Diversity of appraisal and performance‐related pay practices in higher education

This paper discusses the use of appraisal and performance‐related pay practices for academic staff in higher education in the UK. This discussion is based on the reports of heads of personnel in universities, with the aim of portraying the pattern of such practices across the sector as a whole, and of investigating the extent to which these activities parallel institutional characteristics and are part of a strategic approach to employment management. It finds some evidence for a continued binary divide in practice between pre‐1992 and post‐1992 universities, but also a great diversity of practice which can support a convergence thesis for the sector. The paper concludes that such diversity may have a place within the requirements of the higher education system, but it may need to be managed in a more proactive and strategic way in the future.