Deconstructing performance management analytics in Zimbabwean public universities a case of a double-faced assemblage
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.64754/thedyke.v20i1.624Keywords:
analytics, assemblage, dispositive, panopticon, performance management, surveillanceAbstract
Since the turn of the 21st century, there has been an upsurge in the deployment of performance management analytics to drive productivity for a sustained competitive advantage. Despite this, scholarly works on the subject, particularly in less developed and emerging economies, have remained subdued. Drawing on critical human resource management (CHRM) and post-structuralist theory, the study on which this paper is based interrogated the role of performance management analytics in a selected public university in Zimbabwe. The study followed a qualitative research approach and triangulated archival ethnography, ‘get-along’key informant interviews, and participants’ lived experiences. It established that performance management analytics were a ‘double-faced’ assemblage: simultaneously operating as tools for organisational coordination for the collective good and as instruments of surveillance and control. The power of the analytics rested on their omniscient gaze and ability to act as both normalising and self-regulatory artifices. The effectiveness of the different types of surveillance was dependent on the integration of the different performance management analytics and stakeholder responses.
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