Evolution path and critical influencing factors of performance management system: a longitudinal case study in China

ABSTRACT

Performance management is critical to the performance of individuals and organizations. We conduct a longitudinal study on a listed enterprise (i.e. Neusoft) in China as basis in first identifying the four stages of its growth process: initial start-up, growth, mature, and sustainable development stages. The evolution path of performance management system (PMS) in Neusoft can be described as ‘point’, ‘line’, ‘surface’, and strategic ‘surface’ evaluation systems in the initial start-up, growth, mature, and sustainable development stages, respectively. We find that the critical influencing factors of PMS include the good professional background and personal traits of line managers, clear communication on performance management goals between leaders and their subordinates, professional knowledge of performance management specialists, and broad participation of senior leaders in performance management processes. The four factors emerge gradually with the evolution of PMS. This paper contributes to building a comprehensive and dynamic construct for PMS and generates a systematic understanding of the critical influencing factors of this system.

KEYWORDS:

• Case study
• China
• critical influencing factors
• evolution path
• growth stage
• performance management system

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 71972032, 71672031, and 72102033]; the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China [grant number N2006005 and N2206012]; the Humanities and Social Science Foundation of the Ministry of Education of China [grant number 21YJC630153]; the Social Science Foundation of Liaoning in China [grant number L21CGL013].

Notes on contributors

Jianfeng Jia

Jianfeng Jia is a Professor at the School of Business Administration of Northeastern University. His research interests include organizational behavior, human resource management and entrepreneurship management.

Yuxin Jiao

Yuxin Jiao is a PhD candidate at the School of Business Administration at Northeastern University. Her research interests include human resource management and management psychology.

Jiaqi Yan

Jiaqi Yan is a Lecturer in School of Business Administration at Northeastern University. He received his PhD from Tongji University. His research focuses on the strength of the human resource management system, entrepreneurship and innovation.

Jiexiang Wang

Jiexiang Wang is an Associate Professor at the School of Business Administration, Zhejiang Gongshang University, China. He received his PhD in Management from Zhejiang University, China. His research interests include platform strategy, innovation management.

Hailong Jia

Hailong Jia is a Professor at the School Public Management of South China University of Technology. His primary research interests include the dynamics between trade, investment and labor, international labor standards, HR management and labor relations in multinationals from the legal perspective, HR management and labor relations in multinationals from the CSR perspective, and Chinese labor law.