Performance indicators and rational management tools: A compatative assessment of projects in North America and Europe

Performance assessment projects have appeared on the landscape of higher education at public and independent universities in North American and Europe. This paper represents work in progress that develops a classificatory schema to critically compare these rational management initiatives along several dimensions, for example, conceptual underpinnings, governance, levels of aggregation, usage patterns, and the like. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of these initiatives for organizational change and some lessons for institutional researchers in North American and Europe. Presented at the 1993 AIR Forum, Chicago, May 1993.