DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES
INDIAN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE
Ph.D. Thesis Colloquium
Ms. Divya Pavi N C
(Research Supervisors: Dr. P. Balachandra, IISc & Dr A K Rajesh, HAL)
Title: Performance Measurement System for Researchers in Industrial R&D Organizations –
A Study of Measurement Outcomes and influence of Organizational Policies and Politics
Venue: Department of Management Studies & Microsoft Teams (Hybrid)
Date and Time: Friday 26th July 2024 at 11:30 AM
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ABSTRACT
Research and Development (R&D) fosters innovation and technological advancement, drives economic growth, encourages competitiveness, and addresses global challenges, thereby improving the overall well-being of society. Being a knowledge-based industry, the driving force behind R&D has been primarily attributed to the quality of personnel employed. Thus, maintaining this resource at optimal efficiency is highly essential for driving results, for which performance measurement is a major intercession undertaken at organizational level. But, the challenge is that output created by R&D personnel is difficult to quantify, considering the inherent peculiarities of R&D outcomes such as unpredictability, high technical risk, non-repeatability, information indivisibility, effort – result time lag, etc., thereby making objective measurement of research performance a difficult proposition. This research is aimed at understanding the performance measurement system (PMS) of researchers and its impact on measurement outcomes amidst the existing organizational policies and politics.
A comprehensive conceptual framework was formulated with Performance Measurement System (PMS), the predictor variable comprising of five factors, namely, objectives for measurement, dimensions of performance, evaluators, feedback on performance and data capture and handling. The dependent variable, measurement outcome consists of individual and organizational outcomes. The individual outcomes examined comprised of decision for promotion, training and capability building along with rewards and recognition while the organizational outcomes of the study included succession planning, team building, and organizational effectiveness. The organizational policy is the mediator and organizational politics is hypothesized to moderate the measurement system-measurement outcome relationship. These hypothesised relationships were empirically established using appropriate statistical techniques. Further the impact of demographic characteristics on PMS was explored. This research scope also includes nature of organization and type of R&D activity as contextual factors. The type of organizations examined include government labs, public sector and private sector R&D labs. The R&D activity is studied under four categories namely research, development, engineering and design technical service.
This kind of an inclusive formalization of PMS is unexplored, with treatment in extant studies increasingly limited to single outcome variables and in sectors other than R&D. This research has contributed to a depth of understanding of practical and theoretical implications in dealing with assessment and enhancement of performance of researchers in the industrial R&D institutions operating in varying research contexts.
ALL ARE WELCOME