Role of leadership in instituting key performance indicators to assess the value of research and development on commercial agriculture

Abstract

- Having a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) is now acknowledged as a promising tool that facilitates a decision-making process. Yet, the potential advantages associated with using KPIs are heavily contingent upon the trade-offs between the ‘financial’ and ‘non-financial’ measurements in use, especially in the case of performance management of research and development (R&D). Ambiguously defined KPIs in excess number may cause data in KPIs to overburden the entire decision-making process and discourage the entire organization structure from using it. On this understanding, this study aimed to scrutinize the practices of leaders in charge of performance management in leading research institutes working on commercial agriculture in Sri Lanka. A systematic process of reviewing the literature was carried out to identify, collate, and summarize performance management aspects on a global scale (Phase-I), followed by in-depth personnel interviews (n=32), aided by an interview guide comprised of 15 probing questions, with the leaders affiliated with research institutes (Phase II) to identify and compare such aspects in developing country context. The Thematic Qualitative Models produced by MAXQDA software were employed to assess those respondents' perspectives. The results emphasized the organizational benefits arising from a well-planned performance management system (PMS) comprising sensible KPIs based on balanced measurements. The outputs from the analysis and the five themes generated by it further helped to synthesize a well-balanced set of Key Performance Drivers (KPDs). Software tools (eg: Code-Maps) were utilized to recognize the KPI-KPD relationships and highlight important aspects of leadership that were required in implementing datadriven PMS.