Research On The Influence Of Performance On Internal Governance Structure Of Private Colleges And Universities Based On The Grounded Theroy

The most fundamental purpose of studying the internal governance structure of private colleges and universities is to promote and stimulate teachers’ enthusiasm and creativity in their work,so that their teaching,scientific research,and social services will remain efficient.Thus,it is essential to find an evaluation perspective,like performance evaluation,to judge whether or not the governance structure of private colleges and universities is reasonable and effective.At present,the great majority of Chinese private colleges and universities have adopted on-campus performance evaluation,but the result of the evaluation is not satisfying.The performance evaluation is generally believed to be effective if it promotes teachers’ enthusiasm and contributes to the realization of school goals,and vice versa.Therefore,it is necessary to make dynamic adjustments in the light of the evaluation effect.According to the governance theory,the governance structure determines the use of governance means;in turn,the continual improvement of governance means can help to optimize the governance structure constantly.For private colleges and universities,there are various means of optimizing governance structure.This dissertation adopts performance evaluation as the perspective and explores what promoting role that performance evaluation of private colleges and universities plays in the affecting of governance structure.The research questions can be listed as follows:1.What is theoretical analysis framework of the governance structure?2.What problems does the performance evaluation of the private universities and colleges have and what deficiencies in the internal governance structure does these problems reflect?3.In what dimensions does the performance evaluation system affect the internal governance structure?4.How can the internal governance structure of private colleges and universities be enhanced through the reform of performance evaluation based on the analysis of the existing problems and the summary of experience both at home and abroad?To address the above-mentioned research questions,the dissertation firstly bases its study on the analysis of stakeholder theory and performance evaluation theory and proposes an analysis framework for the impact of performance evaluation on the internal governance structure.The dissertation holds that the performance evaluation system of private colleges and universities affects the governance efficiency of the whole school by influencing the governance objectives,and then acting on the governance subjects,governance rules and governance mechanism.Besides,the survey reveals the following major problems existing in the performance evaluation of private colleges and universities:Firstly,utilitarianism is rather prominent for the evaluation objectives are either excessively profit-driven or are restrained by external evaluations;Secondly,the evaluation indicators are deviated from the school’s planning goals or school orientation,and the evaluation criteria are not in high conformity with the school’s actual situation;Thirdly,the operation mode of performance evaluation is top-down and one-dimension;Fourthly,performance evaluation has brought about great confusion and low recognition of performance evaluation among the teachers as a result of its failure to reflect the work effectiveness and engagement of teachers in private colleges and universities;Fifth,there exist various short-sighted behaviors in the use of performance evaluation results,which lack in-depth analysis and effective feedback or are often simplified as the basis for the distribution of salary and bonuses.The above-mentioned problems seem to be the disadvantages of the performance evaluation itself,but in reality they reflect the fundamental problems of the internal governance structure:Lack of the participating of diversified subjects,as k ey stakeholders,teachers are seriously absent in internal governance;Lack of decentralization and checks and balances in the formulation of governance rules causes the capital power represented by the organizers to be in an absolute position;The operation of the governance mechanism is subject to centralized management,powers and responsibilities of colleges and departments are seriously out of balance;As a result,the overall governance efficiency of private colleges and universities is not high.In addition,to reveal the dimensions in which the performance evaluation system affects the internal governance structure,the dissertation takes the qualitative research as the orientation and adopts grounded theoretical research methods.Taking 22 administrators from 10 private universities in China as the research object,the research constructs the influence model of performance evaluation on the internal governance structure.The research argues that the dimensions of "evaluation objective","evaluation index","evaluation subject","evaluation object","evaluation criteria" and "evaluation feedback" in the performance evaluation system affect the governance subjects,governance rules and governance mechanism in the governance structure.With the change of governance subjects,rules and mechanism,the governance structure has also changed,which ultimately influences the effectiveness of governance.Using 3 of the 10 private universities as the research subjects,based on the motivations of the performance evaluation systems of these 3 universities,the performance evaluation systems were categorized into two types,namely"endogenous-dominance" system and the "internal-drive and external-attraction"system.Using the influence model constructed by empirical research as the analysis framework,the two types of performance evaluation systems were discussed.Finally,the dissertation puts forward some countermeasures and suggestions to improve the internal governance structure of private colleges and universities in China from the perspective of performance evaluation reform.It is suggested that the internal governance structure of private colleges and universities should maintain a balanced,open and flexible state under the combined effect of external environment and internal forces.On the one hand,it is necessary to strengthen external guarantee giving full play to the role of educational administrative departments and strengthening the overall planning and management of the government.Meanwhile,it is also vital to further the construction of social intermediary organizations.On the other hand,private colleges and universities should take performance evaluation as the internal driving force,pushing the diversified subjects play an important role in the internal governance structure,using institution innovation to improve governance rules,establishing colleges and departments’central role to improve the efficiency of governance mechanism.In summary,taking performance evaluation as the starting point,this dissertation conformed to the logical conception that performance evaluation played a positive role in optimizing the internal governance structure of private colleges and universities.The dissertation explored both the deficiencies of the internal governance structure in private universities and the roles of optimization of the governance structure in promoting performance evaluation from positive and negative perspectives so as to find solutions and thus to provide reference for private colleges and universities to optimize their internal governance structure.