Vertical, horizontal, and self control in academia: Survey evidence on their diverging effects on perceived researcher autonomy and identity

• Published in: The British accounting review Vol. 54; no. 5; p. 101055
• Main Authors: Gerdin, Jonas, Englund, Hans
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.09.2022
• Subjects: Business Studies; Företagsekonomi; Horizontal control; Performance evaluation in academia; Publish or perish peer pressure; Researcher autonomy; Researcher identity; Self control; Vertical control; Researcher autonomy; Vertical control; Performance evaluation in academia; Horizontal control; Self control; Researcher identity; Publish or perish peer pressure
• ISSN: 0890-8389; 1095-8347; 1095-8347
• DOI: 10.1016/j.bar.2021.101055

Foucault-oriented research has since long argued that the proliferation of performance measurement systems (PMSs) within academia threatens perceived researcher autonomy and identity through normalization and stigmatization of deviants. The theoretical model developed in this study nuances these claims by suggesting that effects of PMSs will differ depending on whether they are enacted as important for superiors (vertical control), colleagues (horizontal control), the researchers themselves (self control), and how they are constructed by these very systems. Overall, the structural equation modelling analyses conducted on questionnaire data from some 700 Swedish researchers strongly confirm the model developed. Specifically, they show that PMSs enacted as a vertical form of control indeed threatens perceived autonomy and identity, and that horizontal control in the form of publish and peer pressure among colleagues works as a mediating mechanism which strengthens these effects. However, our analyses also show that when PMSs are enacted as important means of self control, this in fact increases perceptions of autonomy and reduces feelings of identity threat. We also find that the extent to which these systems construct researchers as high-performing is an important antecedent explaining how come they can be enacted in so different ways, and the effects thereof.