Effects of academic incentive system on university teaching staff performance: A study in TRC 2 region

Performance evaluation process is the process of gathering data belonging to performance at the individual or organizational level, analysing them and finalizing them based on findings. Performance and its measurability are concepts related to success levels of organizations. Ensuring the sustainability of corporate success necessitates performance measurement. Performance measurement is taken into consideration in practices such as incentives and promotions in public institutions as well as in the private sector. Universities aim to achieve a respectable position in the world of science, as well as they seek to conduct innovative and pioneer scientific studies in economic, social, and technological fields. One of the practices designed to motivate academic staff in line with these goals and increase the impact and visibility (quality) of their scientific publications is the "Academic Incentive System", which has been implemented since 2015. In this study, which examines the academic performance of higher education institutions that carry out education, training, and research activities, it was aimed to determine the perceptions, views, and opinions of the academic staff of Dicle University and Harran University about the academic incentive system. Based on the total number of the academic staff in both universities, the minimum number of surveys to be calculated statistically was determined. In the study, after the basic instructions about the research were given, a conceptual framework for performance was formed and academic incentive data of the TRC 2 Region universities regarding the years 2015-2019 were collected. By comparing the number of publications belonging to the years 2010-2014 with the number of publications belonging to the years 2015-2019, the increases or decreases observed in scientific studies before and after the introduction of the academic incentive system were investigated. These data were analysed in accordance with various variables and the results were presented in tables and compared. The study also includes the publication numbers of TRC 2 Region universities regarding the years 2010-2019 as to determine the effects of the academic incentive system on the number of publications before and after the academic incentive practice. According to the data obtained through the research, it is observable that the number of publications, citation numbers, citation effect and H-Index scanned in Dicle University addressed Web of Science decreased after the academic incentive system practice. As for the Harran University addressed Web of Science, it is seen that while the number of scanned publications increased, the number of citations, citation impact and H-Index decreased. As a result of the study, the perceptions and thoughts formed by the academic incentive system in the universities surveyed were revealed. According to the obtained results, it was concluded that the performance evaluation of academic staff provided benefits at the institutional and individual level; however, the academic incentive system provided a quantitative increase in scientific studies but decreased the qualitative increase. Keywords: Performance, Incentive, Academic Incentive, Academic Incentive Data, Scientific Publication