The appraisal and performance management of academics in Romanian public universities

• Author: Bacanu B.
• Pages: 165-170

Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov

Series V: Economic Sciences • Vol. 9 (58) No. 2 - 2016

The appraisal and performance management of

academics in Romanian public universities

Bogdan BCANU1

Abstract: The study is focused on the appraisal and performance management in the public

organizations, with an emphasis on the Romanian academic world. The trigger of this study

was generated by the notable incongruence between approaches in terms of performance

appraisal in the public sector. The study case examines the staff assessment procedures, as

well as amalgamated and distorted processes that lead to rather compliant staff versus

performant one, in the same logic of seeking false virtues while chasing real performance

criteria in evaluations.

Key-words: performance appraisal, performance management, public university

1. Introduction into the general theoretical frame

From the outset it must be stated that the concep t performance refers in Romanian to a

particularly good result. The reference to performance management in current literature

means a discussion about an ordinary result, not particularly a very good one. To

comply with these trend of literature will continue to talk about "performance

management", when in reality the subject will be about „results management”.

The problem of individual performance in an organization is linked to the

performance of the organization. Evaluation and management of individual

performance in case of public organizations is all the more necessary, as the

organization's performance measurement is more difficult, rarest and with dramatic

consequences in cases of unfavorable results. It is more difficult because its real

substantive form in a public organization is still unclear (Bcanu, 2014).

Individual performance management in public organization is deficient

because the fuzzy characteristic of its final product of and because of the market

structure, generally a monopolistic one, typical for this type of organization. In some

cases the performance of public organization is difficult to assess because there is

not a convergent opinion of stakeholders on the nature of the performance. In other

cases public organization is genuinely not interested in improving performance,

1 Transilvania University of Braşov, b.bacanu@unitbv.ro