Introduction
Evaluating the performance of employees is very important for measuring the working process and selecting the optimal team. In the field of education, the application of teacher evaluation criteria is extremely important, since competencies must be at the highest level in order to provide competent educational services. However, currently, there is a tendency to use competency assessments as criteria for calculating bonuses and salaries. This trend has both positive and negative sides, applicable to the field of education.
Advantages
SHRM – Society for Human Resource Management – takes a leading position in evaluating the performance of employees in many organizations, including schools and universities. The advantage of this type of assessment is undoubtedly to provide guarantees for the selection of the best personnel for the educational organization. Researchers emphasize that when using competent human resource management, the degree of individual responsibility increases, which improves productivity (Ragmoun, W., & Alwehabie, 2020). In addition, this approach allows leaders to build a clear strategy for the development of the organization in the field of resource management (Boon, Den Hartog, & Lepak, 2019). Moreover, the organization can effectively manage personnel and calculate salary plans based on the performance of employees.
Disadvantages
In addition to the obvious advantages, the approach has a significant number of negative aspects. First of all, the installation of a human resource management system is very costly. Educational institutions may invest in it at the expense of other areas. Performance-based wages breed competition; teachers focus on achieving high performance rather than providing quality services. (Polat, 2022). Ultimately, the educational process turns into a place of competition, rather than free growth and development of students. The high level of competition causes a rapid rate of professional burnout, which is already typical for the educational environment. The criteria for evaluation are too universal, and the profession of a teacher requires a specific approach.
Moreover, human resource management does not have a sufficient academic base due to its novelty. For a full-fledged universal application, general terms are needed, requiring changes at a fundamental level. For successful implementation, the full support of all management and staff is necessary, otherwise, the system may adversely affect all school staff. A competent human resource management system requires the implementation of development programs, on-the-job training, and lengthy consultations (Sukawati et al., 2020). Often these measures are not carried out properly, making the strategy unsuccessful.
Ethical Considerations
Despite the fact that human resources specialists have the main principle of strategic management in bringing success to the activities of organizations, this rule does not always work. The performance appraisal of employees can have a negative impact on the provision of educational services. Discrimination in the field leads to negative assessments, respectively, to a decrease in wages. For example, young parents can devote less time to work and get lower scores, respectively, and lose in material terms. Despite attempts to achieve maximum compliance with ethical principles, this is difficult to track in remote school districts.
Performance-based competency assessment may not always be relevant: the competence of employees should certainly be checked; however, it should not be a direct indicators for setting the level of wages. The establishment of competition among educational staff leads to the fact that teachers cease to provide educational services and begin to monitor only performance. Overtime work leads to professional burnout, and maintaining a normal psychological state is mandatory in the work of teachers. Often, the management of educational organizations does not monitor the extent to which the necessary competencies are feasible within the framework of an educational institution. With the same assessment of all employees, the course towards the individuality of education disappears.
Despite the effectiveness of strategic human management in other business areas, in education, it leads to negative consequences for both employees and students. The sufficient effectiveness of the criteria for evaluating teachers is proven; however, they are often excessive and difficult to implement in schools (Sukawati et al., 2020). The teacher does not have enough hours to conduct all the necessary activities and demonstrate all professional skills. In this case, the educational process suffers, as well as the moral state of professionals in education.
Conclusion
Thus, despite the effectiveness of strategic human resource management, they are not always suitable for evaluating professionals in specific areas. In education, teachers need mitigating conditions, such as not basing salaries on these criteria. From an ethical point of view, the standard assessment criteria may not be applicable to the field of education. They provoke competition, which negatively affects the educational process. Teachers who are subjected to a rigorous evaluation process will be more likely to suffer from professional burnout. Each professional in the field of education has their own approach and methods aimed at the growth and development of the students. The application of standard evaluation criteria to different methods simplifies the educational process, making it one-sided. Often, meeting the criteria takes the teacher more time, depriving them of the opportunity to fulfill professional duties. Setting teachers who require an individual approach to their students in a strict framework contradicts the ethical standards of the modern educational process.
References
Boon, C., Den Hartog, D. N., & Lepak, D. P. (2019). A systematic review of human resource management systems and their measurement.Journal of Management, 45(6), 2498-2537. Web.
Polat, I. (2022). The effects of a performance-based compensation system on teacher motivation (Doctoral dissertation). Northcentral University.
Ragmoun, W., & Alwehabie, A. (2020). Sustainable human resource management (SHRM) and corporate social responsibility (CSR): An Integrated Mediated Moderation Model of dynamic capabilities (DC) on family business industry.Management Science Letters, 10(10), 2259-2268. Web.
Sukawati, N. N., Gunawan, I., Ubaidillah, E., Maulina, S., & Santoso, F. B. (2020). Human resources management in basic education schools. In 2nd Early Childhood and Primary Childhood Education (ECPE 2020) (pp. 292-299). Atlantis Press. Web.