Performance Information Use: The Impact of Perceived Stakeholder Salience

Abstract

Stakeholders often hold divergent, and sometimes, adversarial views on organizational initiatives. Performance management in the higher education sector is no exception. Thus, which stakeholders will have their preferences met? Will it be the most important stakeholders? This study measures university leaders’ perceived salience of three stakeholder groups – academics, staff, students - and the impact it has on performance management, specifically the use of performance information to inform the decision-making process. Results show that although staff is perceived to be the least salient, they are the only stakeholder group to have an influence on performance information use.