L'impact des systèmes de mesure de la performance sur la gestion des carrières dans l'enseignement supérieur

Performance measurement systems impact the higher education field and influence the career management of academics. This dissertation aims to provide some elements in explaining how the academic world has changed and what academics aspire to do in the future. Particular attention is paid to the meaning of university ranking measurements and to the individual perception of the current academic environment. Content analysis of rankings and accreditation systems, observation of higher education institutions (HEIs) and semi-structured interviews with Tenured Professors, Assistant Professors, Lecturer, and PhD candidates were used as a reliable database for the current research.The institutionalization of performance measurement systems plays an important role in the transformation of the academic field. Used intensively in the marketization of HEIs, they lead to the development of a snowball effect. The proliferation of rankings has pushed forward certain activities performed by HEIs, forcing the transformation of academic practices and the development of image inequalities among different academic career paths. As normative pressure guided institutions to align to international demands, major transformations occurred at the individual level, where faculty members underwent significant change in their understanding of what an academic career meant.The question on how performance measurements impact the academic career management emerged as I observed international rankings and accreditation systems, as well as HEIs actions and academics behavior. My findings corroborate one of the management accounting key concepts, ‘you get what you measure', and bring to light the emphasis placed by the academic community on research activities. This dissertation emphasizes the drawbacks of using such measurements in search for standardization of academic activities. In particular, I highlight that the improper use of the current performance indicators lead to several anomalies, such as the obscuration of the pedagogical career, which has lost its status and is now often regarded as a limited and shameful career choice.L'impact des systèmes de mesure de performance sur l'enseignement supérieur et sur la gestion des carrières des universitaires est vraiment puissant. Cette thèse vise à fournir quelques éléments qui expliquent la transformation du ce secteur et les changements des aspirations des universitaires. Une attention particulière est portée sur les significations de la mesure de la performance au delà des classements et sur la manière selon laquelle les universitaires perçoivent leur environnement actuel. L'analyse du contenu des classements et des systèmes d'accréditation, l'observation des établissements d'enseignement supérieur et des entretiens avec des professeurs, des maîtres de conférences, des PRAG, des vacataires et des doctorants ont permis de constituer une base de données fiable pour la recherche actuelle.L'institutionnalisation des systèmes de mesure de performance joue un rôle important dans la transformation du monde universitaire. La prolifération des classements a privilégié en avant certaines activités exercées par les établissements d'enseignement supérieur, imposant la transformation des pratiques académiques, ainsi que le développement des inégalités d'image entre les différents cheminements des carrières universitaires. La pression normative a incité les institutions à s'aligner sur les exigences internationales, fait qui a conduit à des grandes transformations au niveau individuel, où les membres du corps professoral ont changées leur perception sur la carrière universitaire.Le sujet de cette thèse a émergé en observant les classements internationaux et les systèmes d'accréditation, ainsi que les actions des établissements d'enseignement supérieur et le comportement des universitaires. Mes résultats mettent en lumière la grande importance accordée par la communauté universitaire aux activités de recherche en soulignant quelques conséquences dues à la normalisation des activités académiques. En fait, l'utilisation inadéquate des indicateurs de performance conduit à plusieurs anomalies, comme par exemple l'affaiblissement de la carrière pédagogique

Statistical Instruments Used In The Audit Process

This study is about the importance of statistical instruments in the audit process. No theory has any value without a practical finality. If we are not using adequate tools and technologies to highlight the importance of the audits from a practical standpoint, we wouldn’t be able to improve on the audit systems. As in any emerging field we need a lot of feedback. The process starts by developing a theory, applying the theory in the field, analyzing the results, make needed changes and corrections, and then, if necessary, revise the theory. Thru this kind of process the statistical audit instruments (tools) are at the foundation of theories, analysis, continuing a cycle meant to bring improvements in this field. Considering that we can not analyze the whole audit process, the most utilized technique is poll-ing. In order for the results to be correct we need to ensure that we have a fair representation both as subject and as scale. We also have to keep in mind the human error margin. All the results are being analyzed by an auditor, who needs to be objective and very careful in handling the data. It is the audi-tor’s ultimate responsibility to ensure that the final conclusions drawn at the end of the audit process are correct and provide useful information to the customers."audit, statistical instruments

QUALITATIVE STUDIES IN ACCOUNTING: THE ABDUCTIVE. RESEARCH STRATEGY.

This paper addresses to accounting researchers and proposes the use of abductive research strategy to improve the quality of accounting research outcomes. We argue that abductive reasoning has developed as a typical research method in all fields of interpretive studies but is still unrecognized by accounting researchers and practitioners. Therefore, this study aims to raise awareness on the benefits obtained through the implementation of abduction as a research strategy. Starting from Peirce (1903) and Blaikie (1993), we explore two types of abduction designs and discuss the advantages of building accounting research on grounded concepts. While this is a conceptual paper that only describes the bridge abduction reasoning can build between studying the reality and new theory emergence, we do not tackle any ethnographical case studies, social survey, or other exploratory field analyses

MEASURING THE HEIS CONTRIBUTION TO SOCIETY

Over the last years, the interaction with the socio-economic environment was defined as the third mission of the higher education institutions (HEIs), along with the two other traditional missions, namely teaching and research. These three missions represent the foundation upon which HEIs are evaluated and they have a great impact on the strategy that schools are implementing in order to achieve their goals. International university rankings, which are global mechanisms of higher education performance measurement systems, have just recently started to develop indicators that measure the third mission activities. Thus, this paper provides a literature review of the indicators employed for the performance measurement of HEIs contribution to society