance of a lecturer is very vital because the indication produced is used for major decisions about their future in academic career. Decisions can be of two types: formative that is used as the support to develop and form the teaching quality, and summative, that is used as the proof for summing up his/her overall performance or position to come to a decision about annual increment, award, merit pay, promotion, sponsorship and tenure [10]. The first one deals with decisions to progress the way of teaching; the second on deals with human resources decisions. Summative decisions are ultimate and they are provided by the administrators at different occasion to settle on their prospect. There is an impact of these decisions on the quality of professional career. The different resources of facts for teaching efficiency can be engaged for either of formative and summative decisions or both.

To measure the performance, there should be some pre-identified and logical criteria that can be used through out the assessment process. These criteria are collectively called key performance indicator (KPI). It helps organizations to attain organizational goals by measuring and evaluating their achievement. The indicators vary depending on the organization. For a business company the percentage of net profit can be one of its KPI. For an educational institute the percentage of passed student can be one of its KPI.

To establish a stable performance measurement system, the key performance indicators selection is very important. They must be selected carefully and rationally.

a. BACKGROUND AND PROBLEM STATEMENT

UUM is a gigantic university with three colleges CAS, COB, COLGIS. UUM have 25139 students and 1489 administrative staffs, 1216 academic staffs (as of 12th Aug. ’08) and it offers 44 undergraduate programs (as of 2nd May ‘09), 59 post graduate programs (as of 16th Feb. ‘09). With the course of time the number of course and students are increasing. Consequently the number of academic staffs is also increasing.

UUM has currently many automated systems such as Personnel Information System “PERSIS”, Research and Consultation Information System “ReCIS”, Graduate Academic Information System “GAIS”, Academic and Student Information System “ASIS” etc. But there is no such automated system for monitoring and evaluating the performance of the lecturer. Currently the manipulating and measuring the performance is manual – the lecturers have to fill up the evaluation form, then print the form and attach the relevant documents and then submit to the evaluation committee. The criteria used for the system is teaching, research, consultation, publication and personality. This evaluation outcome is used for the promotion, scholarship for further study, and other consideration in for advance in career.

However, this kind of manual evaluating system some time is biased and subject to human errors. Also it is very slow process and takes much valuable time of both the lecturers and the evaluating authority. Because of the absence of any automated system the evaluation process is not accurate and well-accepted. So it has been felt the need of a web based evaluation system that can be integrated with existing UUM systems and the data that will be used for the criteria can be extracted automatically from the Personnel Information System of UUM (PERSIS) and other related UUM systems.

It is therefore necessary to develop a web based system in which the whole process will be done automatically.

b. OBJECTIVE

The main objective of this study is to develop a performance evaluation system for the academic staff of UUM. This system will be a web-based and can be integrated with the existing management systems in UUM. Specific objectives are:

• To gather the user requirements for the system.
• To design and develop the system.
• To evaluate the system

c. RESEARCH QUESTION

• What are the requirements for the automated performance measuring system for the lecturer?
• What are the user requirements towards to use this system?

d. SCOPE AND LIMITATION

It will be developed for UUM academic staff and hereby will follow the policy and strategy that have been set by the UUM authority, so it can not be used by other universities and also not for other category of staff.

It will be developed in .NET platform, so it can be used only in windows platform and it will be integrated with existing system.

2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Performance Modeling

Employee evaluations are used to estimate the performance level of an employee. Performance measurement is the method by which an organization fixes the parameters within which programs, investments, and acquisitions are reaching the desired results. The type of performance evaluation should be determined based on the responsibility of the employee within a company. Employee performance models used in organizations today can be categorized into four types: 1) Top Down, 2) Peer-to-Peer, 3) 360-Degree and 4) Self-Assessment [6].

2.1.1 Top Down

The most common and most effective approach is Top-down employee performance evaluation, because they engage the judgment of an employee by a direct supervisor. Top-down employee performance evaluations are most functional when it is done by the immediate supervisor – someone who works with that employee everyday and knows his or her strengths and weaknesses [12].

2.1.2 Peer to peer

Peer-to-peer employee performance evaluations require employees at the same level to review each other. The idea behind peer-to-peer employee performance evaluations is that none knows an employee’s ability better than his/her colleagues. In this type of evaluation considering the maturity level of the employees involved and the long-term effects that could result from the source of negative assessments getting back to the team members is important [8].

2.1.3 360 degree

In 360-degree performance reviews, many different types of people are consulted about an employee’s performance. This includes customers, suppliers, peers and direct reports. In the case of a manager, staffs are often asked to give upward feedback on how well they are being managed. The benefits of many points of view are apparent; but there are also some challenges to these types of performance reviews. While 360-degree performance reviews are being performed, a responsible administration manager should organize the procedure; so that subordinate reviewers are assured that their performance reviews are kept secret [11].

2.1.4 Self-Assessment

Self-Assessment performance reviews are successful when it is combined with any of the other three types of performance reviews. With this type of review, employees are asked to rate themselves, often using the same form that a supervisor will use to evaluate them. Self-assessment performance reviews help give the employees an opportunity for them to reflect their opinion on their own performance prior to the formal review [6].

2.2 Role of Lecturer

According to Dr. Zabokia [5], the primary role of a lecturer is to educate his/her students. However, a lecturer can appear in many aspects. Lecturers also play the roles as tutors, teachers, administrators and counselors.

The normal tasks of a lecturer are:

• First and principal – lecture
• Organize the teaching resources – i.e. lecture slides and handouts
• Set up the questions for examination papers and conduct the evolution

A lecturer can also provide extra care to their students as their counselor. Some students may be under severe pressure – such as family problems, peer pressure, financial problem etc.When a student seems uninterested and his/her presence starts to fall off, it’s desirable to counsel the student.

During a counseling session, a lecturer could also get feedback from the students on the course or subject matter. This may be supportive to the lecturer to progress in his/her teaching style.Documenting the counseling sessions with the students is a good habit.This will facilitate the authority to monitor the improvement of the students, and supply advice to their guardian if needed.

According the “Generic Role Profile” of university lecturer published by University of Cambridge [2] the list of other tasks:

• Active Research
• Publications Research
• Administration
• Mentoring post graduate students
• Participating in conferences or workshops
• Other extra curricular activities like clubs or societies.

2.3 Key Performance Indicator

Key Performance Indicator is the subject measurement in order to verify tangible and intangible result of the organizational performance [4]. It notices current business performance and also definitely identifies the future directions as accomplishing the future values. As an index reflecting business strategy and performance, KPI is derived through current strategies and goals that companies should accomplish.

According to Berk [10] there are some potential sources of evidence of teaching effectiveness: (a) student ratings, (b) peer ratings, (c) self-evaluation, (d) alumni ratings, (e) employer ratings, (f) administrator ratings, (g) teaching scholarship, (h) teaching awards, (i) learning outcome measures, and (j) teaching portfolio.

So these facts can be used as the KPI for this project. Some more indicators can be added which are not mentioned by Berk [10]. Those are number of publications, number of research, and number of projects, year of experience, future planning, undertaken trainings etc.

2.4 System Development methodology- Prototyping

Prototyping is the process where a system can be developed based on the outputs of the previous stage. This may be done by engaging the iterative analysis, design and implementation of an evolving prototype. Learning occurs through the evolutionary system building process where insight is gained about the problem and the complexity of the system. The evolutionary prototyping development process includes regular expert/user evaluation feeding back into the systems development process [3]. Prototyping approach addresses the inability of many users to specify their information needs and the difficulty of system analysis to understand the user’s environment by providing the user with a tentative system for experimental purposes at the earliest possible time [1].

3.0 METHODOLOGY

The methodology that will be used in this project is the prototyping approach. That means we will build a working replica of the proposed system by performing analysis, design and implementation phases concurrently & repeatedly until the system is completed.

It will be useful to better understand and extract user requirements and also to limit cost by understanding the problem before committing more resources.

The prototyping approach is applicable for this project because it can demonstrate technical feasibility and it can also be used to better understand and extract user requirements and also helps to more quickly refine real requirements rather than attempting to understand a system specification on paper.

4.0 SIGNIFICANCE

The significance of the study finding the indicators and developing a web based system that will be used to monitor the performance of UUM lecturer based on Key performance indicators (KPI). It will make a long and uncertain process very easy and quick. This will add a new milestone for the UUM management for their future planning about the lecturer performance evaluation criteria. It will be also very cost effective and it will help to increase the education quality level of UUM.

5.0 CONCLUSION

In the conclusion, we can say that this system will be very useful for the UUM authority to award the right lecturer with the right qualification and hereby maintain the education quality and prove that UUM is the “first choice university”.

Project Schedule (Gantt chart)

REFERENCES:

[1] E. Koskivaara. Design Science Approaches to Information Systems Research, in S. Gregor and D. Hart,Information Systems Foundations: Building the Theoretical Basis, ANU Canberra, 205-216.2002

[2] “Generic Role Profile: University Lecturer”. University of Cambridge. Version 1: December 2005

[3] H. Hasan. Information systems development as a research method. Australasian Journal of Information Systems Special Issue 2003/2004

[4] H.J. Moon, S.H. Lee, S.J. Yoo, E.J. Yu, C.S. Leem. A KPI based Performance Assessment framework for Korean e-Government. In Second International Conference on Future Generation Communication and Networking Symposia, 2008

[5] http://drzabokia.wordpress.com/2007/08/23/responsibilities-of-a-lecturer/ accessed on 14th July, 2009

[6] J. H. McConnell. How to develop essential HR policies and procedures. AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn, 2004

[7] J. P. Campbell. Modeling the performance prediction problem in industrial and organizational psychology. In Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology (pp. 687-732). Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press, Inc.,1990.

[8] K. Wolter. Formal Methods and Stochastic Models for Performance Evaluation: Fourth European Performance Engineering Workshop, EPEW 2007, Berlin, Germany, September, 2007

[9] M. Rotundo & P. R. Sackett. The relative importance of task, citizenship, and counterproductive performance to global ratings of job performance: A policy-capturing approach. Journal of Applied Psychology, 66-80, 2002

[10] R. A. Berk. Survey of 12 Strategies to Measure Teaching Effectiveness. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education , Volume 17, Number 1, 48-62, 2005

[11] T. Maylett. 360-Degree Feedback Revisited: The Transition From Development to Appraisal. May 27, 2009

[12] Woodrow Kroll. Facing Your Final Job Review: The Judgment Seat of Christ, Salvation, and Eternal Rewards. Crossway Books, 2008