Annual Performance Evaluation Research Articles

Looking for Autonomy through Service

Looking for Autonomy through Service Donna Palmateer Pennee (bio) Speaking as an ex-administrator and a tenured professor with a long and varied service record, I want to suggest that service is that part of our collectively negotiated professional workload through which autonomy is most likely to be protected from further erosion if exercised accountably. Service (to the university and the profession) is the least valued of our three areas of responsibility when we consider that typically it "counts" for 20 percent of our workload and annual performance evaluation (APE), two matters of university self-governance over which the academic unit still exercises considerable control and discretion at most universities in Canada. We do ourselves and our profession a lot of damage when we limit our use of collective agreements to punish-and-grieve or grieve-and-punish manuals when they can be key mentoring documents for the profession. Having "paid one's dues" is only the beginning, not the end, of understanding and accounting for our roles in collective institutional governance. Service is the perfect place to learn about and to practice autonomy in the university, because it is through service that we act on what our own academic units have determined to be our workload and the terms of our performance evaluation. The bulk of decision-making over our academic [End Page 17] responsibilities is still within our power, even though the circumstances of university funding have changed. In both contexts, the weight of service can far exceed its numerical value. To be sure, given that the remaining 80 percent of our workload can demand more time than it used to (for example, because of expanded enrolments or imperatives to find external research funding because public funding is diminished), members have found or are looking for ways to free up that 20 percent of the week that is to be given to service. Some among us cultivate incompetence or practice prickliness, some just don't show up for service; we do or do not take responsibility for peer-review processes on home ground with varying degrees of honesty, courage, conscientiousness, good will, and concern for equity. But we are free to manage these matters within our units, just as we have autonomy for evaluating performance across all three of our areas of academic responsibility. How do our academic units practice autonomy through service? Unfortunately, but perhaps understandably when considered alongside the nominal equality but differential value of 40 percent teaching and 40 percent research, service is the part of our workload that is most shunned and least understood. Service is sometimes assigned within academic units (despite nomination and election processes) in the most untransparent of ways. Worse still, service is often evaluated by colleagues during performance evaluations and in p and t decisions in the most untransparent of ways. Evaluating service tends, for some units and some elected committee members, to be rather like some modes of assigning participation grades to students, that is, through no negotiated or explicit criteria beyond the arbitrary percentage in the course outline or the collective agreement, thereby permitting the "fudging" of the overall grade, or performance, up or down. Most tenured faculty have witnessed, perhaps even participated in, such fudging, when resentments and preferences of one sort or another "work themselves out in the wash" of APE and p and t committee deliberations, precisely where criteria are not spelled out. But working out such resentments and preferences, or only airing the still-dirty laundry under the frequently blown cover of committee "confidentiality," is a form of abusing our autonomy—autonomy that we nevertheless insist is best practised by our peer-review processes. In most collective agreements, the criteria for such evaluation continue to be determined by the department (or the academic unit), ratified by the department, and, with rare requests for changes, approved by deans and vice-provosts of faculty relations or administration. Departmental workload documents are similarly ratified and approved and are closely [End Page 18] linked to APE documents. What do your departmental workload and APE documents say? What are APE committee members looking for when peer review of the performance of workload occurs? Have departmental committees been...

A Binary Choice Model For Optimum Entrepreneurial Development In An Economy Facing Environmental Constraints

This study describes a methodology for estimating a choice model for an optimum entrepreneurial development which allows the funding and other intervention policies to enhance the formation of small and medium enterprises to be used in developing national policy agenda. Five policy objectives are described for the Nigerian unique situation. But whatever national policy objectives are deemed relevant in any situation, we propose that such policy objectives be chosen and implemented in a transparent manner and supported by annual on-site monitoring and performance evaluation for a period deemed necessary to enable the goals to be realized.

Nursing peer review: the manager’s role

This article explains the unique role of nurse managers in facilitating nursing peer review and clarifies the issues of ownership about peer review processes and performance evaluations. The authors' review of the literature and experiences as organizational consultants, found no examples of principled peer review using the authoritative American Nurses Association (ANA) Guidelines for Peer Review. The foundation for the work includes the author's recently published book, which includes a literature review, research on nursing peer review along with the ANA Guidelines for Peer Review. The distinction between the role of the manager in peer review and the role of the manager related to the annual performance evaluation is identified. The authors' contemporary model of peer review is used to explore development of peer review for managers and practicing nurses. Key behaviours for nurse managers in facilitating peer review processes within a professional practice model are presented. Peer review is an essential and often missing element of practice needed to achieve sustainable quality and safety nursing outcomes. Guidelines and principles for development are presented.

Stand-alone photovoltaic (PV) integrated with earth to air heat exchanger (EAHE) for space heating/cooling of adobe house in New Delhi (India)

Abstract This paper deals with an experimental outdoor annual performance evaluation of 2.32 kW P photovoltaic (PV) power system located at solar energy park in New Delhi composite climatic conditions. This PV system operates the daily electrical load nearly 10 kW h/day which comprises of various applications such as electric air blower of an earth to air heat exchanger (EAHE) used for heating/cooling of adobe house, ceiling fan, fluorescent tube-light, computer, submersible water pump, etc. The outdoor efficiencies, power generated and lost in PV system components were determined using hourly experimental measured data for 1 year on typical clear day in each month. These realistic data are useful for design engineers for outdoor assessment of PV system components. The energy conservation, mitigation of CO 2 emission and carbon credit potential of the existing PV integrated EAHE system is presented in this paper. Also, the energy payback time (EPBT) and unit cost of electricity were determined for both stand-alone PV (SAPV) and building roof integrated PV (BIPV) systems.

WE-C-213A-03: MRI Annual Equipment Performance Evaluation & Acceptance Testing

The ACR MRI Accreditation program requires that sites applying for MRI accreditation submit an annual MRI system performance evaluation performed by a medical physicist or MR scientist. The medical physicist/MR Scientist follows the ACR MRI Quality Control (QC) Manual in order to perform a complete annual system performance evaluation. This evaluation includes an evaluation of the weekly QC performed by a technologist. This presentation shall review a standard set of tests and procedures that satisfy the ACR compliance testing guidelines. A model program for satisfying the ACR MRI performance standards shall be provided. Steps for setting up the QC Program include determining which tests are appropriate, establishing a mutually agreeable testing frequency, training technologist and other personnel to carry out their portions of the MRI QC program, reviewing artifacts and other problems that result from the test data and documenting corrective actions that are taken. Attention will be paid to specific tests, such as Magnetic Field Homogeneity, in which spectral width, phase-difference and bandwidth difference methods will be discussed and compared. Tests for gradient field linearity (geometric distortion) and radio frequency (RF) coil testing will be presented, including measuring slice thickness accuracy, determining mean and maximum signal-to-noise ratios, ghosting ratios and image intensity uniformity. The relevance, applicability, and performance of each element will be discussed. A brief discussion of suggested, additional elements that would constitute an Acceptance Testing (AT) program for Magnetic Resonance Imaging devices will conclude the presentation. Tasks under consideration will include comparing equipment received with purchase order specifications, checking environmental conditions of the MRI suite, RF room shielding survey, cryogen consumption, magnetic field stability, magnetic fringe field survey, gradient field strength, eddy current evaluation, evaluation of image acquisition and image processing software and optional features. Individual testing procedures and the rationale for their use will be presented and performance evaluation acceptance criteria will be suggested. Upon completion of this presentation, participants will understand how to: • Design Quality Control (QC) Testing and Acceptance Testing (AT) programs for Magnetic Resonance Imaging • Define the role of the Technologist, equipment service personnel and the clinical medical physicist/MR scientist in this programs. • Configure the equipment necessary for MRI QC and AT testing.

Momentum Trading and Performance with Wrong Return Expectations

Many long-term institutional investors use strategic portfolio allocation to maximize net asset value assuming that long-run expected returns are constant. This approach is complemented by tactical asset allocation when an asset class is perceived to offer higher expected returns in the short run. When investment performance is evaluated in the interim, it can be difficult to assess the merit of private beliefs about changing expected returns. The authors examine the annual expected return and dynamic trading under wrong assumptions about time-varying expected returns and show that a misspecified portfolio policy can outperform the correct policy. They also find that the particular assumptions about how expected returns vary through time can be identified from observed rebalancing of a portfolio. The assumption that expected returns are changing implies that momentum trading is optimal under certain conditions. In contrast, contrarian trading is always optimal when prices are assumed to follow a random walk around a constant long-term trend. These results can inform the annual performance evaluation of institutions, such as endowments, pension plans, mutual funds, and hedge funds that have long-term investment objectives. <b>TOPICS:</b>VAR and use of alternative risk measures of trading risk, statistical methods, portfolio construction

Evaluation of Annual Performance of Multi-type Air-Conditioners for Buildings

Evaluation of Annual Performance of Multi-type Air-Conditioners for Buildings

Evaluation of Annual Performance of Multi-type Air-conditioners for Buildings

The partial thermal load performance tests of electric-motor driven multi-type air-conditioners for buildings, the rated cooling and heating capacities of which were 56 kW and 63 kW, respectively, were carried out using the air-enthalpy method testing apparatus. Based on the results of those tests, the applicability of JIS B 8616: 2006, which was developed for the estimation of the annual electricity consumption of packaged air-conditioners with rated cooling capacities less than 28 kW, to the multi-type air-conditioners with larger capacities were examined. It was found that JIS B 8616: 2006 generally overestimates COP under a relatively low thermal load operation. As a result, the annual electricity consumption is underestimated by JIS. The prediction error changes depending of the building uses, and it amounted to -17 % in the case of office and -6 % in the detached shop.

Nuo nomenklatūros iki pseudobiurokratijos : posovietines viešosios biurokratijos bruožai Lietuvoje

This article attempts to substantiate a persistence of features of the soviet bureaucratic-administrative system to the extent these can be discussed, and their influence on the public bureaucracy of the independent republic of Lithuania. it is claimed that the purpose of the reforms in Lithuania’s state civil services was to develop a stable, professional, and politically neutral public bureaucracy, i.e., a classical bureaucracy based on Max Weber’s type of an ideal bureaucracy. certain aspects of reforms were successfully implemented. However, at the behavioral level, the public bureaucracy in post-soviet Lithuania is still predominately a variant of a pseudo-bureaucracy. signs of protecting managers at the expense of ordinary employees, a practice rooted in the nomenklatura, can still be found in Lithuania’s civil service. They become clear when observing how the instruments for a career and compensation are in reality applied in civil service. The outcome of the annual performance evaluations from 2003 to 2006 of Lithuanian civil servants for a career in civil service was clearly disproportionate with respect to the financial incentives for those public bureaucrats who hold managerial or senior positions. Political control of the bureaucracy noticeably weakened from 2002 to 2008. This is first of all related to the corrections made to the Law on civil service and other laws. on the one hand, the purpose for the reforms was to counter the practice of politicized personnel management in civil service. on the other, needed attention was not paid to the twofold nature of politicization. along with personnel management that is politicized, the functional politicization of the upper levels of civil service is also known.[...].

TU‐SAMS‐332‐01: Film‐Screen Mammography QA: What You Need to Know

The medical physicist provides a valuable service to mammography facilities by helping to ensure the production of high quality images at a low radiation dose. This presentation will describe the role of the medical physicist in mammography QA and equipment performance evaluation of film‐screen systems. Individual tests for both initial and annual equipment evaluations will be described. Special attention will be paid to potential pitfalls, common problems and ways to increase efficiency of the testing process.Educational Objectives1. Review medical physicist responsibilities in film‐screen mammography QA.2. Learn about the specific requirements involved in testing for new equipment installations.3. Review quality control procedures for annual equipment performance evaluations.4. Learn about ways to streamline equipment performance evaluations.

An Annual Faculty Performance Evaluation Portfolio Facilitates the Assembling of the Promotion Portfolio and the Process

An Annual Faculty Performance Evaluation Portfolio Facilitates the Assembling of the Promotion Portfolio and the Process

Evaluation of Annual Performance of Multi-type Air-Conditioners for Buildings

Evaluation of Annual Performance of Multi-type Air-Conditioners for Buildings

Registered Nurse Peer Evaluation in the Perioperative Setting

ANNUAL PERFORMANCE evaluations can be difficult to prepare and may rely, in part, on anecdotal information. PERIOPERATIVE RNs at CHRISTUS St Patrick Hospital, Lake Charles, La, developed and implemented a peer evaluation as part of nurses' annual performance evaluations. THE EVALUATION FORMS created were considered to be useful and fair by both staff members and managers.

WE‐B‐ValB‐01: Physics Procedures for ACR MRI Accreditation

In recent years, the American College of Radiology (ACR) Magnetic Resonance Accreditation Program (MRAP) has been adopted by over 3000 sites, nearly half of the estimated MRI facilities in the United States. Those sites agree to follow a weekly QC program set up and monitored by a qualified medical physicist or MR scientist. They also agree to undergo initial and annual equipment performance evaluations by a qualified medical physicist/MR scientist. There are several published documents, including the ACR Phantom Testing Guidance and the 2004 ACR MRI QC Manual, which describe the tests and the performance criteria. These documents are helpful in providing guidance on submitting phantom images for accreditation. However, they allow considerable discretion to physicists doing these tests, and the scanners change more frequently than the published guidance.A consulting medical physicist may see a variety of scanners, each for a short period of time, and needs to provide the sites with useful recommendations beyond the pass/fail status of the phantom tests. The physicist must gather this information from existing data and tests performed with the ACR and other available phantoms. This lecture will describe information which can be derived from those data and how it may be used for improving MR image quality.Educational Objectives:1. Learn the current status of the ACR MRAP program and the role of the medical physicist in that program.2. Understand how to perform required phantom and annual tests on various scanners and the performance criteria for those tests.3. Understand how the results of those tests can be combined and analyzed to troubleshoot problems.4. Understand how QC test and phantom availability and results may vary depending on scanner manufacturer.

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An Empirical Analysis of an Incentive Plan with Relative Performance Measures: Evidence from a Postal Service

Using 1997–1999 annual performance evaluation data of 214 postal stores in Korea, we find that financial performance improves following the implementation of an incentive plan that includes relative performance measures, and that under this incentive plan, the degree of common uncertainty is positively associated with store profitability. We also find evidence that the incentive effect of the plan is mitigated in stores at which the employees' perceived unfairness is likely to be high. Finally, we find that the net benefits of introducing the incentive plan may be conditional on the degree of common uncertainty, which appears to be inversely related to the perceived unfairness attributable to the introduction of the contract with relative performance measures.

Changing the Nature of Parent Involvement

THERE'S parent involvement and then there's parent involvement. There's the kind that has parents volunteering their time in schools, making costumes, or organizing and staffing the school carnival fund-raiser. This is helpful activity by any measure -- helpful in the service of kids and not to be minimized. But there are other levels of involvement at which parents might have more significant impact than just giving of their time and money. For example, Maryland's Parent Advisory Council has a vision of involvement in which parents, families, educators, and community members work together as real partners, hold themselves mutually accountable, and have the knowledge, skills, and confidence to succeed at improving the achievement of all Volunteering at their child's school might be the first step on a ladder of multiple levels of parental influence. The second level might be faithful attendance at school conferences and school activities. Up from there could be serving as a parent representative on school improvement committees and spending time in classrooms, tutoring or reading one-on- one with students. Next on a scale of increasing importance might come parents holding up their end of the bargain by making sure their children do their homework, have a quiet place to study and materials at hand, and attend school on time, every day. And yet even this important level of involvement might not have as much impact as having high expectations for their children's effort and behavior -- which, to continue with this rough metaphor, would be my pick for the top rung. Too frequently, however, parent involvement is defined as those activities that are easiest to measure. Currently, 17 states have grant or award programs that encourage schools or districts to involve parents in their children's education or recognize those that do so already. But are these programs based too conveniently on hours volunteered, money raised, conferences attended? And 15 states have policies that encourage, urge, expect, or direct employers to enable parents to attend school activities such as parent/teacher conferences. Though these activities are important, it's often easier for educators to talk to parents about what they can do for the school than it is to listen to parents about what they know their kids need to be successful. Unfortunately, sometimes when parents appear not to care, it's because they know that what they have to say won't be heard. Statewide Parent Advisory Council When state superintendent Nancy Grasmick appointed parents from across the state to the Maryland Parent Advisory Council, her goal was to generate big-picture ideas on how to improve working relationships between parents and school personnel. In February, the council released nearly two dozen recommendations addressing the five themes of accountability, training, leadership, partnership, and communication. The recommendations, which call for action mainly at the state level, include the following. Accountability. Require each local school system, along with representatives from advocacy and community groups, to assess regularly the effectiveness of parent and community involvement policies and practices and, based on the results, to develop improvement plans that will be incorporated into the systems' master plans. Provide support to local school systems in creating a family involvement satisfaction survey and administering it annually to parents. The results of the survey would be factored into the annual performance evaluations of administrators and other staff members. Create incentives for the state department, districts, and schools to develop more effective communication and partnerships with parents and the community, including businesses. Training. The state education department should assess the training needs of local school systems with regard to parent and community involvement and then provide appropriate technical assistance, resources, and mentoring. …

An Empirical Analysis of a Relative Performance-Based Incentive Plan: Evidence from a Postal Service

Using 1997-1999 annual performance evaluation data of 214 postal stores in Korea, we find that introduction of a relative performance evaluation (RPE)-based incentive plan is positively associated with financial performance and that under the new incentive plan, the degree of common uncertainty is positively associated with store profitability. We also find evidence that the incentive effect of the RPE-based plan is mitigated in stores at which the level of dysfunctional behavior is likely to be high. Finally, we find that the net benefits of introducing the RPE contract may be highly conditional on the degree of common uncertainty, which appears to be inversely related to the likelihood of dysfunctional behavior attributable to the RPE-based contract.

Sex Differences in Response to Evaluative Feedback: A Field Study

We investigated sex differences in response to evaluative feedback among bank employees who were going through the annual performance evaluation process. Questionnaires were mailed to employees before and after they had their face-to-face evaluation with their supervisor. Women and men received similar evaluation scores. Men's self-esteem was relatively unaffected by the nature of the feedback, whereas women's self-esteem slightly improved after positive feedback and substantially dropped after negative feedback. After the evaluations, women reported greater intentions to change their behavior based on the evaluation. However, this finding was accounted for by men's higher job status relative to women. The findings for self-esteem were partly explained by women's greater agreement with the feedback compared to men. Future research should explore how the nature of the supervisee-supervisor relationship influences how women and men respond to feedback.

Reliability in Testing: Clinical and Research Applications

Reliability of an instrument is described as its accuracy and dependability. Reliability is thought of in terms of the consistency, stability, and/or equivalence of measurements (Nieswiadomy, 1998, p. 199; Young, Taylor, & McLaughlin-Renpenning, 2001, p. 30). Reliability should be thought of in terms of the current study—the current sample at the time it is being studied. It is not a characteristic that necessarily transcends the specific circumstance of data collection. Although the reliability of an instrument in a prior study is important to know, ideally it should be assessed in each study (Nieswiadomy, 1998, p. 199). The concept of reliability may be clearer in a clinical context than in a research context. Clinically, for example, we need to know that the various tests to determine one’s HIV status and the progression of HIV disease do not provide results in a random fashion. Rather, they need to provide consistent meaning for everyone who is tested because the test results imply behavioral choices and treatment options. Clients and staff make major decisions based on test results. Nurses understand the concept of false negative and false positive. In the case of HIV testing, a false positive occurs when a person gets an HIVpositive test result but is not HIV infected. Conversely, a false-negative result occurs when a person gets an HIV-negative test result but is HIV-positive. We understand as clinicians that the lowest possible occurrence of fluke test results is essential if test results are to be meaningful or useful. Likewise, in a research context, the data must be stable and consistent so that we can make interpretations that are useful for understanding the phenomenon under investigation or for testing the outcomes of interventions. Equipment used in diagnostic assessment may need frequent calibration for accurate results, and the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations and federal standards require that periodically all equipment be inspected and maintained by the biomedical engineering staff. On-paper instruments that are administered and interpreted by people provide reliable results only when all users are trained and certified to collect and interpret the data consistently. For example, the annual performance evaluation may or may not be applied and interpreted equitably throughout an institution by all raters, and for staff, salary increments or promotions may be at stake. Froman (1999) described a process of ensuring that a clinical ladder review system is objective, replicable, and fair—in other words, that it is consistently applied throughout a health care system. As another example, when people are subjected to performance testing, as in the case of CPR certification, it is crucial that all raters apply the criteria in the same way for certification to have meaning, or for it to be true that certified people “know” CPR.