The impact of institutional pressures on employee performance management systems in higher education in the low countries

As a result of the 2008 financial crisis, governments' budgets for higher education and research have come under pressure. In the aftermath of the crisis, higher education institutions are likely to face significant budget constraints, as governments and society became considerably more demanding concerning the level and amount of research output to be produced. The need for increased efficiency and effectiveness pushes these institutions to consider the adoption of employee performance management systems. Starting from the contextually based HRM theory framework and institutional theory, this study examined the institutional factors associated with academic units' adoption of employee performance management systems in two institutions of higher education in the Low Countries in 2009. The results show that coercive pressures are a significant predictor of whether the academic unit adopted an employee performance management system. The results also demonstrate that the presence of an HRM department and complementary human resource management practices are associated with an increased likelihood of the presence of employee performance management systems in academic units.